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Snow Blindness is Crystal Antz

Black Mold

Snow Blindness is Crystal Antz

2009 | CD / LP | FLCR019

$ 12.00
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  • A warped and mutated blend of the futuristic and the organic, Snow Blindness is Crystal Antz is the debut album from Black Mold – the electronic alter-ego of songwriter Chad VanGaalen. With Black Mold, VanGaalen is allowed the freedom to explore the wildest tangents of his instrumental work, using a broad palette of glitches and noise married with the warm hues of acoustic instruments, guided by a free-associative approach to songwriting.

     

    1. Metal Spider Webs
    2. Dr. Snouth
    3. Uke Puke
    4. Toxic lake
    5. Tetra Pack Heads
    6. Rotten Walls
    7. Memes
    8. Fuck Ebay
    9. Wet ferns
    10. Smoking rat shit
    11. Barn swallow vs sk-1
    12. Gummed Desk
    13. Virtual Prison
    14. No Dream Nation
    15. Pristine Boobles
    16. Snow Blindness is Crystal Antz
    17. Left behind by the digital ships
    18. Swimming to food
    19. Finally someone invented a teleporter!

  • The product of several years of late-night instrumental experimentation, mainly on vintage analog and hand-built modular synths, Snow Blindness… is at times glitchy and unpredictable while at other times Teutonic and sparse. The album opens with a baffling and beautiful composition, “Metal Spider Web #2”, a lattice of cello and clarinet complemented by shifting electronic pulses. In the dreamlike and metamorphic title track, subtle oscillations and erratic surges build before settling into a simple layering of acoustic guitars and drums. Elsewhere, other songs utilize 8-bit beats & warped synthesis to create multi-layered rhythmic patterns. Snow Blindness… comes from a basement stacked to the ceiling with broken and discarded devices and poorly wired technology fused with organic instruments, all jury-rigged to somehow work together in sequence – and often acting with no masters.

  • As rich as any Tim Burton movie.

    NEUFUTUR 

    Turn it on, turn out the lights, close your eyes and trip away. 'Nuff said.

    EDMONTON VUE

    Fans of the genre are sure to hail Snow Blindness as a masterpiece while new listeners will probably just think their CD or MP3 player is on the fritz.

    DISCORDER

    Chad Van Gaalen confounds expectations with a genre-smashing grab bag of instrumental oddities.

    FFWD CALGARY

    It's hard to call Black Mold experimental when it's clear that VanGaalen knows exactly what he's doing.  

    END OF IRONY BLOG

    Decidedly original music that's been called every permutation of the terms "original," "new," "intimate," "weird," "honest," "organic," "bizarre," and "beautiful.

    HOUR

    All in all a vast departure from VanGaalen’s typical mode of expression, but as usual he has crafted music we all should hear.

    STEREOSUBVERSION

    Without a word uttered, Black Mold has successfully staked its place toward the top of the glitch treacle stream with Snow Blindness Is Crystal Antz

    GROUND CONTROL MAG

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