Even beyond the realm of Brooklyn art rock, Black Dice is one the strangest musical acts to ever reach its level of achieved. The culprit is its all-pervading love of noise, which, as heard throughout its catalogue, exceeds its love of ear-pleasing melody.
And while nearly nothing on Mr. Impossible, the group’s new record on Ribbon Music, comes remotely close to ear-pleasing, it is a definitive step away from the obtusely inscrutable formula that has made so many prior Black Dice albums difficult to digest.
If any song perfectly captures this newfound idea, it’s the first single, “Pigs.” Riding a bare bass drum beat and a simplistic, fuzzy bass line, “Pigs” is the nasty, slimy, drug-addled cousin to Dan Deacon’s “The Crystal Cat,” with its electro-punk sensibilities and its distorted vocals.
“Spy Vs. Spy,” compared to the sheer nastiness of “Pigs,” is an often beautiful track of languid synth blurbs and wailing guitar that could pass for an outtake on any of the last few records by friends, tourmates and occasional collaborators Animal Collective.
However, because this is a Black Dice record, inscrutability is inevitable. And album closer “Brunswick Sludge (Meets Front Range Tripper)” is a doozy. Nearly six minutes long with little direction or patterning, the song is a poorly conceived mess of fundamental weirdness that just sounds plain awful.
As a consummate work, Mr. Impossible displays progress for Black Dice to create what it may call an “accessible” album, as most tracks have well-conceived passages of wonderfully brainy experimental rock. But nothing here ever comes close to the seamless balance of odd and approachable that made Animal Collective’s 2009 record Merriweather Post Pavilion a crossover hit.
Yet through the slightly dialed-down noise, you can sense Black Dice members are patrons of art. And nothing, not even the dream of seeing their name in big letters at the top of a festival lineup, can cause them to completely mute their trademark strangeness.
VERDICT: Mr. Impossible is a half-step forward for Black Dice, which gives partial glimpses into the future of a more accessible sound.
diversions@umdbk.com
