(Paw Tracks)
The scrambled beats and squiggles that make up Black Dice's Repo are effective on a more disturbing level than most music commands. That's been the band's M.O. ever since it abandoned hardcore for mongo-industrial soundscapes in the late '90s. But Repo is its first album to truly antagonize on a physical level. Beyond the hiccups and headache-inducing pace of "Glazin," the bits of rhythms heard in "Whirligig" and "La Cucaracha" become desperate little sanctuaries jutting out of the tumult. By the time "Vegetable" takes shape, the album has manhandled the synapses to the point of nausea — and that's no criticism. Closing numbers "Ultra Vomit Craze" and "Gag Shack" feel like statements of the album's profoundly offensive, stomach-churning intentions. 3 out of 5 stars
