Black Dice @ Prospect Park (7.12.2011)

Black Dice opened for Animal Collective at Prospect Park with their new set of jams. They played practically the same set of songs that we previously recorded at Secret Project Robot. Since then, Black Dice expanded on the songs and filled them out, making them even more overpowering than they were. The wall of sound the band creates is, in my opinion, astounding. The songs fluctuate between being abrasive attacks on your ears and distorted chunks of pop music.

A lot of the crowd at Prospect seemed confused or uncomfortable with what BD was doing, but that's to be expected when the majority of the crowd were praying to hear Animal Collective's My Girls later in the night and had in all likelihood never listened to BD or similar acts before. For those of us who were into it, though, this performance was stellar. The new set of songs sounds something like old stadium songs that are melting away and being rebroadcast to earth by some alien planet. Which is to say they sound amazingly different and original, while having some familiar elements (like some of Bjorn's guitar solos).

In some ways, this new set of songs is like a rougher, louder, meaner cousin of the new set Animal Collective has been touring with. Both have that alien feeling (making Abby Portner's amazing stage design fit just as well for Black
Dice as it did for Animal Collective). In my opinion, the two form a perfect double header for a concert, with Black Dice waging war on your senses, followed by Animal Collective's nurturing touch.

The recording was made from the same spot Animal Collective was recorded from and because of the inattentiveness of the crowd, there is a bit of chatting but it doesn't deter from the music.  Basically, if you're a Black Dice fan, you need this set.  It's a great counterpart to the Secret Project Robot set, which we recently fixed up using Logic. It sounds a lot better than the old version we put up, and you can grab the new version on the old page here. We don't have any song titles, so its just numbers for now. Whenever they announce tracks or release the album we'll add the actual titles here.

Download the live recording HERE (password=twosails)

Set List:

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Track 1