The Tape

Album Review: Black Dice- REPO

Written by willshoob on Sunday, 5 of April , 2009 at 9:49 pm

I really have no idea how to describe Black Dice, or this album to be honest. The Brooklyn based trio are signed to Animal Collective’s Paw Tracks record label, and on paper, fit the same “experimental” label as the men that head their label. But somewhere along the road, that label got overshadowed by something weirder, crazier, and at some times far more silly. It seems as though every song on this album starts out with an idea, and then all hell breaks loose. Each song has a general foundation, but after the foundation is laid, not even the band knows where it’s going to go. There’s something about that concept that I really enjoy.

The album starts out with “Nite Cream”, which at first listen can sound as simple as various layered electronics, or as complex as many contrasting parts working against each other, but at the same time complimenting each other in a lovely way. The first time I listened to “Nite Cream” I was flat out perplexed. The song started out with various noises, all sounding pretty similar to each other. But as the song went on, more and more instruments started leading the song into a new direction. Before long, the sound of a motor-ish synth entered the song, reminiscing of SebastiAn’s Motor EP. After this point, the song seems to lose focus and just drift off into various directions. The band does a nice job of leading the song to places that logically make sense, but also creating a path that is hard to justify why the song went in that direction.

Next up, comes the single, “Glazin.” I posted about “Glazin” a while back, but I’ll talk about it again. It’s kind of ridiculous to say, but this song is by far one of the easiest to listen to on the record. The melodic aspect of it overplays the crazy or experimental aspect of it, making it the easiest song to listen to, but also the most fun to listen to. This song follows a similar structure as the first song, based solely on the fact that it starts out with a foundation, while introducing various sections throughout the song. Some live vocals are added in this song, which gives it a more realistic feeling than a lot of the album, which is probably another reason why it was made the first single.

Skip a couple of tracks and we arrive at the highly amusing “La Cucaracha.” This song reminds of a Hawaiian laua’e, attended entirely by robots. After the robot musicians play a couple of songs on their electronic hand drums, something goes horribly wrong, and all the robots start to malfunction. Eventually things get sorted out, but not without some real panic. I now realize that I’ll have to post this song, so I don’t sound entirely crazy… Just mostly crazy.

Another one of my favorites, is “Chicken Shit.” The motor noises re-emerge, also accompanied by children’s voices at varying speeds. The motor turns into a new noise, and the kids’ voices start to go a little crazy. I can totally see this track as a song created by a 5 year old, inspired by Metallica and Dan Deacon. The song furthers my point at around two minutes, when everything drops out, except for the synth that is “taking the solo.” This synth is very similar sounding to the beginning of a metal song, hence my previous thesis (I’m not that pretentious, honestly).

Oh my god! Acoustic guitar! Of course it’s layered with various other noises, but there is still acoustic guitar, one of the few things I could not imagine being put on this album. The track is entitled “Vegetable” and it is one of the only tracks that stays consistent throughout. After listening to songs that changed so constantly and rapidly, this one feels boring.

The second to last track is entitled “Ultra Vomit Craze”, which creates quite an image. The track starts out with awesome sounding drums, accompanied by the sound an electronic bee would make. The drum beat is the only thing that stays absolutely constant throughout, keeping the beat for the ADHD prescribed synths, which weave in and out every thirty seconds or so.

I really enjoy this album. I also really enjoy weird, experimental, music. If you are not one for loud, chaotic, random music that never takes a definitive shape, this album is really not for you. But if you are someone who is into weird shit, or someone that is willing to dig deep in a song to find the real structure, then this album is a can’t miss. Or, just follow what it says on the album cover, and “Go where new experiences await you.” If you are one of those people I just described, you can pick up the album on vinyl, or cd here. If you’re a little more hesitant, grab a couple of tracks below for your sampling pleasure.

Black Dice- Glazin

Black Dice- La Cucaracha

Category: Albums

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