Black marks and Black Dice

[imomus]

For such a good magazine, OK Fred makes surprisingly uninspiring mixtape-style radio broadcasts. Radio Fred 07 is perhaps the dullest so far, not so much doki doki as guu guu. The trouble is that the Errol Dunkley reggae song that starts the broadcast ("OK Fred", which gave the magazine its name) is so good, with a lovely optimistic spirit and some great electronic details popping up all over the mix, that all the mediocre indie dirges they play after it just sound terribly dull; whiny “sensitive” songs with hackneyed chord sequences and trite guitar solos. The greatness of pop music is not here, friends.

"Where is it, then, Momus?" I hear you ask. And I am prepared to answer your question. It's in Polypunk, a selection of "Bits and Beats" selected by Digiki, a young man who is probably right now in a plane between Paris and Tokyo, on his way to a new life. Polypunk sparkles with inventiveness, textural interest, pleasure and love of pop on its own terms. It effervesces and inspires; pure pop poetry. For something in a more experimental vein, I'd also highly recommend (again) the Donna Summer WFMU airing of DJ Elephant Power's mixtape "The Impact of the Elephant on its Environment".

On September 6th Brooklyn's Black Dice will release their third album for DFA Records, The Broken Ear Record. I blush to admit that I've already downloaded the entire record from a rip of the promo posted, quite irresponsibly, on this I Love Music thread. Recorded in Australia, this record is one of the few I've heard recently which can really be said to advance the basic grammar of pop music. It mixes dirty tactile electronica with sounds resembling field-recorded ethnic music. It's a work of great originality. I will certainly be buying it in September, and will probably include it amongst my selections of the year. The record I've found myself playing most since getting back from New York is, oddly enough, by some of the same people: the much more ambient (but no less voodoo-druggy) Oboroed / Circus Lives by Terrestrial Tones (Dave Porter aka Avey Tare of Animal Collective and Black Dice's Eric Copeland).

Finally, a sartorial update. After an amazing permaflicker lightning storm in the early hours of Saturday, Berlin finally became warm enough for me to go out wearing my Moroccan robe. Turkish muslims laughed at me and German wags shouted out "It's the Ku Klux Klan!", but the robe felt great, so fresh and swishy and cool.

Comments

alladin sane indeed

[petit-paradis.livejournal.com]

the first pic of yu in the morrocon robe reminds more of ALICE IN WONDERLAND than ALLADIN'S WONDERLAMP



you should add topo/barker to that pic dressed in a vest ;-)

Re: alladin sane indeed

[imomus.livejournal.com]

You're right, it does look like I'm 15 feet tall!

Baker is more of a growler than a barker.

Re: alladin sane indeed

[hateforblayne.livejournal.com]

I went out in this little number and received looks of mild disgust!

Ole!

Ugh, Copy Controlled

[kineticfactory.livejournal.com]

It looks like EMI are up to their old tricks and releasing it in a crippled, "copy controlled" format that is deliberately corrupted so that half of computers can't play/rip it. (Which territory is the scan from, btw? I know they do this on nearly every release in Australia, though not as often in the UK or US.)

I consider it a moral issue to not buy any recording that is deliberately corrupted, no matter how good the underlying recording is.

[framework.livejournal.com]

totally mesmerized by the album artwork.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Hello Susan, missed you when I was in New York (though I walked past your apartment, if it's still the same one). See you next year, perhaps!

[framework.livejournal.com]

Hey! I'm in a different apartment now but it's likely you did walk right by it, as I'm now just around the corner from Congee Village! I hope to see you the next time you pass through.

[(Anonymous)]

"this record is one of the few I've heard recently which can really be said to advance the basic grammar of pop music"

I dont hear anything in this i haven't heard countless times before if anything it sounds retro to me, in particular "heavy manners" sounding like something 23 skidoo would have recorded in the 80's. I was disappointed it wasn't a cover of the Robert Fripp and David Byrne track of the same name. Where is this advancement of grammar you speak of?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I think the combination of "warm" electric guitar sounds (often Highlife-influenced) and really spooky, trippy vocal samples is pretty unprecedented though, sure, I can see your point about 23 Skidoo, who also share the fake ethnic music angle. There might also be parallels with some of My Bloody Valentine's more extreme experiments with warbly sonic deformation. I think Black Dice push that kind of ostranenie, the "denaturing" of the basic pop vocabulary, further than any 80s experimental bands ever did, though. It's the kind of music we might have imagined we'd be listening to in 2005, had those experiments not been somewhat abandoned. I still find it challenging rather than reassuring to listen to, slightly nightmarish, like the music of a rather scary African initiation ceremony, a skull on a stick, the human form an absurd prancing monster covered in twigs.

What music should sound like in 2005...

[peripherus-max.livejournal.com]

Check out "Sixth In Sixes" by XBXRX, Nick. I guarantee that you'll love it given what you've said about ostranenie. Released next week here in the U.S. I also hope that Digiki keeps up his podcasting in Tokyo.

Re: What music should sound like in 2005...

[lil-spacerocket.livejournal.com]

holy crap that album is so frekin good

Re: What music should sound like in 2005...

[twoheaded-boy.livejournal.com]

That art rules me. It's like a Fort Thunder mashup of Goya and Dore and Durer.