 Black Dice - Creature Comforts [FatCat - 2004]When they released their debut full-length two years ago, Black Dice emerged as one of the most talented bands around. Their subsequent tours made for mesmerizing performances, and they somehow found the time to record a few ep’s or 12”. Now, they are back with a new album, Creature Comforts. It doesn’t quite sound like anything we’ve heard from them. For sure, Black Dice is a band constantly on the move, experimenting in various directions. But I feel this album is where they moved forward the most. But does it make for a good / interesting listen? That’s an entirely different thing… What is sure is that they have developed their very own take on psychedelic music, making it at the same time playful and challenging. On Creature comforts, the guitars are very melodic in a “keep it simple” way, light, positive, very engaging. At times, the feeling is very “tropical”. For instance, on Creature, you can’t help but feel like they’ve taken you for a trip deep into the jungles of India, such a variety of animal sounds they produce through the various effects they use. They mixture they make of guitar music and electronics worked great on their previous releases, but it is less the case this time around. Of course, at times you can’t help but drift away with them, letting Black Dice take you where they want to take you. But more often than not, it’s as if they had composed the basic melodies and put them together with some electronics or effects at random, because, sometimes, it just doesn’t gel and leave you way disappointed and confused, not by the daring aspect of the music but rather by the underachieved side of it. Really disappointing from a band who did nothing wrong so far. For this album, they worked with various producers: as usual the DFA team, but also peeps who worked with Animal Collective, Fischerspooner or the Beastie Boys. The fact that the Creature Comforts sounds distinctly unique means that, whoever they use as producers, Black Dice has a vision of its own. But after having listened carefully to the album, it also means that this vision sometimes needs redirecting for more efficiency. That’s what the producers have failed to do. The rabid fans will love the album, and probably some more indie hipsters will jump on the bandwagon, but if you’re more of a middle-ground man, then you will sure be disappointed by what you hear, especially since the buzz surrounding the band is so big…    François Monti
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