Bleep

New York’s enormously influential OG weirdos Black Dice return after an extended hiatus — presumably tweaking at machine dials and collating all manner of bizarrely percussive field recordings in preparation for Mod Prog Sic. We can’t know for sure what’s been occupying their time since 2012’s Mr. Impossible (and the lone 2017 12” Big Deal), but the rich brew of their long-awaited seventh album showcases a collective determined as ever to make the crossing between noise shenanigans and controlled-chaos electronics.

As is the case with all Black Dice records, Mod Prog Sic defies logic as well as genre boundaries, weaving a distorted tapestry of porous psychedelia as vibrant to admire as it is likely to incite mania. Look closely and you’ll find a mixmaster’s mentality threaded throughout the first three tracks — ‘Bad Bet’, ‘Tuned Out’ and ‘Swinging’ — each track’s consistent clatter of drum programming obfuscated by an overspill of droning electrics, stray guitar leads and melodic lines that count among Black Dice’s mosts immediate. The LP’s second side dedicates more airspace to stuttering vocal samples and synth settings — particularly where ‘Jocko’ is concerned — bringing to mind a frenzied version of techno created miles away from any beat grid.

Mod Prog Sic is depraved, goofy, boneheaded and ingenious; we couldn’t have asked for a more perfect comeback from Black Dice.