CD: Snow Blindness is Crystal Antz
Artist: Black Mold
Label: Flemish Eye Records


Reviewed by Luka Symons,
Host of Simply Luka

Listen to samples from Snow Blindness is Crystal Antz:
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Metal Spider Webs
Toxic Lake
Tetra Pack Heads

This album is intoxicating; I can't stop listening to it on repeat. It's as if it's one big secret glitchy symphony that only I giddily stumbled upon whilst exploring a neglected, old, creaky building.

Snow Blindness is Crystal Antz is the debut album from Calgary's Black Mold, the electronic alter-ego of songwriter Chad VanGaalen. Now VanGaalen is a busy busy guy, releasing a new album every two years to much critical acclaim. His latest album Soft Airplane was recently short-listed to this year's Polaris Music Prize Nominees (to be awarded in September), and his album before that also made the short list the year after its release. And so it seems this instrumental release of his is the product of several years of late night knob twiddling and exploration of sound, a chance I guess to play, where his love of glitch and noise intermingle with acoustic instruments.

This is an album filled to the brim with absolute joy at times (Tetra Pack Heads), while in other spots, sounding like a revamped soundtrack to a favourite old video game (Gummed Desk). You'll catch some dreamy parts, perfect for late night contemplations (No Dream Nation) and too, a sense of fly-on-the-wall to his Mad-Scientist-at-play in tracks like 'Pristine Boobles'. This album comes as no surprise from this prolific musician; one needs only to go back to previous releases to find hints of VanGaalen's love of all things synthesizer and twitchy electronica. Lucky for us, he took the chance and jumped in with both feet to play in this instrumental sandbox fulltime on this record, sounds he had only hinted at in previous releases.

This album fills me with glee it does; it is a record as in a kind of logbook of a fella playing in his toolbox of vintage analogue and hand-built modular synths, creating some whimsical and intriguing musical moments. I am the luckiest, and most beguiled fly on the wall.