Black Dice

Load Blown, recently released on the Paw Tracks imprint, is accessible by the standards of Eric Copeland, Bjorn Copeland and Aaron Warren, the Brooklynites who form the three sides of Black Dice — but, of course, they've never made radio airplay, commercial success or winning Ryan Seacrest's love and admiration a high priority. The closest their compositions come to conventional song structure is their use of repetition. Nonetheless, the looping and studio manipulation that go into tracks such as "Bottom Feeder" have more in common with the work of minimalists like Steve Reich than with self-contained and easily digestible pop ditties. For these reasons and more, listeners in search of warm melodies and omnipresent hooks should look elsewhere, leaving those more comfortable with risk to give Black Dice a roll.