Black Dice – Mr. Impossible

                Dang, I missed Black Dice. Black Dice created the genre ‘experimental stoner’ music. There is a sense of fun with everything they do. That’s why their last album “Repo”, even while it wasn’t my favorite, still cheered up enormously. When I heard they were releasing a new album “Mr. Impossible” with fewer tracks than before (only 9) I felt extraordinarily happy. 

                Black Dice does best in large periods of time. It can take a while for them to ‘get there’. Sometimes they may not even get there. It doesn’t matter. Most of the fun with Black Dice is the journey. If a melody exists it is hidden behind the sounds of fucked-up machines gurgling, you know, the finer things in life. 

                So that’s why I’m a bit happy with their first track off the Mr. Impossible album “Pigs”. It’s a fun one. Some absolutely stupid beat comes, I mean really basic, barely keeping a beat. Then a reeling dance party starts out of this morass of sound. The lyrics really speak to me though. The lyrics are garbled nonsense. 

                The beauty of Black Dice is their ability to fuse an infectious beat with bacchanal noise. On “Repo” it felt a little too obvious. Part of the joy is enjoying the ride, seeing all the random places they go to for no good reason whatsoever. I can only imagine how much fun it is to see this played live. 

                For those unable to see them perform live, there’s the next best thing: the music video. It is beyond strange. Random images pop up of the American flag. Black Dice are true patriots obviously. Then, if you pay attention, you start seeing some spastic motions of drug related photo shop art. Well the video is produced by none other than Tao Lin. After smoking some magnesium, Tao Lin twote some Meta tweet. Black Dice responded. And thus this beautiful tapestry was created, a sheer testament of all things ‘alt’. If you pay attention you’ll see quickly pulsing pieces from past Drug-Related Photoshop art and future Drug-Related Photoshop art. 

                I am so excited for this. I am being realistic though. I remember how I felt about ‘Night Crème’ from ‘Repo’, how that song was leagues beyond the rest of the album. I hope that Black Dice can again smash my brain into a million pieces. With “Pigs” they show their knack for noise-pop once more, or whatever the hell it’s called nowadays.