Posted on 08/20/2007

 

How do I describe this one? Black Moth Super Rainbow are a band who remind me of a time when Saturday morning cartoons was king, and turning to PBS on a weekend was a luxury. Every new sound was foreign, everything sounded great and fucked up at the same time. What does this have to do with Black Moth Super Rainbow? To be honest, not a whole hell of a lot. This group come from unknown forests but have found comfort in an area near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Their underwear has their individual names on it: Iffernaut is their drummer, The Seven Fields Of Aphelion is their monosynth master, Father Hummingbird handles the Fender Rhodes and monosynth, Power Pill Fist is that overeager yellow kid on the bass and Atari, with the spiritual dialogue of Tobacco. Together, united under the umbrella of the umbilical, they create electronic music as if "Genius Of Love" had never been recorded. Dandelion Gum is electronic music with the same vibe as that from the 60's and 70's, when all of the sounds were analogue. Fans of Stereolab will definitely appreciate these guys, especially for the way they stay true to the analog vibe while occasionally reaching out to the human funkiness beyond the electronic landscape, as they show in "Sun Lips". Other times, they take on trippiness and dreaminess to an all new level, this is the futuristic music people had hoped to listen to 20 and 30 years ago, and that time to hear it is now. Future pop for now people, today.

The familiarity in this music comes from hearing sounds similar to this, and one wants to smile when they can hear all of the flaws associated with early electronic music, from tape hiss to tape flaws, distortion, static, all within a modern context. "Rollerdisco" is the 8-track with all of that gunk making it onto the tapeheads, and yet you want to hear it again and again because you love the sound of gunk. "Neon Syrup For The Cemetery Sisters" sounds like it could be a folk ballad from the Olivia Records archives, but then it enters a new dimension about twenty seconds in, while aromas of patchouli and hashish mix in with suede and booty on cotton. It's a very trippy effect, one that continues to loop itself in each of the album's 17 songs.

Their bio mentions how their music could be "pagan rituals in a sugarcoaster fairyland" or "sad thoughts on the happiest days" What this means is that it goes back to a time when music like this was truly part of the norm, when creating sounds like this was part of being experimental, when being experimental meant loving FM radio for hearing something you'd never hear on AM radio, staying up at 2am to hear that freak on the other side of the airwaves give you what (s)he knows you desire. Black Moth Super Rainbow probably live up to the statement "when I grow up, I want to make music just like that". This is the grown-up sound that dreams are made of, but your eyes and ears are open, and you can't believe what you're witnessing in this awaken state. Far fucking out.