The Brooklyn group SMALL BLACK have succeeded in melting together locked and popped drum-shudder, gauzy spirographic synths and subtly contagious, halfremembered 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'n'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. 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. The album was mixed by Nicolas Vernhes (Animal Collective, Dirty Projectors).

Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Camouflage
2. Search Party
3. Hydra
4. Photojournalist
5. Crisp 100s
6. Goons
7. Light Curse
8. New Chain
9. Panthers
10. Invisible Grid