Dandelion Gum

Rate It! Avg: 4.0 (400 ratings)
Dandelion Gum album cover
Album Information
EDITOR'S PICK

Total Tracks: 17   Total Length: 46:38

eMusic Review 0

Avatar Image
Amelia Raitt

eMusic Contributor

Amelia Raitt is a former writer for the television program Mr. Belvedere and has been writing about pop music of all colors and stripes for eMusic since 2005. S...more »

04.22.11
Black Moth Super Rainbow, Dandelion Gum
2007 | Label: Graveface Records / IODA

Black Moth Super Rainbow's third full-length is a concept album about witches that make candy in the woods. The soundtrack? Hazy, sun-dappled electronica that's more than a little indebted to Boards of Canada, of course. What makes BMSR different, however, is that the group plays this music live in the studio — no sequencers allowed. What occurs is a ramshackle version of the library music that their contemporaries trade in — an even more off-kilter version of a genre already built on unease.

You'll be able to hear it immediately in opener, “Forever Heavy,” whose serrated Doppler synth give the track a wobbly, uncomfortable sheen. Things clear up a bit on the poppy “Sun Lips,” but there's still enough reverb on the vocoded vocals to make you as wary as Hansel and Gretel should have been.

Write a Review 16 Member Reviews

Please register before you review a release. Register

user avatar

Awesome

DrewKora

I love this album, and it's grown on me more and more. Definitely has qualities of Air, but is much less laid back / chill out. It has a raw edge to it and some tracks, like the first, can be really ominous sounding. Great stuff.

user avatar

Air Knockoff

RiddimSelektor

Sounds like Air, only more lo-fi and not as good. I found myself thinking, "I could make this," and believe me, that's not a good thing.

user avatar

Wow

vjimw

I like the fact that BMSR do not sound like too many other bands... at the same time that makes them hard to describe. They always seem like they are moving backward and forward at the same time and I love how I feel when I listen to it.

user avatar

Tron..check, shrooms...check

crescendo

This innovative album belongs to what I would consider to be some of the best modern psychadelic music available. Emusic compared it to Boards of Canada and I don't hear the connection. Though the vocoded vocals are overdone in pop music to coverup the lack of vocal talent for some bands, the vocals on this album sound very etherial...giving new meaning to the term space rock. So if you could float in space while tripping and watching Tron...this could be an excellent soundtrack, however if you, like me, love psychadelic or experimental music download this whole album because it's great. If you don't like psychadelic music..go away. thanks.

user avatar

Good stuff

AlexNC

Like nothing I have ever heard. Very catchy loops, with a dirty electric/analog sound. Great album.

user avatar

Air meets Ratatat

Ooty

Yeah, that's it. Dreamy computer synth singing over cheezy drum machine beats, guitars and keys. Don't let the album cover let you think psychrock. And even if Pitchfork thinks it's as good as Radiohead, it's not. It's just pleasant, fun, entertaining and light. Perfect for an angst-free evening with wine and friends.

user avatar

Boards of Canada comparisons

boygriv

I'm a BoC fan. Got the album after reading the comparisons. I don't hear it. Is it because they use synths? I think it's just because they both use synths. So in that case, BoC fans, I'd like to recommend: 50 million other bands out there. You'd LOVE them. EDIT: I feel like a jerk. While I still wouldn't compare this directly to BoC... you should listen to the frontman's solo LP "F*cked Up Friends" under the moniker Tobacco. That's like a carbon copy of Boards of Canada, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

user avatar

Just Different

chrispy

Really nice, very different as all others have said, but what really holds this together is that underneath all the wierdness is some really solid pop hooks holding it all together. Try any of the first 8 or so tracks and see if you "get it".

user avatar

Best Post BOC psychadellia

rhymeskeema

This record totally blows the lid off the baloney freak-folk scene. superb. i will never look at pennsylvania the same.

user avatar

count me suprised

Chevette

I heard about this over on pitchforkmedia's guest list from Aesop Rock of all people. Being a huge Aesop fan I figured I'd trust his judgment and download the whole thing. Best use of downloads so far this refresh.

Recommended Albums

They Say All Music Guide

Over the course of the last couple years and two albums (plus a stunning collaboration with the Octopus Project in 2006 on The House of Apples and Eyeballs), Black Moth Super Rainbow has constructed a unique and impressive sound that takes the best elements of bedroom techno, DayGlo indie pop, and anything-goes maximum pop and rolls them up into a glittering ball of melody and invention. Most all of their songs are built on a tipsy foundation of lo-fi drums, bass, and the occasional guitar, then plastered over by all manner of tinny junk-shop synths and topped by vocals fed through the cheapest sounding vocoder on earth. Dandelion Gum is the perfection of that sound; each song is a perfectly crafted chunk of organic synth pop insanity. Sometimes a group with such an interesting and individual sound skimps on the actual songs, but BMSR doesn’t, as tracks like “Roller Disco,” “The Afternoon Turns Pink,” “Wall of Gum,” and “Spinning Cotton Candy in a Shack Made of Shingles” have the kind of child-like melodies that will nag you gleefully for days. Even when the melodies don’t grab you, something about the song will, whether it’s the dub-like shifting of tones or the sheer joy the band transmits through the speakers. While for the most part the album lives up to the title and exudes sweet and sticky happiness, some melancholy creeps in on songs like the very Air-y “Sun Lips” or the slightly creepy “Lost, Picking Flowers in the Woods.” Apparently the album is based on a concept of candy-making witches who inhabit a forest and lure hapless locals to their doom with their sweets, so it works to have a well-rounded, fully realized, and varied batch of songs to fit the concept. As awesome as it would be to have a full-length album of all toothache-inducing sweetness and light, it might get tired after a while. And your teeth might fall out too. How could you chew your Dandelion Gum then? – Tim Sendra

more »