Eating Us by Black Moth Super Rainbow
LABEL: Graveface Records
“If aliens abducted Dr. Dre and he convinced them to convert the spaceship into an intergalactic lowrider with a scientifically advanced sound system...”
Not having ever been on an acid trip, it’s difficult to imagine what that mind bending experience must entail. If one were to hypothesize, however, about the mental soundtrack an event like that might provide, it would most definitely be Black Moth Super Rainbow’s latest effort, Eating Us.
Album opener “Born on a Day the Sun Didn’t Rise” immediately immerses you in sweaty, scatter-brained schizophrenia. It’s a little eerie and a little frightening, but it’s new and different and you don’t know where you’re going and that’s surprisingly fun.
After the initial jolt of chemically induced liftoff, Eating Us settles into more familiar, more comfortable sounds. Spacey psychedelia, zooming synths and a vocal technique that sounds a lot like an analog robot whispering to you in a dream. Sounds weird, but it’s surprisingly peaceful.
Then “Twin of Myself” hits and things get decidedly different. Those massive synth walls crumble and the beats suddenly get big and bouncy. If aliens abducted Dr. Dre and he convinced them to convert the spaceship into an intergalactic lowrider with a scientifically advanced sound system, this is the music they’d play to beckon the hoes and annoy the neighbors.
BMSR is a five-member Pennsylvania-based collective made up of the unsurprisingly named Tobacco, the Seven Fields of Aphelion, Power Pill Fist, Iffernaut, and Father Hummingbird (truthfully, it would just be too weird if this stuff was composed by a dude named Tom Smith). But based on the strength of the luscious beats and thoughtful soundscapes of Fucked Up Friends, Tobacco’s 2008 solo effort, it’s clear he’s the one behind the wheel of this magic bus.
Space hip-hop gives way to beautifully paced downtempo tracks like “Gold Splatter” and “Fields are Breathing” that both follow simple drums or casual acoustic strumming. After the buzzing and dilated pupils of the album’s start, this seemingly serves as the trip’s doe-eyed peace and love phase.
Eating Us is twelve tracks of pure fun and as previously stated, from the first note, your mind and ears are dunked into an ocean of aural LSD. Everything from the album’s global pacing to the micro sounds baked into already lush backgrounds are well considered.
Make no mistake, it’s a marathon, and not for the feint of heart. By the end of the album you have an unavoidable urge for black coffee and a cold shower. You sorta want to listen to “Heal The World” to rebalance your universe. But the experience is well worth it and you’re most definitely going to want to do it again. 
REVIEWED BY ALEC BRINEGAR
ALEC'S FAVORITE TRACKS: "Twin of Myself" • "Gold Splatter" • "Fields Are Breathing"
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