We Look White But We Dress All Black
Black Affair: “Pleasure Pressure Point” (V2)
I’ve decided that any extra-Beta Band project undertaken by one of its members has to include mushmouth singer Steve Mason in some respect. I don’t really give a crap about Lone Pigeon or The Aliens or whatever that redheaded guy’s project is, and until they start to make more compelling music, I promise I won’t start to. King Biscuit Time, Mason’s previous solo venture, never once disappointed me, but to be honest, I won’t rule out the man’s sense of humor, so when he announced mere months after his last record’s release that he was laying low and not taking any phone calls or e-mails, I loved it as it was, somewhere comfy between PR stunt and genuine reclusive decompression.*
I felt a deeper adoration when I was trolling around the King Biscuit Time myspace and discovered that he was performing under a new name, the bizarre and pleather-vision-inducing Black Affair. That he cited electro and Italodisco as some of his chief influences, two delicious genres that I have only begun to crack the surface of in recent years - yes plz, more plz! Whether this shit is seriously made music for bdsm clubs, or a joke that sounds good in its inception and even better on record, is beyond me to judge.
All I can do is comment on the sounds and songs herein, and the evidence that lay in front of me is overwhelming. Mason cites Egyptian Lover in some interview and I think it is pretty telling of the vibe overall, but Black Affair is able to utilize pretty minimal early hip-hop backdrops and roll with them to make something fresh, ridiculously Anglo, brooding but funky. Check out track 9, “Will She Come”, if you are the type to wonder what a collab between Trent Reznor and PM Dawn might sound like. There are people doing more groundbreaking stuff with their albums, but few are this thematically tight and enjoyable.
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*Mason himself has since clarified, “i have NEVER done a PR stunt in my life. thats a promise.” Crusser retracts his initial impression thusly. :D
