Review Summary: Imagine GLAdos's acid dropping brother wanted to make some music...
Imagine yourself being folded into a paper airplane. A floating hand tosses you into a tunnel labeled “Cobra Juicy” and you watch the sounds drip from the colorful walls onto the floor. These sounds then evaporate and condense into pink clouds as you glide through them hazily all the way to the other side. This is just one example of the imagination the music of Black Moth Super Rainbow conjures within the listener, which easily rivals most television programs on today. Described by many as the sonic equivalent of an acid trip, the psychedelic/indie group from Pennsylvania have offered us a slightly less potent hit of their music but rest assured it’ll still take you on one soothing, trippy ride.
Cobra Juicy has the group tightening up their song structures and cutting some songs with a dash of pop yet having none of their unique sound lost in translation.
Of all the ways which a band can capture and hold the attention of a listener, Black Moth Super Rainbow has one of the more unique and bizarre techniques for doing so. Using a mixture of simple drums beats, reverb, electronics, and a vocoder,
Cobra Juicy doesn’t deviate heavily from the group’s previous efforts but all the same does an excellent job of allowing one to lose track of time. The opener/single “Windshield Smasher” is of the two tracks on the record with the pop sensibilities mentioned earlier with its upbeat tempo as well as sporting a catchy pop sounding chorus. This song is not very indicative of the entire record as the majority of it is a slow (though not dragging) journey into whatever you’ll be imagining while listening. Songs like “Dreamsicle Bomb” and the gem, “The Healing Power of Nothing” ,showcase the synth/vocoder duality very well with Tobacco’s airy, wistful delivery complimenting the slow pacing of the songs and the synths doing the job of holding the vibe of each song together well.
Good use of other sounds such as the nice lo-fi electric guitar in “Hairspray Heart” or the acoustic guitar used in some break up the possible monotonous experience and shows a great ear by the band for using different instruments to create their sound. As stated before while many of these songs are slow in pacing,
Cobra Juicy also showcases some nice funky beats which add a little extra flair to this already trippy trip. Techno wouldn’t be the correct way to describe these funky moments but the energy and mood does indeed ramp up in these instances. This could either hurt or help the record as a whole depending on how the listener wants to interpret them but personally, a little variety never hurts.
Cobra Juicy is a calm ride on a slow moving ship in an ocean of colorful waves, some waves will crash against the ship and temporarily wake you from your daze but you can expect an easy, smooth ride for most of the trip. Fans of the groups have tasted this music before and while Cobra Juicy is less “free-range” then say, “Dandelion Gum”, it tastes just as good going down.
