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Black Moth Super Rainbow - Falling Through a Field CD (album) cover

FALLING THROUGH A FIELD

Black Moth Super Rainbow

 

Crossover Prog

2.00 | 1 ratings

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DangHeck
Prog Reviewer
2 stars Hard to have much in the way of confidence when I'm running into any so-called "Crossover Prog" band, of a (purported) generalized sub-genre, if we can even call it that, that is too far-flung and oftentimes too uninteresting to really give a sh*t about. [Enough about me. Tell me about you haha.] Confidence is further downtrodden by lower ratings. See this band's page.

My friend, and now roommate, Ethan, suggested them to me and I definitely appreciate his tastes (honestly an understatement), though our interests would result in a well-defined, easily classified Venn diagram. Black Moth Super Rainbow--an offshoot of musician Tobacco's Allegheny White Fish (yes, that is a musician's name; yes, that is a band name; you can see the lineup above for more, I guess), and previously called Satanstompingcaterpillars--delves into electronica, lo-fi and synthpop, as well as experimental and psychedelic. Actually including satanstompingcaterpillars' discography with BMSR's, this is their fourth album (the band with the previous name is not represented here at all). I must say, here and now, their album covers are quite lovely. Definitely something that I would want to pick up at a shop. [For whatever reason, the version I'll be listening to lacks the final, seventeenth track listed above, "Melody For Color Spectrum", and I will be rating/reviewing accordingly.]

Entering in with the greatest ignorance possible, after a wee bit of research, our opener is "Vietcaterpillar" and I can't say I'm not enjoying it! Nice bouncy groove and huge synthy swells! We chill out on the next, "I Think It Is Beautiful That You Are 256 Colors Too" [Wow, I did not even register the title as I was typing it haha!], featuring whispery vocals that honestly reminded me of Chino Moreno (Deftones)... but without any build-up or excitement. The track itself provides zero payoff for me. "Season for Blooming" has charming, little chiptuney trills, which somehow increase in, I guess, atonality(?). It's a bit strange, to say the least. It's difficult to tell if the repeating notes, played chromatically, are changing or if the underlying "accompaniment" is. Again, super odd effect. The lo-fi crackling of "Letter People" and its resumed whispers are met with not-quite-bombastic, and actually quite sleepy-sounding Drum'n'Bass percussion. Experimental, to be sure. It doesn't do much for me though. Evokes the feeling of a high, honestly. [So, if you're into that.]

"Dandelion Graves" may well be a song from Adventure Time. It's dreamy but upbeat. The organ sounds a little churchy, and yet nothing else suggests the same. The whisper-vocals is the norm, I guess; definitely my least favorite element to all this. An apparently synthetic orchestra closes out this (relatively long) number. "Boxphones" is a bit grating to say the least, with these strange, warbling vocals (the loudest of the bunch), and a nails-on-the-chalkboard synth line to follow... "Smog in Cities" is not the first time that was reminiscent to me of C418 (German composer Daniel Rosenfeld), best known for his work for Minecraft. Very dreamy and simple, calling ultimately back to the early Ambient work of Eno. "Your Doppelganger" has some interesting moments and ideas, despite at first being a bit boring to me. The track gives this effect as though you're being stretched along to the music.

"Falling Through a Field" is like another church-ready, Minecraft-adjacent track, this time a love song? Around half of these tracks are pretty much one-dimensional, offering very little in the way of compositional interest. This one is of a lesser mode, though not alone here, offering little in the way of sonic interest, too. "Colorful Nickels" is... also boring. Some cool, spacy padding here and there, but the acoustic guitar strumming along plainly does nothing for me. I feel we have a return to some of the charm of the start of the album on the upbeat "One Flowery Sabbath". "Sun Organ" on the other hand drones and drags along over the course of its somehow-too-long 1-minute run. And on an entirely other hand, I guess, say, your [Boat]friend's hand haha, "Boatfriend" has a whole other (positive) charm to it! A not-quite-shrill synth stabs along over light, airy chords.

Approaching the close to the album, our next track is "The Magical Butterfly Net". Talk about a drone... It's a little eerie, this'n. But there was just nothing here for me. "Last House in the Enchanted Forest" is a pretty apt title. It's one of the few tracks, next to the opener maybe, that evokes "Prog" in even a little way. I like it. Finally, we have "Lake Feet", another track to feature acoustic guitar. The theme, as I would like to call it, is actually quite nice. Like light just shining through that Enchanted Forest onto the lake's surface.

The main reason I would like to continue is to contribute to a little-reviewed, little-rated band. I'm not sure there's a whole lot here for me. On Spotify for instance, I "liked" only two tracks.

DangHeck | 2/5 |

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