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May 31, 2005
observed it and collapsed it
Black Dice - Live on BBC Radio 3 - Creature
[here comes an incoherent rant]: I read somewhere recently a remark to the effect that people love the new Oneida album just because "it's a noise band making a pop record". While it's true that there is some novelty appeal to an album like that (where a certain style is approached from a totally different angle), I think that really underestimates why 'The Wedding' is receiving as much attention as it is- and that's simply because it is so well done- it's not just a 'omgwtf a noise-rock band playing pop songs with strings, dude, that is blowing my mind it's so fucking crazy' reaction, it's more along the lines of 'wow, this record is gorgeous', i.e. even if you disregard the origin of the album (ignore the name of the band on the cover), you've still got an impressive and beautiful record. [end scene]
Black Dice long ago moved away from the intense turbo-hardcore that they used to play, and started focusing on what they referred to as the 'transitions' between their songs. Apparently, when they played out in the old days, they would improvise short pieces of segue music to flow from one brain-hammering song into the next, and eventually the segue music became more important and more interesting to them than the actual songs. This new approach yielded the beauty of "Beaches and Canyons", "Miles of Smiles", and most recently, "Creature Comforts", the latter two of which are probably the most accessible of Black Dice's recordings.
"Creature Comforts" as a whole is like a musique concrete version of a drunken SUV safari-ride through an African wildlife reserve at night, and nothing (except maybe 'Night Flight') exemplifies this more than 'Creature'. Can you imagine a semi-enraged bull elephant playing hopscotch through a joint (and unlikely) congregation of bonobos and hyenas? Maybe add a (pensive) rhino in there somewhere, just for kicks. This stampede is brought to life by the bros. Copeland, Aaron Warren, and Hisham Bharoocha. Let me take a minute here to once again lament the exit of Hisham from the band: he was a large part of what made Black Dice so interesting, and I think his presence will be missed on their future releases. He is, however, finally playing out regularly, under the name 'Soft Circle', as a solo-drummer/looper, and the rumor is that he will have something out quite soon (also he's featured in Me Magazine this summer, check it out). The last four minutes or so of 'Creature' can best be described as: an unholy galloping beast. Enjoy. [buy Black Dice releases here]
p.s. Thanks to the 30 or so comments from a Ms. LOANS AVILABLE NOW that I received over the weekend, I had to turn on the comment-approval thing again. It's a pain in the ass, but it's better than being bombarded with syntax-less spam.
Posted by Kevin at May 31, 2005 11:22 AM
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