Details Eating Us
The modern musical unit known as Black Moth Super Rainbow (comprising vocoder wielding front man Tobacco backed by four mysterious musical forces known as The Seven Fields of Aphelion, Power Pill Fist, D.Kyler and Father Hummingbird) first emerged from an obscure Pennsylvania forest glen in 2003. Over the next few years, their peculiar beat laden, synth and vocoder driven sound developed, and the cult of BMSR began.
With the release of their naturally-sweetened, candy-coated, and acclaimed 2007 treat, Dandelion Gum, a number of curious listeners became aware of BMSR’s oddly creepy and off-beat, sweet tunes. A string of tours supporting big brothers Flaming Lips, Aesop Rock and MGMT followed and they’ve now garnered many musical admirers from Diplo to The Go! Team to Wayne Coyne of the ‘Lips.
Their new full length presentation for 2009, Eating Us, promises to up the ante on the fidelity and melodies that BMSR have become known for. Here, the merry cryptic band has added some new flavours to their already well-established rainbow of sounds, with even more dense layers of lushly complex orchestration, intensely rhythmic drumming from a live, human drummer, vocoder vocals that are anything but robotic, and thick, undulating bass tones.
Eating Us marks the first time BMSR has ventured into a modern recording studio, being tracked and produced by Dave Fridmann (The Flaming Lips, MGMT) at Tarbox Studios, who was the only choice of producer for notedly anti-studio BMSR. Only Fridmann’s hands and ears were trusted to keep the freaked out wiggles and hairy candies fully in-tact, while also expanding them in a more realistic space.
This music agreeably dwells in contradiction; the songs contained herein have a feel both earnestly nostalgic, and hauntingly futuristic. Should the robots working in our factories, vacuuming our floors, and operating our gaming consoles choose to rise up and revolt, Eating Us could, perhaps, be used to serve as the first indication that our beloved machines had begun to understand the subtle complexities of human emotion.
These beat heavy, hook-laden, eerily comforting sonic capsules are as complex as a circuit board and as contagious as the common cold. For all those who listen further, be forewarned that each and every track of Eating Us is equally apt to infest the more delicate portions of your cerebral cortex and nest into any nook, cranny, or unprotected cavity of your susceptible brain, with minimal chance of being easily ousted.