Black Moth Super Rainbow
Cobra Juicy
Available on Rad Cult (October 23, 2012)

If airports are the ghost towns of the future, Black Moth Super Rainbow is already there, playing an all night party amidst crumbling walls, deserted storefronts, and lines of empty chairs. Mechanically processed vocals floating through distorted synthesizer riffs somehow manage to sound warm and friendly. Shadows shift as people filter in and the desolation is slowly replaced with dancing. It seems entirely possible that an alien spacecraft could land on the cracked tarmac at any moment, amidst echoes of the drum machine.
 

In the cultural subconscious, the sounds of modular synths and vocorders are inextricably linked to spaceships, robots, and boxy white text on black computer screens. Because Black Moth Super Rainbow tends toward such instruments, the music often has a party-on-the-Starship-Enterprise vibe. Cobra Juicy is no exception. After a few seconds of rowdy pep-band percussion, the album transforms into a retro-futuristic exploration of analogue electronica. It might seem impenetrable and disorienting unless you regularly listen to Boards of Canada, Air, and Pink Floyd all at once—and it might even if you do. This is fringes of the fringes songwriting and, while BMSR has plenty of fans, the music is a creative experiment probably never intended to be understood or loved by the masses. There’s an urge to try to wrap your head around it all, but it’s only when you stop analyzing that the sounds begin to make much sense. Once the moog-era novelty wears off, we hear danceable beats, straightforward hooks, and melodies meant to delight rather than impress.

Cobra Juicy is the product of BMSR’s own transformation. Frontman Tobacco (Tom Fec) reported feeling confined by the project after 2009’s Eating Us. He went solo for a couple of albums, then got inspired to return to BMSR—without the rest of the band. He laid down several tracks, trashed most of them, and made new ones. Though the band will be joining him for the live tour, clearly this is not a man who gives in to sentimentality. Rather than nostalgia for a dead future, tracks like “Spraypaint” and “I Think I’m Evil,” seem to be coming to terms with the weirdness of now. Others, like “Psychic Love Damage” and “We Burn,” revel in the strange and sad while finding something beautiful in them. Cobra Juicy owns our culture’s dated expectations and eerie optimism, turning the history of our imagined future into a new thing that’s vulnerable and joyful, sinister and lovely all at once.

Animal Collective
Centipede Hz
Available on Domino (Sept. 4, 2012)

When Strawberry Jam was released in 2007 it was difficult to imagine Animal Collective creating a follow-up album of equaled excitement, innovation, and approachability, but they managed to surpass it with the masterpiece Merriweather Post Pavilion. So how would the band respond to the explosion of critical acclaim and fandom that followed the release of MPP? Would they produce a surefire hit, appeasing a majority of fans with a loop-heavy, melodic chill-zone Merriweather sequel? The answer is no. Animal Collective would go into the studio and do what they always have done—whatever they feel like.

Centipede Hz is, in certain respects, a return to Animal Collective’s past. For the first time since 2007, guitarist Josh Dibb (Deakin) has joined the other three members in writing and recording a new album. The band relies much less on samples for inspiration this time, instead opting for more of a live sound with Noah Lennox (Panda Bear) helming the percussive end, Dave Portner (Avey Tare) mainly on keys, Brian Weitz (Geologist) sticking with his sampler, and Deakin on baritone guitar. Most notably, Centipede Hz exudes an overarching intensity in its compositions and pace not achieved since 2003’s Here Comes the Indian.

Like the majority of their previous releases, however, Centipede Hz runs together as one continuous flow, with each song bleeding into the next. The transitions were constructed as if old radio advertisements were being hurled through the cosmos for any unsuspecting alien to stumble upon. With “Rosie Oh,” surprisingly one of only two Panda Bear songs, a bouncing bass and laser sample back up the clean vocal lines, sounding as if made inside a haunted cake factory. On the first ever Deakin-fronted Animal Collective track, “Wide Eyed,” the guitarist adopts a sort of roaming melody that hangs over a hypnotic and bubbling beat. Perhaps the most easily accessible track on first listen is Avey Tare’s “Today’s Supernatural.” The winding synthesizers, distorted guitar crunches, and rolling beats play secondary to the best collection of hooks on the release. Although Centipede Hz may not immediately stand out as exceptional, the songs have a way of slowly seeping in so that something new is revealed with each listen.

Listen to a multimedia stream of Centipede Hz at Animal Collective's website