Review: King Black Acid – ‘Super Beautiful Magic’

You may not have heard of King Black Acid but there is a good chance you’ve heard the Daniel Riddle headed collective on films like Underworld III or Buffy the Vampire Slayer to name a small portion. Portland based Riddle has been heading up this modular project since the 90’s while he has been producing work for tv, film, and for other recording artists at Mazinga Studio in Portland. Riddle’s rather imperious prowess as a producer really stands at the forefront of his latest effort Super Beautiful Magic released by Cavity Search Records on June 9th.

The album opens with the excellent “Welcome Home Down the Rabbit Hole” with meandering melodies creating an effect of multiple radio stations coming at once to coalesce into ineligibility. Scintillating pianos, harpsichords, cellos, and chimes all jostle one another for prominence in a soothing chaos. Around the halfway mark, the track opens up with a vocal crescendo paired with a fuzzed power chord on electric guitar. The perfectly placed back beat drives the song forward from a classical study into an all out rock jam.

Another standout on the record, “Sing About Love” begins with soft keys and tremelo guitars. The chorus plods in with a syncopated emphasis that gives a funk feel to an otherwise smooth song. The track combats ennui with movement no matter how trivial. The singular nature of one lost one’s own reverie while holding every eye, Riddle says “they want to know where you go when you disappear.”

Seventh track, “Spirit” is not prescriptive but descriptive. It is a very honest song. Riddle sings “we get high and hit the streets…we don’t care about the institution. We make love when we please, fuck the war and the vampire enemies, we don’t care about the revolution.” The song describes the liminal space of apathy that most of us occupy. Whether through exasperation or laziness, we cannot bring ourselves to embrace either the status quo or radical change. Selfish perhaps and yet one is struck by the reality of it. Living in the present more often than not, is a posture of privilege.

Many albums disintegrate under scrutiny but Super Beautiful Magic benefits from repeat listens. It sometimes calls to mind artists like Miike Snow or The Shins, but it is far too slippery to be pigeonholed with any sort of ease. I’ve personally listened to the record about ten times and I’ve found that ultimately, the album is a masterwork of production and structure. Disparate parts and instruments are blended in such a way that nothing is lost in the mix. On any subsequent listen, you can hear something new that you missed before simply because there is too much for the ears to track at once. Part of this seems to be a product of King Black Acid’s standing as a collective rather than a band. Riddle commands the instruments like a general overlooking a battlefield; each riff is positioned strategically and for the greater good of the whole. There is no showboating on Super Beautiful Magic, only synthesis and seemingly impossible unity.

(Listen to “Welcome Home Down the Rabbit Hole” below via Youtube, purchase the album HERE and get more info about King Black Acid HERE.)

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