BLACK DICE: LOAD BLOWN (2007)
1) Kokomo; 2) Roll Up; 3)
Gore; 4) Bottom Feeder; 5) Scavenger; 6) Drool; 7) Toka Toka; 8) Cowboy
Soundcheck; 9) Bananas; 10) Manoman.
Well, yes, that is right, except for a small correction: the real load was blown two albums ago. This one is more like «blowing
steam», if you ask me. A little more impressive on the whole than Broken Ear Record, but still not enough
to impress yours truly like the band's original masterpieces. At least the
album sleeve picture is nicer than last time around, too.
If anything, this whole thing simply sounds
like a fussy soundtrack to a video game — some sort of a racing simulator where
you have to drive your amphibian vehicle through all sorts of force fields,
lava pools, underground factory corridors, and, occasionally, underwater
routes. Under the right circumstances, the experience could be fun, but it's
all really been done before, many times, and besides, it might have worked
better with an actual video game at your disposal — it is really odd when you
have to let your imagination work out
the details of a frickin' video game (I usually try to reserve it for somewhat
loftier goals).
With ʽKokomoʼ, you'd probably expect a
deconstruction of the Beach Boys song, but I do not discern even a trace of
sampling — only an endless series of electronic swoops and wobbly distorted
vocals in the background. The effect is psychedelic all right, but it is the
kind of psychedelia that is usually produced by a couple of kids fooling around
with some digital equipment... in other words, nothing out of the ordinary.
ʽRoll Upʼ follows with seven minutes of completely replaceable sounds —
meaning that you probably have to put on your headphones, lie on the floor, and
let yourselves go for those seven minutes, otherwise you won't be able to
connect with the greatness inside and outside of you. Unfortunately, I hate
lying on the floor, and taking this in while sitting straight up did not do a
thing. (Neither am I a fan of race simulators, which this track recalls vividly
— every once in a while, there's an engine revving up like somebody just rammed
the gas pedal right into the floor).
The record briefly perks up in its second half,
when some of the tracks start going easier on the noise and subtler on the
atmosphere: ʽDroolʼ has a slight samba feel to it, with buzzing insects
representing a hot summer day somewhere in the tropics; ʽToka Tokaʼ is all
built on electronic monkey mating calls, and is the one composition on here that could have easily fit on Creature Comforts; and the album closer
ʽManomanʼ is built on trivial sonic sequences, so simple and stupid they can't
help but infect you — after all, if an album makes you feel like an idiot, it
is still better than when it does not make you feel anything at all.
But even these tracks seem more like fortuitous
exceptions, because, second time around, Black Dice are compromising their
original vision — sacrificing it in favor of ideas like «loudness» and
«rhythm», which everyone has in spades. I am not informed of what had happened;
maybe they really, really wanted for their music to be played on the club
scene, which is, indeed, not the best environment for Creature Comforts. If so, this is all a shameful «sellout», never
mind that they are still being experimental and «formally creative». Or,
perhaps, they themselves did not manage to understand what an imaginative wonder
those early sonic scapes were. In any case, I see no reason for anyone to
bother with the likes of Load Blown
when there is, oh, I dunno, the entire catalogs of Vangelis and Klaus Schulze
to explore before that.
Check "Load Blown" (CD) on Amazon
Check "Load Blown" (MP3) on Amazon
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