Album Review: Deptford Goth - Life After Defo

Deptford Goth – Daniel Woolhouse – is sad. He is sad, doubtful and anxious about something. Maybe everything. Life After Defo, Woolhouse's debut album, will not likely offer much to those with the most cheerful of dispositions. From the lyrics, their delivery and the icy production, this is not an electro release for the faint of heart.

The most obvious touchstone for sound is certainly James Blake. Deptford Goth's sound, like Blake's, is built around altered vocals and spacious, lush, meticulously paced electronica. The difference is that Life After Defo is more active and busy than anything Blake's put his hand on. Though his influence shines through, especially on album highlights Feel Real and almost danceable Guts No Glory. Lyrically too, Goth is more direct – perhaps to a fault. How serious can an adult audience take lyrics like, “As if you're telling me there's no such thing as heartache/Love will explode, it can't die”.

At its best, Life After Defo will become a very special album to people who find it at the right time. The open-ended lyrics coupled with general minimalist rhythmic intrusions and lush production allows one's own projected feelings and memories to permeate this album with ease. Loneliness and misery live in the lyrics and sounds here, waiting to be embraced by the lonely and miserable. But whereas other dour albums, such as conceptually-but-not-at-all-musically similar Pornography by The Cure, can offer pleasures beyond depressive company, Life After Defo is lost to its emotions. In the end, this is a fine debut, very rooted in 'early 2010s' electro sounds and hopefully a sign of better things to come.