Black Era : Third Eye Guerilla

Black Era – Third Eye Guerilla (Aquietbump)

Heavy, slow and brooding but still just warm enough to be a relaxed listen. There’s a fairly brief summary of a rather good EP although leaving it at that might not quite justify my existence. ‘Third Eye Guerilla’, coming from the Aquietbump NetLabel, is a compact but beautifully formed hit of dark and vaguely abstract Trip Hop which noticably sets out to focus on an edgy, rather grim vibe.

Black Era, an Italian group, almost seem to follow a similar industrial feel to SCLWN over in Russia although this makes for a far less jagged, unnerving end result than something like ‘Everything is OK’ mostly thanks to the production which has a richer feel to it, wrapping the sound around you as opposed to creating a minimalist, cavernous soundscape for you to feel lost in. Different styles certainly but there still seems to be a shared sentiment between the two and one which both succeed in putting across albeit by juxtaposed methods. The vocals especially highlight the ‘warm’ minimalism contained, smooth and rich as the singing is it retains an element of restraint which maintains the overall feel, holding it back from lapsing into a more chill-out style piece.

In some respects it’s a shame that this is only an EP given that a full album following the same pattern could have quite easily have worked and that the brevity of what’s here leaves you just about being drawn into the thing when you find that you’ve come to the end. Plus ‘Third Eye Guerilla’ apparently comes after a 2 year hiatus from the group so unless there’s a full length follow up in the not too distant future an isolated EP release seems to be leaving their listeners hanging a bit too much but hey, being left wanting more is no bad thing and what’s here is perfectly well formed regardless of my speculation as to what more could have been done.

Download Third Eye Guerilla

Black Era’s Website

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