CD Review: Black Dice

Since coming together in 1997, Black Dice have passed through three phases: hardcore noise mongers, cosmic tribalists, and, most recently, underground vets unleashing damaged electronic music. The garish and screechy Mr. Impossible serves as a violent rebuke of the hypnotic sounds that characterize their most beloved work. Many songs crackle, zap, and squelch like brown-acid remixes of vintage arcade-game soundtracks (e.g., "Shit House Drifter," which sounds like Frogger). Because so much of Mr. Impossible is smeared in '80s nostalgia, it's tempting to say Black Dice have jumped aboard the hypnagogic pop train. But that ignores the music's maniacally spazzoid core, which has more in common with low-fi electro freaks. — Justin Farrar