Black Dice

New York's Black Dice, formed in 1997 in Rhode Island, started off with an unlikely fusion of hardcore punk-rock and abstract electronica. Black Dice (Troubleman, 2000) was a mosaic of 15 untitled, brief and frantic sonic experiments that harked back to Can, Wire and Sonic Youth. The mini-album Cold Hands (2001) moved away from the epileptic pace of that album and revealed a stronger sense of texture and atmosphere, although Birthstone continued the sonic assault.
Every sound is manipulated and deformed on Beaches & Canyons (DFA, 2002), which completely drops the punk pretenses and focuses on the experimental side of their art. This time the (five) tracks are sprawling jams and are basically made up of sound effects. The quartet of vocalist Eric Copeland, guitarist Bjorn Copeland, keyboardist Aaron Warren and drummer Hisham Bharoocha, now sounds like a compromise between Throbbing Gristle's industrial soundscapes and Godspeed You Black Emperor's post-industrial streams of consciousness, particularly in the 15-minute nightmare Endless Happiness. They sculpt their songs mostly with samples and loops (Seabird, The Dream Is Going Down) rather than real playing. The propulsive rhythms add life to a mechanical world. Both the format and the style are almost the opposite of how they started off.

The album was followed by the EPs Cone Toaster (DFA) and Lost Valley (Tigerbeat, 2003), and by the collaboration Black Dice & Wolf Eyes (Fusetron, 2003), an intense prog-rock jam that is more of a Black Dice album than a Wolf Eyes album.

The EP Miles Of Smiles (DFA, 2004) contains a tour de force of sound manipulation, the 13-minute Miles Of Smiles, and its dreamy remix, the 14-minute Trip Dude Delay.

Creature Comforts (DFA, 2004) continued the process of dissolving the textural unity of western music by altering timbres, confusing dynamics and diluting rhythms. Treetops, Schwip Schwap and Night Flight are like the membranes of living organisms that sense the environment. Only the tribal Creature harks back to the previous album. The rest of the album is intent on crafting new languages, and the 15-minute Skeleton stands as its temporary lexicon, a black hole that collapses information and recycles it as pure radiation.