Repo is Black Dice’s foray into melody and funk. Sure it’s a scattered confusing quite experimental hodge podge of clipped samples, obtuse guitar lines and unrestrained pedal abuse, yet it all fits together like some kind of junk yard rave and I’ll be damned if it doesn’t make you want to dance. And laugh. Probably both at the same time. It’s the Brooklyn trios fifth studio album and it’s their best so far. Over the last 10 odd years they’ve become masters of the twiddling knobs and with Repo they’re increasingly moving away from the more straight jacketed dance like rhythms of their previous couple of albums and are instead highlighting some of those moments that seemed to be accidents: when everything coalesced and the music sounded like an actual song (Note: I’m using the term ‘song’ very broadly). They still possess that raw haphazard charm where it feels like they are barely in control of their sounds, yet Repo is such a nuanced excursion in demented electronic music that they’re no longer fooling anyone. Their music is just like the cover of Repo, with possible normal guitar bass and drums kind’ve oozed over by a crazy wet bright mess. Even when they use a conventional instrumentation like guitars or drums there’s always so much discordant digitalia floating around that you can never quite gain equilibrium. it’s hard to know at times whether they’re experimental sound art masquerading as music or music that’s been disemboweled and had its ashes scattered around haphazardly and now they’re trying to join the dots. Ultimately though Black Dice aren’t about the tough theoretical questions. Their music is too playful, frustrating and joyfully weird to care.
Bob Baker Fish
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