Review Summary: The sky's gonna open up.
Black Wing
…Is Doomed, and embracing a bit of gallows humour. You learn a lot about someone when they face the nature of mortality, and Connecticut-based
Have a Nice Life’s Dan Barrett (alive and quite well) is refreshingly at ease with his latest project. There’s a very casual, spur-of-the-moment feel, unlike his more obsessive work under other monikers. Barrett describes Black Wing as “
sort of the opposite to Giles Corey - whereas Giles started as ‘only acoustic instruments allowed,’ Black Wing started with ‘only digital instruments.’ “ While this is the sonic gist, there is more to it.
…Is Doomed feels impromptu amongst a body of work that has seen Dan toy with death all-consumingly and without apology. Some backstory: a month-long bout in a hospital gave Barrett something of a fresh perspective - it was very anticlimactic and soberingly real, with machines and tubes in all directions. If some of his other work had him in shackles, Black Wing is his liberation, ironically. Opener “Luther” is purifying, like the morning after a blurry night of self-destructive thoughts. Fuelled by rapid synths and optimistic choral sequences, it’s out of left field for the artist, yet still carries his trademark. Barrett isn’t really trying on masks - there’s just an extra bounce in his step.
That's not to say Black Wing is totally immune, though. Anthemic standout “My Body Betrayed Me” stems from the musician’s health difficulties, and when he sings, “
if I feel something / my body betrayed me,” he sounds a bit frustrated, his habit of underplaying physical pain compromised. “Death Sentences” carries the tone of someone rebuking a loved one. Dan’s lyrics have always been most effective in the form of blunt scorn, and even at moments where the words are hard to decipher, the tone is cutting. The titular “Black Wing” feels like a moral support system, with tawdry clapping effects and uplifting backing vocals.“DSA” is catchy and absentminded, devoid of vocals, and placed oddly between the dystopian “Unemployed” and the brooding “Death Sentences”. There’s a very inorganic compositional style throughout
…Is Doomed, despite an impulsive motive. Whereas 2008’s
Deathconsciousness was painstakingly constructed, fine-tuned with a madman’s determination for several years,
…Is Doomed is much more spontaneous. It lacks the deep-rooted emotional impact of the former, in favour of immediacy and a sound that, despite being new territory for Dan Barrett, is still distinctly Dan Barrett.
At times, there’s an unsettling feeling that
…Is Doomed is a pet project whose appeal hinges on the mystique already surrounding Barrett, and one wonders if it'll see much of an audience beyond a throng of pre-existing fans. His approach to electronic music is unconventional, roughly produced, occasionally lacking in focus (the songs could transition more smoothly), but settling somewhere between the coldwave stylings of
Martin Dupont and the likes of
Washed Out. Black Wing's target aesthetic was that of driving in the summer, rolling the windows down, peering out, distracted. He undersold himself a little. Though his newest output indeed sounds great on the pavement, it often resembles an eerie nostalgia and a Donnie Darko-esque sense of higher power far more evocative than driving muzak.
…Is Doomed captures a feeling of inescapability; but, where Dan Barrett might normally find bleakness, he's found closure.
