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Black Dice still belong in the DIY basement space but with Load Blown they’ve made their most accessible album yet.
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Possibly the most confident and successful of this third phase of Black Dice, the pieces here make no claims to exist as anything but the welcoming and obtuse freaks of rhythms gone awry.
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Load Blown is stunning. It engulfs. While sacrificing little if anything to compositional templates, the record is remarkable listenable.
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The WireAn excellent showcase of their different approaches. [Oct 2007, p.55]
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For those looking for a bit of an adventure, this new music is surprisingly accessible.
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SpinThe layered results are mesmeric, giving their introverted noise a new, laserlike intensity. [Nov 2007, p.114[
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It's the kind of detailed withdrawal that makes for excellent headphone music.
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It's fun to hear Black Dice go straight for the jugular throughout the aptly-titled Load Blown, and hit the mark every time.
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the disc is refreshingly user-friendly.
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Load Blown does more than enough to keep "very" and "awfully," respectively, in the mix.
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BlenderThis is mostly music to zone in and out of--periodically, new sounds and rhythms croip up and coexist in rough approximation of grooves, catching the ear; other times songs drone in the background, either beatifically ot forgettable. [Nov 2007, p.146]
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Load Blown is damaged as a whole, even despite its overwhelming internal coherence that makes for few surprises along the way.
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Load Blown, superficially, is more of the same; sample some 30 second clips online or in your local record store and it's believable that this is a continuation of what they've been doing the past few albums. The entirety, however, exhibits otherwise, and isn't nearly as fulfilling.
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Q MagazineThe Brooklyn trio have delivered an impressively bonkers set comprising three EPs. [Nov 2007, p.134]
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UncutYou leave Load Blown feeling that Black Dice, unlike many of their kin, are actually genuine experimentalists--even if it's with the caveat that sometimes it all rather blows up in their face. [Nov 2007, p.96]
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Because the sound is based on repetition, yet it bounces off every wall it touches, the album can be like a bad trip inside the mind of a schizophrenic and new listeners may not be ready, but for the others who’ve supported the band in the past, it can be a welcome respite from the sound they’re used to.
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Under The RadarThis feels a little lazy, like an ugly electronic quilt, its patchwork of half-assed electronic explorations hitting the mark every so often. [Fall 2007, p.72]
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Alternative PressYou either listen without prejudice or deem it the most pretentious, boring swill on the planet. [Dec 2007, p.176]
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There are glimmers of loveliness in the industrial-calypsos of 'Drool' and 'Bananas,' but that just makes the wilful awkwardness all the more frustrating.