Blackblack – Blackblack
Well after last week’s posting of The Shaggs, I wondered why it was that I found that album so oddly compelling. Partly, it took that tuneless indie aesthetic to a ludicrous extreme, so I thought that might be it. Then it occurred to me that perhaps we just don’t hear music that startlingly bad very often, so there was something bizarrely fascinating about it. Hearing this album, I am tempted back to the former conclusion.
There is something about indie music that sounds just slightly out of key, off-rhythm and flat that really, really appeals to me. The Shaggs took it too far, but Blackblack manage to take something broadly similar, add a bit of bite and a few abrupt changes of tempo, and hit the nail pretty squarely on the head.
If you’re not into this kind of stuff, I can imagine playing this to other people and having them gaze at you in a sort of uncomfortable incomprehension, having absolutely no idea what you could possibly find to enjoy in this kind of discordant clatter.
For those of us, however, that really do like this kind of thing, I’ll say this. They have an excellent blend of moods, breaking up the plaintive and alienated sound with the right amount of snarling guitar and crashing cymbals. The flat delivery also breaks occasionally and unexpectedly into really rather nice melody as well, although not so often as to rob the album of its attitude – just enough to remind you that they probably could be sugar-sweet if they so chose.
Fortunately, they do not so choose.
Blackblack – Sophia
Blackblack – I Wish I Were a Scientist
