Formerly YellowFever, the pairing of Jennifer Moore and Adam Jones were forced to change their name due to legal reasons (another band claimed to have first earned the moniker). Thus, the Austin duo of Moore (guitar, vocals) and Jones (drums) became Deep Time, a name whose definition can be learned from a simple Wikipedia search as the idea that the Earth is a historically old place.
But the name change hasn’t broken the band’s stride, let alone gotten in the way of Moore’s and Jones’ “weirdly” artistic visions. Note the word in quotations. In an interview with RedBull music, Moore admits that she likes to “weird things up” a bit in her songwriting, citing her influences as 1960s American free-jazz, American composer Philip Glass, and British avant-garde guitarist Fred Frith.
My perceptions of weird must be starkly different than Ms. Moore’s, because although Deep Time’s brand of pop may be weird in its own classification of the genre, as a unit the band seems pretty sound. They don’t seem like an outlandish bunch and I would definitely hang out with them, given the chance.
Deep Time released its first self-entitled album under the band’s new name July 10 on Hardly Art records, a nine-track debut featuring the singles “Clouds” and “Homebody,” tracks that have brought Deep Time into the indie music spotlight and created a fair amount of buzz around the group’s debut effort.
The way in which Moore’s vocals work in tandem with her looping guitar melodies and Jones’ steady rhythm-keeping fashions Deep Time’s poppy feel. Once again, I’m dumbfounded at how big of a sound can come from merely two members. A former member of her high school choir, Moore’s singing voice has become this finely tuned instrument which she dual-wields alongside her axe work.
YellowFever has become a thing of the past, something Deep Time has come to acknowledge as their humble beginning but have been forced to turn their back on, in exchange for more harmonically structured track-layering.
For a band that admits they are trying to keep things simple, seeing as there are only two of them, Deep Time’s sound aspires to something beyond minimalism indie pop.