Customer Reviews

Creature Comforts

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

all i must say is "see this group in person"---they blew my mind, and right before (or after) animal collective, another amazing group of musicians. the guy below is so vehement about hating certain types of music, namely ANYTHING experimental, that it makes one wonder, "doth protesteth too much" or "is it just out of his realm of comprehension?." that's okay. he doesn't have to open his mind or his third eye. leave it to the rest of us.

After a few releases of great analog-wrecked noise madness and harsh reality, Black Dice have uncorked something incredibly fresh and welcome.

This is where Morton Subotnick gets to hash it out with Boards of Canada.

Really astonishing record, this. Timeless. And new. One of the 2-3 best things to happen in music this year if not the decade. It's a giant leap ahead of their peers into a new genre. Beaches and Canyons is endlessly more fascinating to listen to than any electroclash triphop drum'n'bass glitch postrock trance jungle techno you've heard. Plus it rocks more and surprises more than anything from those genres I am aware of. Too excellent. Wait no longer.

As highly recommended: Creature Comforts.

not their best work, but one of my favorites. I prefer Beaches and Canyons, it tends to be a bit more ambient. This one is more like they use the noises as paint to make an abstract. I felt like beaches and canyons was more of a landscape; still very abstract.

With Beaches & Canyons, the Black Dice unfold and explore strange, expansive psycho-acoustic territories, assembling an expedition into absorbing, multi-dimensional soundscapes. Creature Comforts isn't so sweeping, and establishes atmospheres on a different scale. It's almost as if, having charted a wide sonic wilderness, the Black Dice now seek to survey it's inhabitants...

Creature Comforts suggests the speakers-static of curious arcades and carnivals after hours, after everyone has gone home and the batteries begin to die, the lights flicker and fade, the trash stirs in the vacant paveways, and the creatures come out: forgotten notes, looping truncated melodies, lazy leftover rhythms, gremlin glitches and meandering dissonances. Their peculiar prowling creates something like an incidental music, happenstance yet almost orchestrated, unassuming yet engulfing...

When all these new New York groups emerged in 2002, there was an initial hope that some of the noncommercial ideas of No Wave and experimental music would return. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs only slightly embraced this esthetic and then dropped it. Liars just seemed like inspired art damage. Black Dice on the other hand has been the only weird uncompromised band that has lived up to the promise. Sonic Youth and Swans did some avant garde work fifteen years ago. There are other music students and stoners who listen to Tony Conrad and Terry Riley. However, after the 1980s, most of the noise freaks turned their ears to Japan. Black Dice has been around for six years. This is the best group on DFA. They are unpredictable. They are making beautiful music. This music is what hipsters at Enid's like to listen to after a bongtoke and a discussion of politics.

Black Dice must've taken cues from Japanese noise-rock bands, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. There's no denying what you'll get with 'Creature Comforts', noise, and alot of it, everything from quirky, analog, thrashing and everything in between. Generally much in the same vein as their Samurai peers Melt Banana, Merzbow and The Boredoms. Throw in a bit of the erratic experimentalism of Faust, Autechre's futuristic techno blasts, and Gastr Del Sol's post-rock noodlings, and you'll have Black Dice's brand of instrumental sonic meandering. This type of thing is an acquired taste, and to the uninitiated ear, this might sound as foreign as the alien-soundscapes this CD could be a backdrop to. But to fans of noise-rock, a challenge to listen to, a satisfying listen.

best cd ive bought in a long time.

black dice sounds more like negativland than any of the bands the first reviewer mentioned- we all know what bands are from japan. you don't have to name check. i can name check better than any of em- fursaxa, nurse with wound, sun city girls, sunburned hand of the man, new blockaders, double leopards, any other band on the basic obscure level and black dice doensn't sound like any of them. to say that black dice sounds like merzbow (there are elements that resemble merzbow), melt bananna (Not even close) and the boredoms (what the hell is wrong with the first reviewer) implies that you are just tossing names off the cuff to show how smart you are when it comes to music. Thing is: do your homework. they are a great electronic noise band with ambient leanings. this is a great transitional album. not as good as beaches and canyons but worth the price of admission.

i am getting so sick of bands like this. they are the type od people who think they are doing somthing new! but they are not! it all sucks! their is no talent in this crap! some girl at work gave me this cd, saying it was awsome and i would like it. i love a lot of music from "80's oldschool punk" to "IDM". but this just tells me who ever made these tracks (yes tracks, you cant even call these songs) went on his computer made a bunch of stupid thoughtless meaningless songs, and called a album. i say CRAP!!!!!! ALL YOU INDIE ROCK NEW WAVE GOTH KIDS DIE!!!!!!!