Have you ever been painting whilst there was a riot outside your window? I have. I was listening to ‘IFUCKINGLOVEYOU‘ by Big Black Delta. It was poignant.
It was as chaotic as it was beautiful in equal measures (Try mixing M83 to The Strokes), much like what was on my canvas in contrast to the thieving bastards kicking in windows outside.
Jonathan Bates, of whom Big Black Delta is his solo project states, it’s all about context: “If you didn’t have standard pop music as a reference, what would your pop music sound like?”
Well, Batesy you have a ruddy good point. Anyways, I suppose we should talk about you now.
‘BBDLP1‘ is the debut album from this creative wizard who incidently has worked extensively with similar mastermind Anthony Gonzalez aka M83.
It would be easy to say that this is where BBD have got their chops, but I think that would be doing them a great disservice. It would be also unfair to say phrases like ordered chaos to describe this LP. ‘BBDLP1‘ is the work of a soundscape artist who happens to have all the traits of a gifted and concise songwriter too.
‘IFUCKINGLOVEYOU‘ is a bomb exploding on a Picasso. All the beauty merging with all the ugly; The tight melodies are shards penetrating the canvas and residing deep beneath a surface of colour and chaos. There are some great sounds in this song, from angular bass synths to the huge choir that it opens with. The vocals seem to jerk from aching, emotive phrases to the manic punk rock banshee wails.
In the same vein, the dark moment of joy that is ‘Roost‘ and brooding, vocoder lead ‘Put The Gun On The Floor‘ that opens the album, roll like a train through the night; chugging and swelling in a vast space, pistons exploding into life.
As I said before there, minus the instrumentals such as the closer ‘Gimme A Ride‘ (that does sound like it belongs on the opening credits to ‘The Hitcher), these are for all intents and purposes pop songs, but they have been laboured over with some terrific sounds. ‘Betamax‘ is almost kitsch but rocks along 80’s fashion like Talking Heads.
Going back to what Jonathan Bate‘s said about pop music, I think the best way to describe ‘BBDP1‘ is an 80’s pop song that’s been completely fucked with. For the good of all mankind.
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Post by T.R Wicks
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TRACKS:
Huggin & Kissin by Big Black Delta
