New Chain
'New Chain' is the debut long-player from New York’s Small Black. The Brooklyn group have succeeded in melting together locked and popped drum-shudder, gauzy spirographic synths and subtly contagious, half-remembered melody into ebullient bursts of evocative, subliminal and thoroughly modern pop. The songs are equally informed by the rhythmic bounce and stylistic swagger of more left-leaning contemporary radio rap and R&B as it is the submerged kaleidoscopic swirl of the early 4AD dream factory. Formed at the tail-end of 2008 as a bedroom recording project, Small Black first made waves with their eponymous debut EP. Throughout it, Small Black allowed their addictive, stay-gold hooks to unfurl themselves gradually over repeated listens. And now, slightly more immediate and polished than its predecessor, Small Black's new album 'New Chain' remains a continuation of this contrasting ethos – a delirious smudging of the lines between melancholy and nostalgia, tension and celebration, unabashed pop music and experimentation. A thinker’s party record? A party-hardy thinker’s record? Not sure. All we know is that 'New Chain' is one of the most involved, intriguing and effortlessly human collections of organic pop music you’re likely to hear this or any other year.
Brooklyn band makes the jump to Jagjaguwar for the release of its debut album.
Without having heard Small Black’s previous EP or this debut LP, New Chain, it wouldn’t be too difficult to divine the band’s glossy, lo-fi lope given only its origin as a beach-house bedroom-recording project and the Washed Out name-checking lyrics to “New Chain.” So while there’s little to surprise chillwave…
AllMusic provides comprehensive music info including reviews and biographies. Get recommendations for new music to listen to, stream or own.
Small Black’s Josh Kolenik and Ryan Heyner spent the better part of the year generating a pretty substantial fanbase with their self-titled EP.
Small Black - New Chain review: Like a status update, projecting an air of importance but offering little substance.