dEUS return with a new album out today. ‘Keep You Close’ is the follow up to 2008’s ‘Vantage Point’ and was recorded at the band’s own studio in their home city of Antwerp over a six month period with producers David Botrill and Adam Noble.
As the title suggests, ‘Keep You Close’ sees lead singer and lyricist Tom Barman react to ‘Vantage Point’ with a determination to return the band to a more personal lyrical style and a warmer musical approach. Whilst still immensely proud of ‘Vantage Point’, Tom felt that its follow up should move away from that album’s ‘very loud, in your face’ sound. Consequently, much of the focus of ‘Keep You Close’ has been to develop a sound that embraces a more organic and spacious dynamic. To aid this process, and in stark contrast to the studio bound writing approach of ‘Vantage Point’, the songs that make up ‘Keep You Close’ were road tested live at festivals throughout the writing and recording period and developed through live rehearsals within the studio to, in Tom’s words, ensure that they were ‘more mature when it came to recording them’.
Fans of dEUS will recognize the continuance of the band’s diverse musical template throughout the album, embracing rhythms that ‘go to your legs and your heart’ as Tom puts it alongside their much vaunted mixing of diverse musical styles to create an album of multiple shades which remains a complete body of work. The sessions for the album saw a host of further tracks that were deemed not suitable for the album and which will be released in other formats in good time, including some tantalizingly described by Tom as ‘very Can meets LCD’. A chance visit to Antwerp by Afghan Whigs / Twilight Singers Greg Dulli saw him visit the studio and lay down vocals for ‘The Dark Sets In’, a coincidence made all the stranger by a conversation the previous day in which the band remarked that it would be perfect for his voice.
‘Keep You Close’ is released by PIAS today. Itunes Store
