Black Dice

No genre can be quite as transcendental or quite such an ordeal as noise music. In self indulgent hands, a noise gig can be an endurance test; an interminable, chronically limited spectacle of musicians blowing their load through a rack of effect pedals. But when creativity is applied, noise music can break through the glass ceiling of anger-channeling and sonic nihilism and blossom into something more.

NYC trio Black Dice play in front of an imposing wall of speakers, bathed in projected patterns that flex, flash and ripple in time with with their ever-evolving rhythms. Rasping sonic scratches punctuate elusive, catchy repetitions that congeal and dissolve between shuddering slabs of distorted racket. There notably isn't any reference to tradition song structures, build/release or loud-quiet-loud dynamics. This is a micro-landscape built from sounds both mechanical and organic, chaotic and systematic, played at ear-shattering, bone-shaking volume.

The three often play sections that are ostensibly at odds with each other, but overlap fluently, creating a multi-layered composition with several narratives working in unison. Vocals are employed as part of the sound collage, and like the live drums and occasional guitar, what playing is visible bears little resemblance to the sound coming from the speakers. Everything comes through an effects array that warps and bends every aspect into the tangling maths of the whole.

The effect is a set that seems both familiar and impenetrably alien, strictly ordered and yet organic in construction, like a process found in nature. Put a microphone to the ground and amplify the sounds of the earth to the thunderous volume of a meteor strike, and you can start to imagine the noise Black Dice are making.

LLICK THE BBEAST EMPIRE

John & Alice dress like Sherlock Holmes and comb through the lame-ass band requests to bring you some rare and precious samples from the mantle of the underground.

1. Bastardgeist MySpace
Wonderful minimal glockenspiel (I think) music, with mournful vocals and a penchant for the Chapmans.

2. Salem MySpace
Slippery, spinny, disorientating warped record electronic STUFF.

3. Pseudo Nippon MySpace
Teleradd, playful and hopefully not a racist, Pseudo Nippon is an Engrish-speaking home baked gabba-pop superstar waiting to happen. Watch your back Scotch Egg, this guy has TUNES.

4. Lawrence Wasser MySpace
French weirdo-rockers with masks and manginas.

5. Music Video MySpace
Everyone in the world wants more Postal Service, right? And for Postal Service to not be quite so sickly. Well hunger no more, starving children, Music Video is here to save your empty ears.


6. Channels 3 & 4 / Twin Crystals MySpace
C3&4 are one of Alice's favouritest bands ever, they split up and reformed into a Twin Crystals and now she's hoovering up their last few pieces of vinyl into a jealously guarded collection.

7. Hot Pants Romance MySpace
Three awesome indie girls play no-fi surf "hits" in tiny hot pants. I bought their CD-R and it was a data CD with the songs in WMV format, wtf?

8. Kate Nash
No wait I meant Betty Curse. All the kids are listening to her when they're not busy organically spreading the word about Genuine Internet Sensations like Arctic Monkeys.

9. a.P.A.t.T. MySpace
Totally loveable and hugely uncool, I suspect this entire band may have dreds that smell of weed. They sound like Cardiacs playing Mr Bungle. Joyous skanky hyper-funk-rock for rolling around on the floor to.

10. YIP YIP MySpace
Vertigo-inducing electronic circus music with an epilepsy-inducing MySpace background.

11. Crystal Castles MySpace
You may have heard of this one. We were onto them 2 years ago, bitch.

Black Dice

Download: Manoman

ManOman! Load Blown has taken over my mind. Like the Beepers grafting their "heads" onto the bodies of the Shecks (become obsessed here, get it here), Black Dice have used their magical lattice of bleeps to hypnotise me into never wanting to stop listening.
AND YOU WILL LISTEN TOO.

In other news, I sprained my ankle today dancing in a field with my brand new, delicious headphones to Death of a Disco Dancer by The Smiths. I'd put up an mp3 of that too but I dont want to be responsible for any injuries.

