Black Dice - CreatureComforts

Mon 13th Sep, 2004 in Music Reviews

In 2002, Black Dice released the long player Beaches & Canyons to gradual critical acclaim – it was a noise-based, oceanic and sprawling record of dense layers and hypnotic patterns, recalling Japanese noise pioneers Boredoms throughout some of its finest moments. While not as violent as their earliest releases, Beaches & Canyons employed pounding repetition, a terrifying low end and a blanket of high-pitched antagonism amidst spacious exploration.

On their new full length Creature Comforts, Black Dice appear to have stayed in similar territory while allowing a little more leeway for the uninitiated. In other words, this release is more accessible. It’s less abrasive than past efforts, more electronic in composition and has a playful tone overall, which for Black Dice acts like a soothing progression.

Based partly on what seems like a fundamental acceptance of change as a constant factor in the band’s progression, and the departure of drummer Hisham Bharoocha, Creature Comforts eschews pounding beats for interesting rhythmic pulses constructed from clever electronic manipulation.

The backbone of opener Cloud Pleaser stems from a pretty guitar figure overlaid with effected bongo hits and wood blocks on a delay setting. Treetops features a hard pulse made from layered synth patterns which acts as the backdrop for once again attractive, almost Polynesian-style guitar loops, screeching pings and bubbles and what seem like animal voices concurrently stretching and yawning. And that’s just the first two tracks.

Eight pieces in total, Creature Comforts follows a pattern of a short track followed by a longer, more expansive composition. With four long pieces in total, Skeleton, clocking in at just over 15 minutes is the album’s centrepiece. It builds slowly with delayed guitars acting as a repetitive blueprint, eventually making room for squelchy synthesised noodling and inquisitive jungle drums. The impressive feat here is that the compositional progression is so well sustained over 15 minutes.

Drawing on a New York tradition of no-wave, experimentation and an art-punk aesthetic, the Brooklyn based Black Dice, now comprised of three members, Bjorn and Eric Copeland and Aaron Warren, seem to have here found a useful niche in presenting organic, improvised music which explores psychedelic, dub, industrial and tropical textures. Indeed, this is music that would be at home in a rainforest art exhibition or for that matter, a zoo enclosure.

Gotta say, it hasn’t been terrifically easy to review Black Dice in part due to how unconventional it is. But it has forced me to rethink certain paradigms in which we place music, and it’s certainly a good thing to be stretched. The kind of experimentation that Black Dice seeks here can indeed be done badly, but the band are more than adept at making their sonic palette work extremely well.

Given the high-art leanings on Creature Comforts, the suggestion of musique concrete and found sound electronics by composers like Pierre Schaeffer and Edgar Varèse, the album would mean more to me in an art gallery, an interestingly designed physical space or as a film score. But the atmosphere, the sense of sonic adventure and the skilled use of instruments and equipment are all there in plentiful abundance.