Review Summary: Welcome to the jungle. Black Dice style.
Five years before the release of
Creature Comforts Black Dice were hardcore punks playing thrash music. Touring with noise rock duo’s such as Lightning Bolt it’s odd listening to
Creature Comforts and thinking about how much Black Dice has transformed their sound in just a handful of years. I say this because the sounds explored on
Creature Comforts share no similarities with hardcore music. Instead this New York trio have churned out a truly bizarre collage of soundscapes, electronic noodling, and knob turning, creating some unusually majestic and psychedelic sounds.
Listening to
Creature Comforts can be tedious and difficult. I say this because the album is essentially built off of strange keyboard glimmer, odd guitar effects, and queer animal noises. “Treetops” starts off with a jumpy jungle-esque rhythm that eventually turns into harsh bursts of noise over quirky keyboard sparkles. Musically these songs can change instantly and Black Dice are able to pull this almost flawlessly, one moment you’ll be listening to lush combinations of keyboard texture and seconds later the song with turn into a debacle of noises. “Skeleton”, the albums longest piece progresses from minimal echoing sounds into a sublime mishmash of glossy guitar glimmers and vibrant keyboard effects.
Although
Creature Comforts showcases a few moments of beauty it’s very experimental which leads to many catastrophic moments. “Night Flight” starts off with a nice slick guitar groove, but two minutes into the song the guitar line is substituted with a pseudo-dance rhythm and alien noises. I suppose this is what makes
Creature Comforts such a unique listen yet I feel like these guys tend to overdo it on the experimenting. “Cloud Pleaser” balances a perfect line between experimentation and music as it posses a nice little melody while other off kiltered jungle effects are added on.
Creature Comforts is an eccentric listen yet Black Dice have a little too much fun at times and abandon some awesome melodies that they have going. Oddly enough this is probably what the group was going for because the strange animal-esque keyboard noises they churn out make the listener feel like he’s going through some sort of weird trip through a jungle. In the end
Creature Comforts isn’t an album that I reach for often but it is certainly a unique dip into “noise” music.
