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September 16, 2005
destroying something no one's ever even seen
'Eternal Life' starts where 'Cough, Cough' ends, with a dizzying stew of sounds; an ether made of saxophone, orphaned drums, and bass static. Hugh sings like he's making a speech to a mob, "who have eyes to see let them see/who have ears to hear let them hear/the strength of the lion lies down before the strength of the lamb," straining to make himself heard over the intentional din. Then the drum attack commences, and Hugh has to really reach for it, screaming, "We are the sun!".
When I wrote about Black Eyes before, I said they were like Animal Collective in terms of their experimentation, but more focused on a sort of urban/grimy ideal (instead of the pastoral/sylvan style of AC), which I still think is a fair comparison, at least in terms of the energy and creativity that both bands exhibit. But on their second record, "Cough", Black Eyes focused less on the drums-and-guitar erosion and built their grooves more on the thickness created by Jacob Long's saxophone, Hugh and Daniel's voices, and an overwhelming love of percussion- a sound that speaks of hard, dirty sidewalks, covered in gum and stained by a thousand different indiscretions. "Cough" is like a very tortured shoegaze record (pretty in sections, but also angry and abusive). Some say Drum-punk, or Jazz-punk. With their last record, Black Eyes were moving in a direction like This Heat, Liars, or Black Dice, toward some vanishing point where the extremely beautiful collapsed into the unbearably caustic, and I think 'Eternal Life' perfectly represents that. "Cough" is a straight up-and-down masterpiece.
Black Eyes broke up, and spawned a million different bands. Horses (Hugh, Mike, Dan Caldas) and White Flight (Jacob, Daniel) were born. White Flight broke up. Horses continued. Flowers (Jacob and Maya) started and ended. Go to Sleep started. Earthensea started (Jacob's solo project). Water Wolves was born when Daniel moved out to the West Coast and joined up with Jacob. Horses broke up. Hugh runs Ruffian Records and plays in Hand-Fed Babies (and maybe Go To Sleep?), and Dan Caldas plays with Ris Paul Ric. Not positive, but I think that's about where it stands right now.
Anyway, you can buy "Cough" right here.
Posted by Kevin at September 16, 2005 12:22 PM