Black Dice - Broken Ear Record

Black Dice
Broken Ear Record
[DFA, 2005]

Sometimes the pristine order that emerges from an area of tumultuous chaos proves to be a pacifying experience. This is not to imply a sense of calm before the storm, but rather the calm that comes from overexposure to the storm’s most violent fury. Over the course of their last three full-lengths for DFA, Brooklyn’s Black Dice have emerged as masters of this zen-like craft. Noise-core spasms and power electronic washes fuse with the tribalism of rock and the audacity of improv. This music requires a degree of intelligent patience to sift through the morass of its hedonism, but the rewards are well worth the bacchanalian journey.

At its most basic, Broken Ear Record is about texture and punctuation. The dirty mechanical percussion of album opener ‘Snarley Yow’ invites the listener ever closer to the caustic high pitched loops and chirps that constitute its harmonic subject. Vocal samples in both ‘Smiling Off’ and ‘Street Dude’ are chopped and quantized to the point of a painful, ear-shredding melodicism. ‘Motorcycle’ ends the album with perhaps BD’s most accessible recorded track, as guitar loops and vocal yelps playfully dance over an industrial beat. With Broken Ear Record, Black Dice has provided a long overdue soundtrack to the blackout of August 2003, when the mechanical rattles of the city fell silent to the tunes of urban campfire songs.

MP3: Black Dice - Smile Off