Dan Deacon, who, along with some like-minded Baltimore weirdos, runs the underground arts collective Wham City, makes a kind of supercharged electronic party music that has been called “Future Shock.” Coined in the ’70s, the term refers to a state of distress induced by rapid social and technological change. In the context of music, it seems to describe an attempt to reappropriate high technology as a source of physical and emotional catharsis; i.e., partying and silly humor. The infectiousness of Deacon’s coping mechanism is evidence that kids are usually more all right than you think.
This article appears in Jun 7-13, 2007.