»The phantom as an image is the most effective marketing strategy of the 21st century« is how Kornelia Kamila, editor of MTHRFNKR is cited in an article about Cro. The mask is still one of the most reliable stylistic devices of the pop industry. This is no news to Dean Blunt and Inga Copeman, who have already bewildered before as Hype Williams and who use this fact to their advantage on their fourth mutual album. On »Black Is Beautiful«, the Londoners fish once again in the uncomfortable doghouse of the international enterprise called »Elektro« somewhere between avant-garde nihilism and lascivious Lo Fi-Sounds. The 15 nameless tracks, only known by their numbers, contain a latent imperfection. The intro by itself (the only song with a title: »Venice Dreamway«) overflows the cerebellum with stimuli by its dull keyboard-line and an endlessly looped drumbreak – and it’s simply fantastic. Blunt/Copeman don’t care about conventions, they happily sample and synthesize bulky shreds of sound – regardless of the consequences. It’s seldom that a song breaks through its sketch character or the three-minute-border. Only the wafting jam-session »10« echoes for nine hypnotic minute with a creaking bassline, filtered vocal shreds and virtuous synthie-sounds through the hemispheres. »Black Is Beautiful« reminds us of the semiotic sign system by Roland Barthe’s »Everyday Myths«, when pop-historical points of reference are taken out of their context and are being deformed. The Hyperdub-debut of the Berliners-by-choice enwinds the ear canal in psychedelic fog clouds, getting close to a minor LSD-trip.
Marina Herlop
Nekkuja
PAN