October 31 2007
Black Ice – Myopia and Sixteens – Into the Goldwave of Future Non Rip-Off
What’s new-ish from Hungry Eye Records? Fresh platters from Black Ice and Sixteens, that’s what. In an attempt to become Sigur Ros’s abrasively cacophonous cousin, Black Ice weds the icy, shrill blast of no wave-influenced post-punk of their debut full-length Terrible Birds with ominous soundscapes on Myopia. While I can see that their aim was to broaden their spectrum of sound, in this case it just ends up feeling too diffuse and unfocused. There are still a few gems here (”In Ruins” and “Elements of Chance” stand out as praiseworthy dirges), but this isn’t the precise, attacking phantasmagoria I fell in love with.
Sixteens suffer from a similar lack of cohesion. I like the way their make their synthesizers wail and the way they chop up retro beats in a lurching postmodern death march, but there is just far too much wank on this album. As you might be able to tell from the overly long and nonsensical album title, Into the Goldwave of Future Non Rip-Off, Sixteens sometimes veer into alt-hipster excess, and when they do it sucks all the fun out of the room. Nevertheless, as with Black Ice’s Myopia, there are some tracks here that keep it together long enough to be really interesting.
Black Ice – Myopia
Sixteens – Really Long Title That I Am Not Typing Again
