wet gold at the end of the super rainbow
the first concert i went to in portland was the octopus project. i’d never heard of them before - i just liked the name. turned out to be a fairly eye-opening experimental electronic performance, with analog synths galore and the only appropriate use of a theremin i’ve heard since “mysterons”. fun show. excellent group of multi-instrumentalists. (album / myspace / web / wiki / youtube)
they’re great, but in collecting their albums afterwards, i came across a split they did with a band called black moth super rainbow. it was better. accordingly, i checked out bmsr’s work, and am now a huge fan. mellotron and vocoder for days. their entire approach and style is so natural and euphoric, but unlike anything i’d ever heard. (album / myspace / web / wiki / youtube)
going further down the rabbit hole, i learned that the creative force behind bmsr, and the split, and indirectly everything i’ve linked to above, was tobacco - the stage name of bmsr’s frontman and songwriter. the tobacco record takes what is clearly “his sound” and puts it in a more streamlined, infectious, borderline hip hop context. i read a review that described it as ”worth of obsessive listening.” i completely agree. (album / myspace / web / wiki / youtube)
