Take it away, Black Dice!

When listening to the noise-rocking sound-scapers, 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 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” doesn’t 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 tinny funk sample and uses it to fuel a beatscape 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 sound a lot like the underwater levels on the first Sonic the Hedgehog. The band harkens back to the crashing, hardcore sound of their earlier material on the track “Ten Inches” and in a complete 180°display a tinge of psych-folk influences from label mates Animal Collective on the track “Vegetable”. The final track of the album is without a doubt the crowning achievement of Repo; “Ultra Vomit Craze” is 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 mainstream sound it’s a cause for uproar but in the case of Black Dice maybe a move towards a more accessible sound isn’t such a bad thing after all.

Black Dice - Ultra Vomit Craze