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SMALL BLACK - Pleasant Experience (2009)
This is one of the best clips I’ve found in a while.
Small Black is a Brooklyn duo playing what they call “Casio dream noise pop,” which is a fairly accurate summation of their seven-song debut EP, if not the brawnier live shows they’ve been laying down as a four-piece this spring, touring with Washed Out.
Like a lot of bedroom music projects, there’s a hushed, dynamically flat quality to Small Black’s record that betrays its modest, resolutely indie origins. It frankly leaves me a little underwhelmed, but good songs always trump middling sound sculpting and this song, tucked in at the heart of the record, is fantastic.
The clip above is a live-in-studio job, and frankly one of the better performances I’ve heard from four dudes sitting on couches, playing to a rhythm track. The swirling arrangement survives from the EP version, but it’s lifted into the major leagues by seriously Entwistlesque melodic bass runs and neat frying pan percussion.
Having heard the record and seen the band live, there’s no doubt which Small Black I prefer. On stage, keyboardists Josh Kolenik and Ryan Heyner are joined by a bassist and drummer, and the improvement is the difference between burying the EP in the close-but-no-cigar pile and totally anticipating the forthcoming full-length with the extra players on-board as full band members.
