Dan Deacon, 'Bromst'

The buzz: Baltimore multi-instrumentalist/composer Dan Deacon worked his way up from house partys to festivals with frenetic, knob-tweaking songs played out in a similarly frenetic way, with Deacon immeshed in the audience rather than on a stage above it, getting sweaty in the crowd as they surrounded his wall of synths. His last album, “Spiderman of the Rings,” was one of Pitchfork's favorites for 2007; “Bromst” is the eagerly-awaited follow-up.

The verdict: A song-by-song critique is meaningless: “Bromst” is a sound collage that works because of (rather than in spite of) its overwhelming, irrepressible energy. Deacon's got sonic ADD: a tricked out drum beat gets abetted with spacy synths and splashy tambourine; a multi-tracked vocal line rises and falls amid a deconstructed 4/4 dancehall beat before being sped up to Chipmunk proportions, and unusual instruments like marimba weave their way over the whole thing. "Bromst" is consistent in its unpredictability, which makes the album sometimes seem fleeting—but, more often than not, also makes it sound like the kind of record you'll keep returning to to discover something new.

Did you know? For his upcoming tour, Deacon plans to perform with a 15-piece band so as to replicate this LP's stellar soundscapes.