User ratings in Music are temporarily disabled. More info

Black Sun
by
  • Record Label:
  • Release Date:
Black Sun Image
Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 12 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
7.8

Generally favorable reviews- based on 4 Ratings

  • Summary: Steve "Kode9" Goodman, the London-based electric artist, collaborates with Stephen "The Spaceape" Gordon for a second album of dubstep and techno jams.
Buy Now
Buy on

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 12
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 12
  3. Negative: 0 out of 12
  1. The Boston Phoenix
    May 4, 2011
    88
    At times, the album draws more from drum and bass than from UK funky or any other bass music du jour.
  2. The A.V. Club
    Apr 26, 2011
    83
    In spite of its sprawling palette, Black Sun is tight and compact, an album rather than simply a showcase.
  3. Prefix Magazine
    Apr 20, 2011
    80
    The irony is Black Sun is better-suited for the club. The album's sounds and ideas are large enough to fill a dark, echoing room.
  4. Tiny Mix Tapes
    Apr 26, 2011
    80
    Black Sun is spotty and rusted, and it is likely that it will be interesting to most for this or that track - a grimy slayer, a leftfield floorfiller - or for the fact that it has a fantastic musique concrète apocalyptic vignette featuring Flying Lotus for a coda.
  5. Q Magazine
    May 18, 2011
    80
    His second album evokes blade Runner's stylish futurism, populating it with Spaceape's paranoid poetry and drowning clean lines in tape crackle. [May 2011, p.119]
    All this publication's reviews
  6. Pitchfork
    Apr 26, 2011
    77
    Tension and anxiety don't always have to be cavernous and austere, and Black Sun reveals a way for dubstep's vanguard to express their more ominous impulses in a way you can still dance to, no matter how the steps change.
  7. The Guardian
    Apr 26, 2011
    60
    Black Sun is more than adequate – but compared to the artists Kode9 has brought to prominence (Ikonika, Scratcha DVA, Funkystepz, Ill Blu), falls a touch short in terms of surprising ideas.

See all 12 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

Write a Review
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 2
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 2
  3. Negative: 0 out of 2
  1. analogbrat
    Jul 7, 2013
    9
    An undisputed pioneer, a trailblazer who can rightly claim dubstep as primarily his creation, Steve Goodman, Ph.D, returns to fine form withAn undisputed pioneer, a trailblazer who can rightly claim dubstep as primarily his creation, Steve Goodman, Ph.D, returns to fine form with his sophomore album featuring doom-voiced prophet Spaceape. There is a smaller emphasis here on bass, to the point that some tracks seem to lack sub; this void is filled by a relentless death march of percussion and unnerving snare attacks. The fidgety atmosphere is heightened by Spaceape's vocals, noticeably lighter and less treated than on 2006's Memories of the Future he as often lurks around the shadows as full-on raps, and Shanghai vocalist Cha Cha is utilized to create an ethereal presence. By the time Flying Lotus drops in on the slowly-unfolding (and instantly silenced) "Kryon", the album's mysterious atmosphere has swallowed you whole.… Expand
  2. cosmogramma
    Jul 15, 2011
    6
    Black Sun is one of the top 5 releases since 2011 under the umbrella of 'dubstep'. It's not as experimental, paranoid, or atmospherically richBlack Sun is one of the top 5 releases since 2011 under the umbrella of 'dubstep'. It's not as experimental, paranoid, or atmospherically rich as Memories of the Future, but it still provides an interesting electronica listen. This album focuses on ingenious, intricate, layered drum-lines, with atmospherics taking second on this album. The Spaceape's lyrics aren't as ominous or moving as Memories of the Future, but are still leagues ahead of other lyrics within the same genre… Expand

Current Music Releases

Full List »
99 Band on the Run [50th Anniversary Edition] - Paul McCartney & Wings
95 The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow - Charles Lloyd
92 This Could Be Texas - English Teacher
92 COWBOY CARTER - Beyoncé
91 The Carnegie Hall Concert - Alice Coltrane
90 1989 (Taylor's Version) - Taylor Swift
90 Iechyd Da - Bill Ryder-Jones
89 I Got Heaven - Mannequin Pussy
89 Black Bayou - Robert Finley
89 Tigers Blood - Waxahatchee
89 Only God Was Above Us - Vampire Weekend
88 Ozarker - Israel Nash
88 What Now - Brittany Howard
88 Hey Panda - The High Llamas
88 Orquídeas - Kali Uchis
88 The Past Is Still Alive - Hurray for the Riff Raff
87 Filthy Underneath - Nadine Shah
87 i/o - Peter Gabriel
87 Lahai - Sampha
87 Blue Lips - ScHoolboy Q
All Current Music »