Rating: NN
Black Dice are a Brooklyn noise band who use some rhythmic and melodic conventions in their soundscapes, but never enough to make them sound anything like actual music. They get very giddy reviews from a certain kind of music critic, but after several painful listens it’s still hard to find bright points, except that the album is mercifully short. The sound quality is boxy thin, almost as if it had been recorded on a ghetto blaster. The beats, all based on loops (their drummer left last year), sound like a nine-year-old bashed them out. Nearly everything is put through distortion, and the same rhythmic gating trick is used to slice the guitar on several tracks. I know this is difficult music that’s supposed to be annoying, but try playing it for anyone who hasn’t heard of them and see how long the CD stays in the player.
