Labels: DFA
Review by: Luke Younger
From playing in squats with powerviolence bands, to converted greenhouses in New York art spaces, Black Dice sure have come a long way from their early 7inches of stabbing cut up, thrash mayhem. “Beaches & Canyons” was actually released at the tail end of last year, but I didn’t have the motivation to review it until now. Mainly because I was put off by them when I went to see them in London back in June and they fucking sucked, but check this. Last week I went to Norway for the Safe As Milk festival in Haugesund to see a bunch of various underground noise and electronic acts. It was a great festival, and on the very last night after the final band played, beer dropped from 44 Kroner (approximatley £4) to 10 kroner (90p) and the after party kicked off. So anyway, we were all fucking drunk off our asses running around with some guys playing records you’d be lucky to find in Selectadisc let alone hear in a fucking club setting, and my friend Steve wanted to hear some Black Dice so he asked for it. For the next hour or so, we got “Beaches and Canyons” played in it’s entirety, cut up between loads of other great stuff. A bunch of us climbed out of the club through a window onto a jetty (the club was by a large river), and I looked over to the other side as the lights that were illuminating from the nearby bridge kept reflecting off the surface of the water. It was almost light outside, and we could hear this record coming from inside and it sounded fucking awesome. What can I say, I felt quite touched. A pretty dorky story, but whatever, “Beaches and Canyons” is far out. Man.