Rolling the Dice

By Broadside Correspondent Ian Crocker

When listening to the noise-rocking soundscapers Black Dice, it is always a make or break experience. You may regard the sound of the Brooklyn-based group as ground-breaking or you could get super frustrated and think of it as a pretentious hodge-podge of sounds and noises. No matter how you may have felt about past Black Dice releases, their new album Repo is clearly their most accessible yet. Their second release on the label Paw Tracks, Repo replaces the hardcore clash of previous albums with a more funky sound driven by fun samples throughout the record.

The album begins with the first single entitled “Nite Creme” a song that begins with a metallic overture and then melts into high pitched Dan Deacon-esque voice samples and cyclical licks of synth. Despite its push as the lead single, I feel like “Nite Creme” does not really represent what the rest of the new album is all about; if anything it would have better fit on previous albums such as Load Blown or Broken Ear Record. The next track “Glazin” is the first of many on the album to start off with a tiny funk sample and uses it to fuel a beat-scape filled with distorted snares and other assorted sounds.

After several lackadaisical tracks, Eric and Bjorn Copeland and Aaron Warren barrel headfirst into the track “Lazy TV” which is loaded with chopped and screwed vocals and aquatic sound effects that are similar to the sound effects in the underwater levels on the first Sonic the Hedgehog game.

The band harkens back to the crashing, hardcore sound of their earlier material on the track “Ten Inches” and in a complete 180 degree turn, displays a tinge of psych-folk influences from label mates Animal Collective on the track “Vegetable.”

The final track on the album, “Ultra Vomit Craze,” is without a doubt the crowning achievement of Repo and is also the closest thing to hip hop that the group has ever released. With a steady beat and underlying booty-bass, it should find its way to an iPod dance party mix near you.

In most cases, when a band moves towards a mainstream sound it is a cause for uproar, but in the case of Black Dice maybe a move towards a more accessible sound is not such a bad thing after all.