Search - Black Tambourine :: Complete Recordings

Beautiful noise

JC Arcila | U S A | 11/24/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Black Tambourine comprised of Archie Moore and Brian Nelson (later of Velocity Girl)and the mysterious and wonderful Pam Berry (later of The Glo-Worms & The Castaway Stones). These three created wondeful walls of distortion and melody within their songs. Though they only released a few singles during the 89-91 period, they're work is important to the understanding of where indie rock was in the early 90's. Right thru to the emergence of what was once sacred underground into the mainstream, when Nirvana came along in 91. British influence in alternative music was extremely high.But most of all, what makes this album just irresistable is that these songs are filled with tales of unrequited love and crushes so deep you want to bury yourself in a hole, and who can't relate to that? Arguably one of the best bands to come out of the Slumberland label, it's a great thing that they compiled this album, because as unknown as Black Tambourine were, and still are. They're work is almost an historical document for the studies of independent rock in the 90's."

Jesus & Mary Chain on Doo-Wop...

JC Arcila | 10/26/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"That was the way I first heard this band described, by guitarist (and Slumberland head honcho) Mike Schulman. Pam Berry's ethereal, almost impenetrable vocals wash over fuzzed out guitars in the sweetest little broken-hearted songs... eventually, you find yourself singing "just throw her off the bridge, we both know it's gotta be done" and being downright happy about it because you know exactly how much that crush and that unrequited, unnoticed love hurts. Perfect gray-day music from what was easily the best of the first-generation Slumberland bands."

Squalling sidewalk chants

John L Murphy | Los Angeles | 12/26/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"A solid album of proto-shoegazer meets girl group meets noise pop-punk. What I like is that the extremely simple production techniques-- presumably since this is a truly ultra-indie band on a shoestring budget?-- separate the instruments into four "quadrants". On headphones, you can hear this well demarcated. The bass chugs along precisely, the guitar squalls bursts of controlled feedback (J&M Chain-like but less derivative than it sounds), the singer in that fashion beloved by Slumberland bands pouts and plots with a fetching combination of charm and cruelty, and the drummer pounds away with dexterity and drives each song tightly. Each track fits into this template, and their similarity does not wear on you, as this album flies by quickly and its brevity works to keep it fresh.



Most of these tunes, up to and including the Love cover (track 5) of a song that I never could make out lyrically when Arthur Lee spat it out, are strong. Some are more derivative of Lush, J&M C, or Unrest, for example, but all these bands are deserving of imitation, since all of them also look to the same influences as does Black T. However, the best song by far, "Throw Aggi From the Bridge," deserves to be enshrined as a classic "bad girl wants the good guy" song. Overall, while a bit too in love with echo and reverb (band sounds like it records in the bathroom; the singer often sounds as if she's in a wind tunnel, also characteristic of Slumberland label mates Aislers Set and Henry's Dress inter alia) solid, ending a very brief assortment of songs that capture in punchy yet somehow understated and modest fashion the collision of the early 60s with the late 80s."