And continuing the film diary..
06/01/08 The Bicycle Theives I'd watch Italian films even if I was blind, and this one had me doing that wonderful combination of sniffy, discrete crying and beaming with happiness. 9/10

It's Not The End Of The World

Made this:



"It's Not The End Of The World", Animated GIF, 2007

Films Watched So Far In 2008

01/01/08 Volver Beautifully shot ghost story cum family drama by Pedro Almodovar. 9/10
03/01/08 Tears Of The Black Tiger Fluoro Oriental Western with an arresting look but a repetitive and slow moving storyline. 5/10
04/01/08 In A Lonely Place Bogart whodunnit classic. 9/10

My Brother Gave Me His Playstation 2 When He Moved To Australia so me & Alice get an excuse for a gaming revival. Have been playing Beyond Good & Evil, an excellent science fiction action-RPG type thing in which you play the role of an investigative photojournalist called Jade who becomes embroiled in a secret rebellion against a sinister government plot. It's great looking, addictive and fun, and you can probably get it for a couple of quid on eBay these days if you're that way inclined. www.beyondgoodevil.com



On The Music Front it's been all about playing old unlabelled cassette tapes in the kitchen. Which has led to more exciting rediscoveries. The Sights being the best one - their album from a few years ago, "Got What I Want" is amazing. It lays out a nice range of influences and styles from simple Beach Boys harmonies to rasping (old) Von Bondies Detroit-style rock. Also, "Modern Life Is Rubbish" by Blur. How did I forget what a thoroughbred indie classic it really is?

Dan Deacon

Download: Crystal Cat.mp3

Found. My hands are tingling! Found New Band. Turn it up, put it on repeat. Louder! LOUDER! I wanna jump out of my skin! Run to shops and part with money! ON VINYL! FFOOUUNNDD. Psyche splitting prismic progpop! EAT THIS, ANIMAL COLLECTIVE. It tastes better than your goddamn Strawberry Jam.

If you love this, go and find WHAM CITY too. And listen to it all the way through on full volume. You Too May Do A New Music Belly Flop Into Happy Jelly. My brain responds well to the small maths repetition. BRIGHT COLOURS AND E NUMBERS.

I will find Dan Deacon, and I will join the screaming happiness of his people and we will dance through the trees on fire!

John Maus

Download: Just Wait Till Next Year

I was going to write about John Maus but could never say it better than this:

"John Maus is a maniac on a bloody crusade; a tortured evangelist on a mercenary quest to rid our world of villainous defilers of The Gospel of True Love. By turns shockingly infectious and disarmingly unpredictable, his music conflates a perplexing marriage of Moroder's 'Never Ending Story' and classical 12-tone renegades of 20th century past, harking THE NEW path which resurrects romance from its post-modern shackles, and reignites the promise of a better world."

I was asked to do an end of year mixtape by Drowned In Sound...

And here it is, a supersticky special sneaky preview. If you can track down CDs or MP3s of this lot you'll get a pretty lovely compilation...

John & Jehn - 20L07
MP3

The Knife - Heartbeats (live)
YouTube

Oh No! Oh My! - I Love You All The Time
MySpace

Modernaire - Bloodshed In The Woodshed
MySpace

Trademark - Come To Love
MySpace

Jeffrey Lewis - Banned From The Roxy
MP3

Joanna Newsom - Colleen
MP3

Fireworks Night - Echo's Swing
MySpace

Windmill - Restaurant Tiles
MySpace

Team Brick - Hawk
MySpace

The Wave Pictures - Long Island
MP3

Devendra Banhart - Carmensita
MP3

Fuck Buttons - Sweet Love For Planet Earth
MySpace

David Thomas Broughton - Weight Of My Love
MP3
YouTube

This is an collection of amazing songs that have inspired me and lit my body up with adrenaline this year. Each of them oozes some kind of special power that goes beyond just being good music. This music resonates with me in a way I can barely explain. It sounds like... life. Experiences. Sadness, hope, wit and wisdom. Whether in the nails-down-a-blackboard yelp of Windmill's voice; Joanna Newsom's fingers dancing over her harp strings as she weaves her achingly gorgeous folk; the intense desolation of Fireworks Night's 'Echo Swing'; the fiery, tribal, twinkling beauty of Fuck Buttons; the light-headed rush of love in John & Jehn's 20L07...

This is what music was all about for me this year.