{"id":26619,"date":"2020-08-22T10:46:54","date_gmt":"2020-08-22T14:46:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/panm360.com\/records\/well-groomed-original-score\/"},"modified":"2020-08-22T10:48:29","modified_gmt":"2020-08-22T14:48:29","slug":"well-groomed-original-score","status":"publish","type":"records","link":"https:\/\/panm360.com\/en\/records\/well-groomed-original-score\/","title":{"rendered":"Well Groomed (Original Score)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With regards to crafting music to accompany prancing, fluffy poodles, trimmed like topiary gardens and dyed in a million gaudy neon colours, it\u2019s hard to think offhand of anyone better suited to the task than Dan Deacon. The Baltimore musician manufactures stereophonic starbursts and rainbows, powerfully euphoric stuff, and it\u2019s just the right thing for the soundtrack to Rebecca Stern\u2019s new documentary about competitive dog groomers<\/a>, out now on iTunes and HBO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deacon\u2019s work bears both the complexities of classical training (note the dyslexic baroque sketch that emerges out of \u201cNicole Will Take Over the Shop\u201d), and the sympathetic crudeness of DIY culture and art na\u00eff. There\u2019s an obvious sympathetic link \u2013 Deacon has referred to the dog groomers in the film as \u201cfolk artists\u201d, and his own efforts in the audiovisual field (recall with great joy the amazing Ultimate Reality<\/em><\/a>, from 2007) nod to similar themes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Necessarily portioned in a pretty conventional way here, Deacon\u2019s music is less something to ruminate over than something to luxuriate in. There\u2019s some apprehensive drama, like \u201cScissors Down\u201d, presumably the theme to the doc\u2019s moment of truth. A minute of sadness too, \u201cAriadne\u2019s Lament\u201d. But it\u2019s mostly what Deacon does so well, cresting swells of euphonic exultation and the occasional auditory equivalent of a backrub.<\/p>\n\n\n\n