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BROKEN EAR RECORD
BY MIKAEL WOOD
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When this experimental Brooklyn quartet (now a trio, minus drummer Hisham Bharoocha) formed in 1997, they made a point of alienating their audience through volume and aggression. Early Black Dice recordings are all about turning the thoughtless screed of hardcore in on itself. For the last few years, though, the band have been burrowing into a deeper groove, fleshing out the static and noise that underpin hardcore into actual songs. It can be almost as alienating as the old approach: on Broken Ear Record, which they recorded in Australia last March, the trio circle around clusters of sounds — pretty keyboard smear, drum-machine blurt, Björn Copeland’s treated guitar, a bit of vocal grunt — long enough for you to imagine where they’re going with them, then they change direction. The sensation — inevitability coupled with disruption — is often maddening, but it can be intoxicating, too, as in "Snarly Yow," where a funky white-noise rhythm keeps threatening to explode under the pressure of a howling guitar amp. Until it does. Black Dice + Sam Jayne | MFA, 465 Huntington Ave, Boston | Sept 9 | 617.369.3306
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