Tuesday was a night of electronic noise-infused rock at the Wexner Center for the Arts as the Black Dice came to town with Animal Collective in tow.
Animal Collective opened the show with an eerie sound fit for a science fiction movie soundtrack. As is standard for the genre, the band tended to bury their melodies below a cacophony of effects and synthesized sounds. The effects created a cavernous sound that filled the performance space and the band used heavy echo and reverb along with an ever-increasing amount of volume to create a gigantic aural presence.
Animal Collective’s newer songs included heavy bass drumming influenced by African pop music and giving their songs an intensely-driving beat.
The lead singer’s erratic and off-key screeching wore thin quickly – often becoming highly distracting. The band’s use of effects was also a tad over the top at times and their music was at some points highly repetitive. The band lacked the variety in their song structures and in the energy of their music to justify the five-to-ten-minute song lengths.
In the end, Animal Collective is not fare for the average music fan. They are undoubtedly good at what they do, but many fans could be turned off by their music.
The Black Dice took the stage next with three members wielding one guitar and three effects/synthboards between them.
The band’s style layered harsh noise over soft noise with several competing melodies that were out of synch with each other to the point of being disconcerting and slightly confusing. At times the band offered no rhythm with any consistency hidden below several levels of seemingly-random sound. Its overall presence was reminiscent of the noise jumble produced when the band The Who would destroy their instruments at the end of a set.
Whenever the band seemed to offer a steady pattern of any kind, it was quickly overshadowed by harsh tones and jagged beats.
Though the band did not include many rhythms in their music, it still managed to sound repetitive. Using more echo and reverb than Animal Collective, the Black Dice effectively obscured any instances of recognizable music style.
The effects of this strange and clamorous mixture were multiplied due to the ever-increasing levels of volume that became almost painful to the ear.
Animal Collective melded sonically-dissonant effects with rhythm and melody in an experimental music form. They came close to the point where music and noise meet, but did not go over the edge. The Black Dice blasted past that point and, in doing so, have left the great majority of listeners behind.
