Black Dice - Lost Valley 3" CD (Anyone? Anyone?)

if it is anything like the last album, me wanna.

First track is the best thing they've ever done, as far as I can see. (Well, I never heard those early 7-inches owned only by record collector scumbags and the band's parents. But anyway, the new record {a single, NOT an EP, btw -- i.e., there's only two songs} is not as ugly-so-what as their 4-song EP from last year, and not as Muzaky-so-what as their longer EP from earlier this year, both of which I like okay regardless but never mind.) Anyway, some clapping and percussion sounds in the song actually remind me of early '70s Miles Davis stuff. The B-side's okay, too.

I keep meaning to find something by these guys. So would this be a better starting point than the album?

I have not heard the single, but Beaches and Canyons is much more "listenable" (i.e. melodic) than their earlier singles and EPs. I really love that album. I've been working on an essay about it for something like two months now and it still blows!

Something about B&C reminded me of the second Replikants album.

By the longer EP from earlier this year I meant *Beaches and Canyons,* I guess, which, yeah, is a lot easier to listen to than the ealier stuff I've heard, but that still doesn't mean it's not interchangeable with lots of OTHER okay elevator music that came out this year. Williamsburg (where they PLAY a lot, even if they live in some other neighborhood) is hardly the hardest place in the world to be noticed if you're a background-music noise band; I mean, that's where all the tastemakers for this kinda stuff hang out! And the King Crimson comparisons are completely full of shit, I'm sorry. *Beaches and Canyons* is an OKAY record, but it NEVER rocks, and I just don't get at all what's distinctive about it. I hear records that are just as noisy-and-pretty-at-the-same-time every week! The new single (first song anyway) is the first thing I've heard by them that sounds SPECIAL. Though maybe can EXPLAIN to me what's so great about *B&C*??

= Though maybe *someone* can EXPLAIN to me etc

I like how B&C hints at melodies throughout, yet always pulls back at the last second. By _suggesting_ hooks that aren't really there, it plays tricks on the ears, inferring melodies without having to actually create them. I find this in "Things Will Never Be the Same" in particular, which, by the way they are pieced together, makes flimsy sounds seem meaty. It doesn't take a lot of skill to do this, but it does require a good sense of melody and the patience to break it down to its minimal elements and then the balls to conceal it as much as possible. Although, as you rightly state, by virtue of being from Williamsburg it isn't much of a risk at all.

well, in terms of going in one ear and out the other in a consistently but merely pleasant manner without songs that really distinguish themselves from each other (i.e. -- records i'd REALLY compare to that black dice record), most of those are at home where said black dice record is, and i pretty much forget their names. but as far as meeting requirments above (just checked my stacks here at work), i'd say recent CDs by matthew shipp, mat maneri featuring joe mcphee, opeth, burnt sugar, palestine/coluter/mathoul, overthrowthe, steve von til, dwayne sodaberhk, cecil taylor, dr. israel vs. dr. x, and (black dice's pals, i think) forcefield all pretty much blow that black dice album out the water every which way, melodically and rhytmically and having-a-personality-wise included. all those cabaret voltaire and savage republic and destroy all monsters and (see sinker's voice review) ianis xenakis reissues aren't bad, either. and compilations like "tipsy remix party!" and "the only blip hop record you will ever need vol. 1" too, probably. (none of which records are even CLOSE to the best things i've heard this year, btw; daniel bedingfield and toby keith and lifter puller mean WAY more to me.)

I never heard any king crimson in "b&c", but I did hear some of kraftwerk's first traffic cone album, recent boredoms, and (at times) music for airports

I don't think it's elevator music either.. but I think the same of la dusseldorf so what do I know!