Black Dice - 'Repo' (Paw Tracks) Released 06/04/09

At which point does music become noise? Can noise ever fully qualify as music? Black Dice’s quest to prove the two can happily co-exist reaches its most consistently satisfying stages yet on ‘Repo’. For this is music at its most refreshingly uncategorisable. The New York trio’s roots in the noisier regions of experimental rock are by now little more than a dim and distant dot in the rear-view mirror.

In many ways, the band’s journey from a “proper” band wielding instruments into a technology-heavy, beats and dub bass-orientated outfit resembles that of buddies and sometime label mates Animal Collective (Black Dice records are released through AC-affiliated Paw Tracks imprint). Only whereas Baltimore’ finest have become gradually more listener-friendly, without losing any of their innovative edge, Black Dice have headed deeper into the murkiest depths of total sonic annihilation, producing sounds that are so alien, so indescribably strange they’re near-indecipherable on first encounter, but become more and more compelling and coherent with repeated exposure.

Whereas in the past Black Dice’s steely intent to push the boundaries has at times come across as almost wilfully off-putting, a relentless volley of nervously skittering beats and white noise catering for those not afraid of a king size challenge, ‘Repo’ sculpts something genuinely enjoyable and endlessly hypnotic from the same uncompromisingly experimental sources.