Kick the Keyboard

As Smokey Robinson's mama once informed us, "You better shop around". Having heard their Search Party song a few weeks ago, I'd decided to purchase Small Black's New Chain album whilst taking a very extended lunch break in Manchester city centre last week.

Browsing brought prizes, as I found it for the bargain price of a fiver in the racks of the wonderful Vinyl Exchange up in the Northern Quarter. Since then, I've listened to New Chain many times and found a lot to be impressed about.

First, I've not bothered to do any research into the band prior to writing this. I may have caught an article that mentioned them being a four-piece from somewhere in New York, but bar that I'm working from a position of knowing little but what they've put into the ten tracks to be found here.

From what I can make out, it all seems to be made using nothing but various synths/keyboards and drum machines (expects to be corrected). This is not a bad thing, given my like of the early works of OMD, Talk Talk and being a huge fan of New Order.

(Random tangent: about seven years ago, a friend insisted I go with her to see Ladytron knowing my like of some synth music. They were blown off stage by support band Vic-20 and were so bad, even my friend insisted we left 25 minutes into the set, full of apologies.)

Small Black would seem to be coming from the more experimental angle, as few of the numbers here carry much in the way of hooks or radio friendly tunes. What it does have is plenty of atmosphere, brought on by various electronic beeps and vocals that often sound like they're coming from a tunnel covered in thick fog. In the context of the songs, it works very well.

At it's best, such as on Search Party and Photojournalist, it works to brilliant effect. Matters do flag a little towards the end and it just manages to not overstay it's welcome and I'm left with two questions: are Small Black able to produce a half-decent live show or do they resort to Kraftwerk-esque statue poses, and will they repeat the formula for any subsequent work or (like, for example, the Human League) bring in acoustic instruments to avoid repetition? I'm interested in finding out the answers.