Black Eyes 
Black Eyes
/dischord; 2003/

 

 



more info:
www.dischord.com


Once in a while Dischord releases a UFO disc. This first album by Black Eyes is hard to classify, almost each song having its own references. Overall, you could think of the twisted fucked up spirit of those Primus weirdoes, who inherited this from Zappa and Cpt Beefheart, even if the musical style is quite different. There is not a single metal riff in Black Eyes. This connection to Primus might be generated by the vocals. The group is much more influenced by Dischord bands but there is something definitely fucked up in this band which makes them different from any other label-mates.

Black Eyes is musically challenging. Just try to know on the first listening who’s playing what. Two intertwining drums, two nervous voices that struggle to become prominent and to put up with regular disco rhythms. When the voices succeed in their entwining duality, Black Eyes sounds like The Beastie Boys (‘a pack of wolves’, ‘letter to raoul peck’), when they tend to make knots it becomes a pleasant and amusing shambly mess (yes, I confess’). Black Eyes sometimes wears a minimalist post-punk helmet (‘Deformative’ recalls Gang of 4) to find shelter from Ian Mc Kaye and Fugazi’s close shadow which inhabits the noisy ominous opener ‘Someone has his fingers broken’.

This debut album requires several listening but once you’ve listened to it a few times, there’s an amusing dimension that surfaces and makes you spin the album in your cd player.

-Blacklisted ‘Raoul Peck is not ginger’ Igor.

/may 1st 2004/