As Iman said recently, there are tons of white bands with the adjective black in their name. Stuck in the ‘B’ aisle at Amoeba last week, I was precisely noticing this when looking at Black Sabbath, Black mountain, The Black Lips, Black Flag, The Black Keys, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, The Black Crowes, Blackfield,…. Is it a trend?
Out of curiosity, and because I remember seeing them a few years ago at a free event in Barnsdall Park, I have recently downloaded a few tracks of another ‘black’ band, The Black Angels.
Their psychedelic dark rock certainly can recall quite a few names, and they give away one hint with their moniker since it is derived from the Velvet Underground’s song ‘The Black Angel’s Death Song’.
From what I remember, live, they were a cross between The Brian Jonestown Massacre, and the Doors (although I have seen the first one live but not the second one).
They produce a very dense sonic space filled with a lot of electric fuzzed and distorted guitars, a lot of feedback, a lot of reverb, covering some druggy and lugubrious vocals. So what is new? This sure has been done before, but their sound is so slow-paced, it puts you in a sort of comatose state, and Alex Maas’ vocals are sung in a so monochord (almost boring) tone, it releases a real apathy that plunges you in a total lethargy.
‘Telephone’, a song from their last album ‘Phosphene Dream’, borrows however far less from the creepy side, it is more upbeat, if I dare this adjective, than the rest: if they were the Doors, think more ‘Hello, I Love You’ than ‘The End’: