DD/MM/YYYY Black Square (Invada)
4/5
By: Theo Krekis
As influenced by Dadaism as they are by Frank Zappa and Melt Banana (already, how much do you want to share a beer with these boys?), Black Square is an album from a band who were for a time insistent on changing their name each time they played, a group whose style can be accurately described as not really being like anything else at all. Whether it’s ingenious or just plain mad however, I’m still yet to decide.
If you come expecting a sing along, or something to pleasantly fill the silence of a Sunday afternoon whilst you bask in your various endeavours, you’ll be disappointed by Black Square. But just because it’s a wilfully experimental record doesn’t mean it’s not a good one, especially when taken as a whole, a piece that must be listened to from start to finish rather than digested as individual songs.
The journey from (sides) A to B is filled with weird hums from what sound like vintage 80s synthesizers, inadvisably rapid rhythms and an unconventional array of guitar arrangements, all pierced through by incongruous vocals to culminate in a disbelievingly fresh and vibrant sound, one that may even at times make you feel as though someone’s slipped you a microdot (Confession – I had to look that reference up – Ed.)
But I’ve always been fond of records like this. Not ones which make you feel as though your cup of tea has been laced with acid, but ones which make you work a little bit for the thrills, albums which voyage through the utterly bizarre or slightly peculiar. Because let’s face it, most of ‘it’ has been done already, (“Things just get played and replayed in different ways”, to quote Mike Skinner), so if a band can succeed in throwing their fingers up to the structures and sounds which make up a conventional track without sounding like pillocks, then well done. Have a round of applause, topped by a big f**king BRAVO.
Tracks like ‘Lismer’ and ‘My Glasses’ might make you feel as if you want to repeatedly bang your head against a table filled with overturned drawing pins, inviting you as they do on a somewhat disturbing four minutes of almost unbearable noises, but numbers like ‘Bronzage’, ‘No Life’ and ‘Infinity Skull Cube’ offer the chance to experience the bands musical complexities and talent becomes most thrilling. I’d advise against missing out on it.
DD/MM/YYYY - Infinity Skull Cube by Third Floor Sessions
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