Album Review: Tobacco, "F---ed Up Friends" (Anticon)

Tobacco is Tom Fec, de jure leader and prime mover of Black Moth Super Rainbow, a Pittsburgh-based electronica outfit that creates rather trippy music through the use of analog synths and vocoders, along with other more traditional rock band instruments.

"F---ed Up Friends" is Tobacco's first solo album, and serves as an interim BMSR album almost as much as a true solo project; BMSR's MySpace page claims as much: Tobacco's album is listed there as the band's latest release, so some interchangeability when discussing the band and the side project is to be expected here.

Tobacco's main apparent drive focuses on bending sometimes old and difficult equipment to his artistic will. All manner of machines boasting tubes and wires are utilized in this art, and the end effect is something like the Moog synthesizers in the Disneyland Electrical Parade taking on a life of their own and becoming characters in a Haight Street matinee showing of "Fantasia," circa 1967.

The arrangements on "F---ed Up Friends" are harder than most of BMSR's material, which tends toward the gentle and slight gnomic, albeit strange and sometimes off-putting. Tobacco brings the beat up front and center, with a propulsive, driving bass line threading through most tracks, delivering the music to the middle of the dance floor, where earlier BMSR records simply skirted the edges.

The album is almost entirely instrumental, save "Dirt," which boasts a strong guest vocal from New York underground rapper Aesop Rock. Other than a few modulated voices here and there (most notably on the record's third track, "Hairy Candy"), the only lyrics you'll hear come from the interplay between Tobacco's tape loops and his array of mind-bending analog toys.

Some listeners will find this album lacking depth, or at least enough variety to sustain interest through all of its 16 tracks, but repeated listens bear unexpected fruit: Tobacco's swoops and flourishes become personalized pen strokes, and the self-assurance of the architect's hand turns obvious. This is a building with many rooms, and just as with any large public space, you're best served by taking the time to explore all of it.