Black Moth Super Rainbow
Soft New Magic Dream
Rad Cult
Medical research into the mental health benefits of taking LSD is lagging way behind that of Black Moth Super Rainbow. Playful and trippy, with a sweet tooth for warped and weirdly melodic psych-pop confections, the solo project of the mysterious Tobacco, aka Thomas Fec, reemerges from its cocoon with Soft New Magic Dream, a mellower, warmer, and more fanciful follow-up to the vaguely unsettling Panic Blooms, from seven years ago.
In full flower again, its uniquely inspired, amorphous electronica and wigged-out indie-rock dipped in colorful, analog nostalgia, Black Moth Super Rainbow — two decades into its existence and the acid hasn’t yet worn off — fires up the vocoder for more floating aural experimentation, which is not as hazy as earlier lab work but as disorienting and otherworldly as ever. Among the most expressive magic tricks of Soft New Magic Dream are soft, yearning ballads “The Eyes in Season,” a whispery, textured, wavy dream, and “Demon’s Glue,” the latter an overflowing bouquet of soaring, airy blurs and underground burble blending with streaks of overlapping synths. “Unknown Potion” is just as beautifully seasick and lovelorn.
Freaky blowouts, such as the slightly schizophrenic closer “Wet Spot Dare” and “Tastebud” — all sugary distortion and deranged hip-hop scratching in a slow taffy pull of start-stop flow — interrupt head-swimming reflection, as Soft New Magic Dream liquefies, dissolves, and confounds, melting hearts and stirring imaginations in the achingly beautiful oozes “All 2 of Us” and “Sea of Hair.” Imbued with melancholy, “Open the Fucking Fantasy” is a sad, aborted party of one, unleashing confetti canons and bent, crackling emissions in an attempt to cheer up, but a sunnier mood washes over “Brain Waster,” a breezy, summery block party of laidback ease.
Washed Out, Flaming Lips, and Boards of Canada are all invited, and they should be taking notes.
