Black Dice – Beaches & Canyons

It's Nostalgia Week! I haven't heard any good new stuff lately so it's time to revisit some albums from my past and see if they're still any good.

September 2002 • DFA Records

I owe this album a lot. As I mentioned way back in my Mr. Impossible review, this album was an enormous factor in my understanding of more avant-garde and unusual music. I remember listening to it for the fist time and being entranced by the realization that yes, you can make good music that doesn't involve traditional instrumentation.

It's kind of a naïve thought, looking back, but spinning this album even today is a great experience. Tribal drumming under a lush, summery soundscape of glitchy synth sounds, looped guitar samples, and shimmering noise. "Things Will Never Be the Same" is the stand-out track and the one that really sold me, with a Boredoms-esque psychedelic juxtaposition of grinding noise, melodic samples, and drumming that ramps up from subtle to engaging in a very satisfying way. It's not an album that demands attention, but when given it does make for engaging listening.

The album does have plenty of flaws and I won't say it holds up quite as well as it did for me eight years ago. There is a bit of a quality control issue, and with five long tracks it's apparent that there are many cases where they ran out of ideas of where to take the music and let something boring just kind of loop along. Trimming each song down to the actually-interesting parts would make for a fantastic album of maybe thirty-five or forty minutes. Fortunately, there's still at least something in every song that I still enjoy.

Since hearing this album for the fist time, there's so much more weird noise stuff I've heard that easily trumps this one. But as far as Black Dice go, this is still definitely the best in their catalog and one that deserves a listen by anyone. It's unfortunate that they never came close to the same quality as presented here, and after a lot more experience with this kind of music it doesn't quite hold up the same as it used to. But it's good to revisit it now and again.