"Broken Ear Record" by Black Dice

[blunt]

Ummm. Am I missing something?

Has anyone else heard this album? I see Boomkat describes it as brilliantly original - I'll say. With the exception of "Motorcycle", the whole album strikes me as being 40 minutes of sonic gibberish. A bit like the music made by Dan Ashcroft's flatmate in "Nathan Barley", in fact.

Is the whole thing just a joke? Or am I just turning into my dad?

Yours, donning my flak-jacket in advance,

-B.

 

[mms]

yep i've seen em live a few times and not really found anything that kept me from going to the bar. boomkat don't write reviews, they are selling records so course they will hype em. Delia and gavin are the best thing on that label imo. i like their jerrry rigged klause shulze style workouts.

 

[alo]

I reckon theres a couple of really good ideas in there, (a couple that go nowhere admittedly) with a great sense of 'broken' down rhythm and song. But, yeah: predominantly i have no real burning need to listen to them ever again.

I kept reading the hyperbole over and over thinking i'd missed something. So i kept going back to that track on the 2nd DFA Compilation.
Turns out its self indulgent, over ripe shit!

 

[AshRa]

There's a track on the 1st LP called Endless Happiness (I think) that I really liked at the time. Not heard it for yonks but I seem to remember it sounds like Oval.

 

[woops]

Has anyone else heard this album? I see Boomkat describes it as brilliantly original - I'll say. With the exception of "Motorcycle", the whole album strikes me as being 40 minutes of sonic gibberish. A bit like the music made by Dan Ashcroft's flatmate in "Nathan Barley", in fact.

That guy's stuff is great! I have to check this black dice thing.,...

 

[Martin Dust]

Nice one mms - this made me giggle:

"jerrry rigged klause shulze style workouts"

m

 

[daren]

I'm more interested in their artwork and videos usually than their music. Broken Ear Record is much better than Creature Comforts. Like they finally managed to feel at ease without their drummer.

By the way, has anyone seen them when they were a violent improvy sort of band? I've heard crazy stories when they played with American hardcore acts.

 

[Alex bk-bk]

welll i like it a lot so whatever. i can see why you sall say that but i dunno its kind of nice noise. its the kind of thing that emerges after repeated listening, which i know may sound like an apolegetic way of saying it's essentially anal music but nope. i like it. live too.

 

[Diggedy Derek]

I think Black Dice make some very nice noise, but I concur that it's not much more than that. It's warm and fuzzy but not especially engaging. The album one of them did with one of Animal Collective, Terrestial Tremors or something, that's got significantly more depth.

 

[martin]

Mixed thoughts, on a plus side the first 2 tracks are great, full of the adventurous spirit the power electronics scene's been lacking for ages, sadly the rest of the album seemed to go downhill and become quite tedious by track 6, also I can't stand the loathsome cover art and design. Wouldn't mind catching them live.

 

[blunt]

I think Black Dice make some very nice noise [...]

So I think this (and other) post/s raises some interesting questions for the "Music" section of Dissensus.

If music is nothing but 'organised sound', where the organising principles are predominently rhythm and melody, by what principles do Black Dice and others or their ilk qualify as 'music'? Or are they explicitly noise-makers, in which case, by what standards do we judge them? What makes for 'good' noise over 'bad'?

I'm not trolling, honest. I'm genuinely interested in peoples thoughts on this one

 

[daren]

The album one of them did with one of Animal Collective, Terrestial Tremors or something, that's got significantly more depth.

Terrestial Tones's first album wasn't too interesting to me. It seemed more background noise than Black Dice.

Or are they explicitly noise-makers, in which case, by what standards do we judge them? What makes for 'good' noise over 'bad'?

I wouldn't call them entirely a noise band. They have a lot of rhyhm and the guitar playing adds nice harmonic effects.

Determining good noise is another issue that I can't respond to right now.

 

[BrokenFist]

So I think this (and other) post/s raises some interesting questions for the "Music" section of Dissensus.

If music is nothing but 'organised sound', where the organising principles are predominently rhythm and melody, by what principles do Black Dice and others or their ilk qualify as 'music'? Or are they explicitly noise-makers, in which case, by what standards do we judge them? What makes for 'good' noise over 'bad'?

I'm not trolling, honest. I'm genuinely interested in peoples thoughts on this one

I consider them noise and not music. And I don't believe there's any sort of criteria for seperating 'good' noise from 'bad' - it's purely subjective and comes down to personal taste.

 

[shudder]

even if it's subjective there are probably interesting regularities in each person's taste etc...