Since nearly seven years had passed since
dEus had issued an album (
The Ideal Crash dropped in 1999, and it wasn't exactly easy to locate in the U.S.), it was certainly understandable for fans to figure that the band had quietly packed it in. This proved not to be the case, though, as longtime members
Tom Barman (vocals, guitar) and Klaas Janzoons (violin, keyboards) assembled a whole new
dEus lineup, which included former members of
Soulwax and
Chris Whitley's band. Pocket Revolution finally arrived in 2006 (the album was first made available in 2005 as an import, however), and once more, the group offers an album that refuses to be pinned down to a single style. It's easy to pick out modern-day bands which sound comparable, such as the
Coldplay-ish "7 Days, 7 Weeks" and the
Eels-ish "If You Don't Get What You Want," but
dEus has been around a heck of a lot longer. Other standouts include the title track, which alternates between calm verses and a grandiose choruses, as well as a tribute to jazz visionary
Sun Ra titled, uh, "Sun Ra." Despite the extended break between albums,
dEus picks up right where they left off with
The Ideal Crash. ~ Greg Prato