By Caden Moore | September 13th, 2010
Although their Wikipedia page states that they are from western Pennsylvania, I am convinced that Black Moth Super Rainbow is a band from outer space. There is no way Tobacco, aka Tom Fec (the mind behind the band), was not born in a colorful galaxy that makes Alice’s Wonderland look like Detroit, on a planet where the only contact with Earth are the stray radio waves from 1960’s psychedelic pop stations, where vocal cords are replaced with vocoders, and where the atmosphere is laced with LSD. On this planet it is always summer, the sun never sets, the inhabitants eat a strict diet of bubblegum, syrup-covered lollipops, and fiber glass cotton candy.
Wherever they are from, Black Moth Super Rainbow is one of the most original bands I have ever heard; their music is not quite electronica, not quite folk, and light-years away from any band you could try to compare them to.
Their third album, Dandelion Gum, begins with “Forever Heavy,” a florescent tune with churning synthesizer chords and a distorted voice rambling about being heavy, living in a field, and (what else?) chewing bubblegum. The album carries on with the frantic “Melt Me,” an analog synth-driven, almost punk rock in nature ode to summertime. In fact, the whole album could be interpreted as an ode to summer and the sun. The track “When the Sun Grows on Your Tongue” is the evil twin of ”Strawberry Fields Forever” – a swirling concoction of nonsense lyrics and low-pitched square waves, tied together by a mellotron.
The lyrics on Dandelion Gum are minimal and repetitive; they usually do not exceed more than two or three lines, but the music grows and evolves with each passing second. There is a certain uncertainty one feels when listening to Black Moth Super Rainbow, as if the cheerful music could turn into harsh, abrasive white noise at any time, ripping you out of the sunny, colorful world and into a world of sheer terror. Luckily for us, this does not happen.
The album’s sleepy closing track, “Untitled Roadside Demo,” is the perfect ending to this fantastic trip. Assuming the song’s title is a true story, and I hope it is, I imagine the band playing the song live alongside a cold Pennsylvania road under the stars. You can see Tobacco’s breath as he whispers “1 2 3, 1 2 3,” to count off the band. This is the only time we hear his voice in its pure, non-manipulated form. A high-pitched synth and a buzzing acoustic guitar carry the song; there are no lyrics, only a mumbling vocoder. The song fades out with a note from a synthesizer that sounds like a broken vacuum, and just like that the album is over.
Part of the reason Black Moth Super Rainbow sounds so otherworldly is the fact that they feel retro and nostalgic, but are unlike anything that has ever existed. It is as if they are referencing a past that never occurred, or some sort of alternate reality. They are psychedelic without being directly influenced by the blues or rock. They are electronic without sounding digital or synthetic. Dandelion Gum is an album that surpasses time, space, and reality.
