Noise-rock bands aren't supposed to last as long as Brooklyn's Black Dice. The band has floated from indie label to indie label during its 10 years, including a brief WTF-inducing major-label foray with 2005's Broken Ear Record. Throughout their existence, they've always been a bit of an acquired taste — mostly appealing to people who like to expose their eardrums to new planes of existence whenever possible. They're still a tough band to digest on Repo, their seventh full-length. The album cover is a collage that appears to be composed of a photo of a stodgy '60s garage-rock act covered with psychedelic paint from grade-school art class. It's accompanied by the phrase, "Go where new experiences await you."
While the cover doesn't really betray the gritty feel of this album, it's still a pretty fitting image for a band that's never followed convention. "La Cucaracha" sounds a little like Dante Alighieri's journey through hell, complete with demented grooves atop wailing voices and gnashing synthetic teeth. Among the din of samples and sounds melded together with ultra-precision, there's still plenty of rock-solid percussive beats propelling these tunes. "Ultra Vomit Craze" contains a lengthy funk beat ripped straight from the still-beating heart of the '70s. There are a few scattered noise blasts and sound collages — "Ten Inches," "Whirligig," "Buddy," "Urban Supermist" or even the album's closer "Gag Shack." But those moments serve more as transitions than as the album's focal points. — Jeremy Willets
