For years, the quickest way to understand why avant-garde post-punk duo Ed Schrader’s Music Beat is a Baltimore institution was watching them perform live. It began as a solo act in which Schrader lugged a floor tom into the room, removed his shirt, and began thwacking the drum while screaming lyrics with an underlit, sinister grin. Come 2010, bassist Devlin Rice joined Schrader and the Music Beat took shape, but their reckless noise still couldn’t be accurately captured on record. Over the past two years, they’ve been working to change that. Schrader and Rice approached electro-pop visionary Dan Deacon to co-write and produce their third album, Riddles, where they enter a world of racing synths, ’80s pop melodies, and sporadic violins. It’s the most unpredictable sound to come from Ed Schrader’s Music Beat so far, and yet somehow, the most unexpected part of it all is how well it suits them.
As a friend and colleague in Baltimore’s music scene, Deacon was a natural choice to help transfer the duo’s notorious energy into expansive recorded arrangements. They retreated to Deacon’s personal studio to collaborate over two years, giving and taking from each other’s expertise. You can hear Deacon’s style, especially that of 2012’s America, all over this album: the gleeful piano fluttering in “Riddles,” the manic percussion buried in fuzz on “Dizzy Devil,” the thick wall of synth on “Kid Radium.” In the past, Deacon’s grandiose ideas occasionally lost themselves in ambition, swirling beautifully toward nowhere specific. Ed Schrader’s Music Beat gives him new parameters to stay within, and he rises to the occasion on Riddles. Even songs he didn’t co-write, like Rice’s mellow instrumental number “Humbucker Blues,” benefit from his role as the album’s producer and mixer, giving Rice’s bass a gentler tone than any Deacon tracked in the past.
But while the album’s surface gloss traces back to Deacon, the deeper change reflected on Riddles has to do with Schrader and Rice’s maturation as songwriters and musicians. They push themselves to try new techniques, from the puckish finger-snapping in “Seagull” to the salsa undertones of closer “Culebra.” On “Dunce,” Rice ditches his garage-style bass playing from their 2014 album Party Jail for a guttural tone akin to Suicide. Meanwhile, Schrader explores deep-bellied vocals every chance he gets. Even the biggest Perfume Genius fan could mistake his liberating hollers on synth ballad “Wave to the Water” for Mike Hadreas.
The cathartic feeling cloaking the album comes from a distinct need. As the three collaborators were making Riddles, each of them suffered a loss, as noted in the album’s press materials: Schrader’s stepfather passed away; Rice’s brother chose to die peacefully after a long terminal illness; and Deacon went through a long-term romantic breakup. They came together at a time of hurting, and used their collaboration to grow in new directions. When Schrader alludes to his complicated relationship with his stepfather on “Tom”—“Wipe the black under eyes just like his face…I’d call my shots but I can’t stand under my feet”—Rice plays a cascading key melody while Deacon adds a celestial element with orchestral arrangements, the two offering support through cushioned instrumentation.
After nearly a decade of unhinged basement-show experimentation, the new musical direction Ed Schrader’s Music Beat take on Riddles is a defining point in their career. By lacing arms with Dan Deacon, the duo throw themselves into an auspicious zone, creating an album that remains introspective even at its wildest moments. The two acts aren’t just collaborating with one another; they’re supporting one another. That difference is what helps them develop as artists in such a rewarding way. And while Ed Schrader’s Music Beat haven’t cut out their past entirely—“Rust” continues their old frenzied energy to a T—figuring out how to work with others to deepen their sound, from Deacon to alto saxophonist Andrew Bernstein to Ponytail drummer Jeremy Hyman, is the most important riddle they’ve solved.
