The New Deal


The New Deal's members describe their sound as live progressive breakbeat house, which really means their musical style has too many facets to fit neatly into any genre. Some tracks have an acid jazz feel, some have a strong 4/4 beat for dancing to, and others are slow and simple chillout tracks. Hailing from Eastern Canada, the trio of keyboardist Jamie Shields, bassist Dan Kurtz, and drummer Darren Shearer gets party people dancing all over North America on their sporadic tours.

Unlike most bands that play electronic music, The New Deal doesn't use any sequencers to produce their music. Instead, everything is played live, which is an important part of their engaging, energetic stage presence. But it gets even better. When they're performing, they often improvise the songs they play. They use a system of cues to move shift from one song to the next without stopping, making their shows and their recordings sound like they were mixed by a DJ.

But, enough with telling you what they sound like. For a good sampling of The New Deal, check out Gone Gone Gone on the iTunes Music Store. The title track Gone Gone Gone and VL Tone are both energetic dance songs that show how the live bass and synth play wonderfully together, and are fun to listen or dance to. Homewrecker shows what they can do with an acid jazz concept, and A Little While is an impressive track that combines breakbeat drums, a deep groove on the bass, and smooth, hypnotic vocals to make a really great song. Perhaps the best part about The New Deal's sound is that they have a really decent track for you no matter what mood you're in.

The New Deal hasn't put out many albums, at least not in the usual sense. They recorded The New Deal in 2001 and Gone Gone Gone in 2003, and they released two EP's as well. But what you'll find in record stores barely scratches the surface of their recordings. Part of The New Deal's connection with the audience is that they encourage people to record and share their live performances. Because of this friendly policy toward taping, there are some 155 recordings of The New Deal's shows on the Internet Archive. These are available for free download, so there really isn't any excuse for having no New Deal in your collection.

Whether you get a studio album from a record store, or you browse the Internet Archive for a live jam you really like, you're bound to like at least something The New Deal offers. If you like the smooth chillout sound of The New Deal, I'd suggest you take a look at Massive Attack, Zero 7, Nightmares on Wax, and Thievery Corporation. Lotus is a band that does similar live jams, but they just don't pull off the electro sound as well as The New Deal. The Baldwin Brothers' album, Cooking with Lasers, has a similar progressive-breakbeat-house sound, but with a more present electronic feel to it.