Tracklist:

1. Car Fumes
2. The Sailor
3. Gargoyle
4. Plow Man
5. Magic Trick
6. Future Train
7. This Weekend Wow

A combined effort from members of Black Dice and Animal Collective would seem like the musical equivalent of Brad Pitt and Angelina, but while there is much to garner from this album for fans of experimentalism, the combination is lackluster and the bands’ competing sounds do not mesh together well.

The dense compositions of Black Dice can be unwelcoming to all but the most ardent fans of experimentalist noise, and while fans of Animal Collective may argue that their camp is just as involved in this type of sound, Animal Collective’s best moments come when they add psychedelic campfire folk elements to that sound, as exhibited on tracks like “Who Could Win A Rabbit”, “Slippi” or “Kids on Holiday”. Unfortunately for most, listening to Dead Drunk would suggest that the influence of Black Dice’s members won out, but the members of Animal Collective still attempt to add their own strained contributions, working outside of their comfort zone.

This unequal union between two great bands with similar mindsets is theoretically an excellent idea, and on the rare occasion that the two feed off each other, the songs are tremendous and take flight, as in “The Sailor” which allows the stream of thought experimentalism exhibited by AC to take the forefront as carefree vocals flutter over the music. However, the majority of the songs stagnate and sounds repeat endlessly to little effect, such as the opening track which requires a lot of loyalty to listen to straight through as industrial sounds bubble from speaker to speaker as very “AC”ish distorted vocals are buried in the mix.

I’m sure endless amounts of people will listen to these tracks time and again hoping to hear something they’ve missed or in the hope that the songs might rise to a crescendo or fall in ways they haven’t in prior listens…but that never happens. Instead, the songs start and end at virtually the same point. Tracks meander for the most part and there are very few moments of value.

The talent is definitely there in abundance with this union, and their live shows have the potential for improvised greatness, but this record mirrors a troubled young relationship, with both parties fumbling over each other in failed attempts at compromise, making no progress in the meantime.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 7th, 2006 at 10:00 am and is filed under Record Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Edit this entry.