Black Dice

Are you the type of person who strolls through town enthralled by the way car alarms, construction machinery, chirping birds and snippets of cell-phone chatter coalesce into interesting rhythms and sound collages? Or do you slap on some headphones and drown that shit out with a hot "Hollaback Girl" remix? When you listen to Sonic Youth's 19-minute opus "The Diamond Sea," do you prefer the opening five minutes of relatively straightforward melody, or the subsequent 14 minutes of red-lined feedback freakout? All right, let's cut to the chase — do you find experimental noise music exhilarating or completely fucking irritating? If you're in the latter category, you'll want to steer well clear of Black Dice. If not, you might find loads to love about the way this Brooklyn instrumental trio runs its guitars, keyboards and drum machines through all sorts of gadgets to abrasive, hypnotic and occasionally even groovy ends. Sure, cynics might view the Dice men as a bunch of bored, talentless art-school wanks looking for a shortcut to free drinks and backstage blow jobs, but we'd like to think that there's some method — and a peculiar beauty — to all of their madness.