Black Dice live review - Audio March 2008
Black Dice are a noise band from Brooklyn. On March 16th 2008 they played Audio in Brighton.
Who are Black Dice?
Black Dice are a three piece electronic noise band from Brooklyn. I once met Bjorn from the band whilst on holiday in New York 3 years ago. He gave me their CD and told me they were a little like The Animal Collective, who I love. On record their hypnotic music composed of noise and broken beats can be quite relaxing, but what would it be like live…
The music
Black Dice create noise using electronic effects, a drum machine, a guitar and vocals. These are all pushed through a huge amount of electronic equipment to create an almost impenetrable wall of noise. Through this from time to time melodies come through, although they are always buried deep in the mix and require a little concentration to pick out. Over time the melodies appear to get stronger and stronger, as you begin to spot them and focus upon them. You have to work at this band, or simply let the noise wash over you, its like nothing you’ll hear anywhere else.
4/5
Performance
Each member of the band seemed to be working at full throtle tonight, moving in time to the music and working the various parts of their equipment to produce a very tight and seemingly well rehearsed chaos. I was expecting things to be more improvised, and they may have been, but the tracks I do know like “Smiling Off” seemed to be almost exactly as they are on record. To anyone with less knowledge of the bands work though this must seem very impromptu. It felt as if they might lose control of the sound at any second, like it had a life of its own. Very exciting.
4/5
Sound quality
It was hard to tell, as there are rarely gigs quite like this and I have no idea what this band sounds like normally. It was incredibly loud, and at times I literally shook, so strong was the bass. I heard sounds I would never normally hear tonight, but were they sounding as they should? No idea.
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Banter and non musical stuff
The band didn’t speak during their performance, but they did have visuals pulsating on the wall throughout the set. Unfortunately Audio is a small venue, and the visuals were hard to see as the band and speaker stacks were in the way. Still, seeing them projected on the bands faces was pretty weird.
3/5
The audience
It seemed like most of the audience were musicians, or really into their off the wall music. Black Dice are not the sort of band people like casually. Everybody seemed really into the band, and people were buzzing afterwards.
4/5
Overall
Later on, someone at the gig came up to me in another pub to ask me what I thought of it. Its not often these days you go to a gig, and afterwards have an immediate affinity with the other people there. Black Dice are such a band. You might hate them, but if you are into their kind of music at all, you will love them and their live show will go down as one of the best of its kind.
4/5
Black Dice Videos
Live video - Drool + Alba
Music video - Kokomo
More Black Dice
The official website is a flash site with news and some pictures, the myspace lets you sample the new album Load Blown.
Buy their latest album - Load Blown. Metacritic gave it an average score of 72, based on all the other reviews. Popmatters gave it 8/10, “Load Blown won’t find as many new fans, perhaps, as Animal Collective’s Strawberry Jam ,(surely one of the best releases of the year); but for those looking for a bit of an adventure, this new music is surprisingly accessible.” - Read the full review here.
Alternatively, buy their 2005 album - Broken Ear Record. Awarded 70 by Metacritic. Pitchfork gave it 8.1 “Their insistence on change is the mark of a still vibrantly creative band, and while I could do with even more rhythmic focus, I can’t argue their total dedication to Broken Ear’s aesthetic. Jagged and ornery, but playful: this is music for treading dangerously”, read the full review here.