Chad VanGaalen plays with his toys

Chad VanGaalen's work so far is not something to be sniffed at.  He has acheived great acclaim as a solo artist, with his second album Skelliconnection being shortlisted for the Polaris Prize in 2007 (losing out to Patrick Watson's Close to Paradise) and his third, Soft Airplane, being up for this year's prize.  He is also a producer, having recorded the brilliant self-titled debut album by Women.  Black Mold marks a new VanGaalen project - a new name for a new sound and that sound is the dangerous sound of instrumental electronic experimentation.

As is often the case when the words 'experimentation' and 'electronic' get together, their offspring (in the form of Snow Blindness is Crystal Antz) is confusing and disparate, coming at you from all sides with very little sense of connection or congruity (as his record label Flemish Eye puts it, "glitchy and unpredictable").  The album is probably about as coordinated as the title seems to anyone who isn't Chad VanGaalen.

That's not to say it's all electronic nonsense.  Whilst there are a handful of noise tracks that sound like VanGaalen has played a chord on his synthesiser then fiddled with knobs for the next minute and a half until he got bored (I'm thinking specifically of 'Dr. Snouth' and 'Pristine Boobles'), there are also a few lovely melodies that raise their heads above the water, such as in 'Swimming to Food', which is driven by a tune vaguely reminiscent of the riff in Holy Fuck's 'Lovely Allen' - at about a quarter of the speed - or 'Left Behind by the Digital Ships' which sounds like atmospheric music with ADHD.  Another highlight of the album, 'Tetra Pack Heads', is downloadable from the Flemish Eye website.

But these tracks to one side, the album generally fails to work as an entity - there is too much filler material that sounds great when you're alone at midnight playing your synthesiser in your bedroom, but that the light of morning and a record deal show to be completely unlistenable.  If you want something featuring VanGaalen, you'd be better off saving your money for the Women album.


Snow Blindness is Crystal Antz is released August 11th on Flemish Eye