Count the stars

 

In the last two posts I mentioned the London duo Deekie.

Deekie is, or was, the Lo-Fi Dreamers Mr.L and Neets. As soon as they came across their music, they disappeared again. Between 2010 and 2014 they released their chill out heartfelt pop drones sound on 7 EPs, as well as the two full length albums "Amusia" on Kennington Records and "Solitaire" on Chris Coco's Melodica Records.

I don't remember when I discovered the band, I guess it was after Coco, Steel & Lovebomb's "The Chill Out Album" from 2014. Deekie was involved in this album as co-writer and ambient atmosphere creator. So I was lucky enough to discover all of your albums and EPs in one go and was pretty impressed with what I heard. No, actually it was pure enthusiasm again. 

While “Amusia” is a little more guitar-oriented, “Solitaire” also features a lot of sound effects. Not unlike the sound on the early Piano Magic records.

The music could be as  “slo-mo psychedelia or weirded dream-folk, a hearth of purring dream-pop, a rolling brume of boy/girl vocal murmurs and opaque chimes with synthesized wood-winds, field recordings and sparks of clicking metronomes . A macrocosm where the fog never lifts, if anything it slowly submerges underwater”. 

Some of the sounds from “Solitaire” can also be found on CS&L’s Chill Out album (including “Diderot” etc..). Are Peaking Lights or the Balearic duo Aporia possible references?

Sure, and yet Deekie go their own way.

Unfortunately, a large part of their catalog is no longer available on Bandcamp.

I don't know the reason for this. But something is for free Download.

The World Wide Web doesn't really say much about Deekie, and nothing is known about her dissolution etc. Maybe one fine day a “Solitaire” follow-up will appear. We would like that.

I don't want to withhold a rare, short interview with Ashtapes.

1. How would you describe your sound in a few words?

Mr L: Getting better all the time.

Neets: Riddle/Armchair/Dust.

2. Name 3 bands without whom you wouldn't exist.

Mr L: The The , Belle & Sebastian, Four Tet

Neets: Young Marble Giants cos they are perfectly imperfect, Stereolab because they are perfectly perfect, and Mr L’s old band Team LG cos the tricks he learnt doing that he showed me too.

3. If you'd have the chance to work with any film director, who would that be?

Mr L: Woody Allen when he wasn’t rubbish.

Neets: Sergio Leone, I’d ask him to take me to the desert by donkey and film a day in the life of a badboy lizard!

4. Tell us a bit about the making of these songs.

Mr L: They were all made at night in a cramped flat in London, much to the annoyance of our neighbour who ended up doing an impression of my singing during an argument! We have decided to move…

Neets: Very late nights, lots of mystery, trials and errors, some confusion, and in the end lots of wonder.

5. Do you still buy CDs/vinyl/ tape?

Mr L: Constantly! I am happiest wading through racks of dusty vinyl. Part of the reason for moving is that the vinyl is spilling out all over the floor and down the stairs.

We love vinyl, that’s why we hand coloured all of ours, we thought that we would like it if a band did that.

Neets: I only buy vinyl, it sounds lovely and feels so nice. I have lots of tapes left over from when I was little and one day I will play them to Mr L and he can laugh at the AC/DC and Candy Flip songs that sit side-by-side!