nfotxn | The New Deal in the National Post

You never know what The New Deal will play next. Neither do they.
The National Post

"The concerts are a type of musical performance art. "In a two-hour show," says Jamie Shields, the keyboardist, "maybe 15 minutes is based on ideas we've come up with in the past. The rest is improvised."

The New Deal's musical style is difficult to define. The band, which also includes Dan Kurtz (bass) and Darren Shearer (drums/beatbox), has settled, though tentatively, on the term "live progressive breakbeat house." Translated, this means they create beat-driven dance music using live instruments, no samplers or sequencers, and plenty of looped sounds "to create a repetitive trancelike state."

"All that put together is what makes people freak out in the middle of The New Deal shows," says Shearer.

Onstage, Shields, Kurtz and Shearer communicate via an elaborate system of hand signals used to advise each other on when to converge, which they do every so often before veering off again in their own directions. It's a conversation. Every once in a while, one of them will crack a smile, amused by the direction one of his partners has taken. Part of the fun for the audience is knowing that the band, too, is hearing the song for the first time."

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