Deastro 'Keeper's' album

Judging a record by its cover is always a risky proposition, but in the case of Deastro’s Keepers, an exception can be made. Keepers’ laser-eyed celestial feline – a creation of Bay Area-based artist Jesse Balmer – is a mish-mash of sci-fi, fantasy, and comic-book tropes informed by an unerringly earnest enthusiasm: a perfect analog to Randolph Chabot’s joyful, intergalactic electro-pop.

Culled from the best of Chabot’s home-recorded output over the last decade, Keepers is a loose best-of – a tour through the many worlds of Deastro. The record opens with “Michael, the Lone Archer of the North Shore,” a swift, achingly lovely slice of shoegaze pop in the M83 mold, with Chabot’s plaintive tenor rising up from beneath the swirl of pianos and synthesized strings. For “The Shaded Forests,” the broken-hearted introvert of “Michael” shape-shifts into a confident frontman, stuttering “I t-t-t-told you, we’re gonna be fine” over a peppy electro-rock beat; “Child of Mine, Son of God” is an exquisitely composed nylon-string folk ballad; “The Goodman of the House” stars a Morrissey-style crooner, dancing around a killer ‘70s-style electric piano riff.

All of this genre-hopping – shy synth-pop to instrumental robot-rock, whisper-soft ballads to sky-high anthems – would be nothing if not for Chabot’s deliriously fizzy production and soft-focus melodies. Keepers is like that three-eyed space cat: a strange amalgamation of an artist’s various obsessions, disjointed but held together by sheer force of will, coming from humble origins but belying grand ambitions of beauty, positivity, and imagination.

Deastro biography
When Randolph Chabot first began recording his own albums at age 12, he discovered a means of living out his fantasies. Using whatever instrument he could find, Chabot began constructing hyper-emotional dream worlds—teenage symphonies peopled by superheroes, aliens, lost souls, and star-crossed lovers. He’s been zipping through the clouds ever since, streaking the skies as his superhuman alter-ego, Deastro.

The 22-year-old pop prodigy records in the basement of his parents’ house. He’s self-released more than three albums’ worth of songs, drawn all his own album covers, and played countless ecstatic, synth-driven live shows in Detroit’s network of DIY venues. Chabot’s demos eventually found their way to digital-download site eMusic, which released Keeper’s, an exclusive “greatest hits” package that quickly became one of the site’s best-sellers. After Deastro’s elegantly lurching instrumental “Light Powered” appeared on Ghostly Swim (Ghostly’s collaboration with Adult Swim), it was clear that Chabot had found a home for his joyful electronic pop, and Ghostly had found a kindred spirit in Deastro.

Like their hyperactive creator, Deastro’s songs can’t sit still, hopping from swoon-worthy dream pop to gonzo TV theme songs to whisper-soft folk to crunching robot rock. It all rings with Chabot’s insistent, earnest tenor. Chabot grew up on a steady diet of “weird Christian music,” and though he’s since moved on to more secular interests, the glow of positivity emanates from his music’s every crevice. (As Chabot says, “No matter what has happened, no matter how bad things get, we can change it because we’re still here!”) For Deastro’s Moondagger EP, Chabot has expanded his vision to encompass a full band. He still records in his parents’ basement, though, building his dreams with a musical omnivore’s appetite, an artist’s ear, and pure, boundless enthusiasm.

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Tracklisting

Deastro - Keeper's