Send "Blue Sky Black Death " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 Blue Sky Black Death may want to do without guest vocalists for a little while. West Coast producers Kingston and Young God teamed up with a different low-key singer on each of their last couple of albums, but the real allure was still in the duo's layered, expansive instrumentals. Then there was the drama a few years back over Jean Grae team-up The Evil Jeanius; the New York MC went on Craigslist and MySpace to protest the "unauthorized" use of her rhymes (she said it wasn't the beat-makers' fault). BSBD have collaborated with plenty of other indie rappers, most recently including tourmates CunninLynguists, but their latest album suggests they can acquit themselves just fine on their own.As Clams Casino's first beat tape earlier this year demonstrated, some of the best rap instrumentals these days can work equally well as moody electronic music, drifting naturally between the worlds of hip-hop or R&B and ambient, post-dubstep, or chillwave. Noir has a similar way of wringing strangely affecting emotional grandeur from the rudiments of sound, though BSBD's style relies less on glitch or drone and more on starry-eyed orchestral vastness. Using an impressively naunced deployment of strings, piano, and guitar as well as drum loops and hazy synths, the album has a patient, steady beauty, ranging from glowing panoramas evoking M83 to the classical-informed abstraction of Anticon acts like Dosh and Son Lux....full text |
| Urb |
| Wielding the coolest name in contemporary music this side of Goblin Cock, the production duo Blue Sky Black Death have upped the ante with their second entirely instrumental affair NOIR. Producers Kingston and Young God rose to indie rap prominence from the intricate, soulful beats they helmed for the likes of Jean Grae and Wu Tang affiliate Hell Razah. While 2008’s Late Night Cinema proved they have the chops to excel without emcees filling in the blanks, the new record NOIR takes that idea and explodes from your shitty stock speakers like a solar flare. From the breezy atmospherics of the opener “Our Hearts Of Ruin” to the downtempo contemplation of “In The Quiet Absence Of God,” BSBD excels at telling stories without words, save for a well-placed sample here and there. NOIR, a brilliant culmination of reverb-coated keys and lush string arrangements, conjures many emotions within the span of its hour length. It is densely-layered cinematic chaos you can zone out to, obnoxiously bump at the stop light, or share with your significant other(s). BSBD have painstakingly created a meditative blank canvas capable of carrying the listener as far as he or she is willing to go....full text |
| Syffal |
| Blue Sky Black Death has always been a go to when nothing else sounds good. When your foot is on the brake, your car is already in reverse and you just can't seem to find anything that will make perfect your only time alone all fucking day. Times of indecision or frustration normally force you to settle on something you know will guide you through without a wince, something you've relied on in the past. It's like there isn't any new and exciting porn on the internets so you just type in "77 topless broads on a trampoline in slow motion being sprayed with an oil gun". What? Fuck you. Like you haven't typed that into the googles when you're running out of time and/or softening. Asshole. Anywayzzzzzzzzzzz... Blue Sky Black Death are purveyors of eerie comfort. You can smile and cry in the same breath. You notice the beauty around you and keep your good eye on the evil underneathe. You're simultaneously thankful for what you have and destined to shed anyone's blood to get what's next on your list. It's a sunny day in front of me and a sporadic thunderous rain cloud behind me. What I imagine myself listening to on my death bed is probably one of things that I listen to to make myself feel most alive. NOIR isn't anything other than exactly what BSBD do perfectly in creating cinematic soundtracks with layer upon layer of gorgeous, and sometimes haunting, instrumentation and percussion. There probably aren't any standout tracks upon first listen, but after my fourth time through, I am addicted to Swords From Driftwood. Blippy but when paired with an organic violin, it's fucking 3D porn. The natural act of cock in puss, but alongside Tron lights and motorbicycles zooming by. Yes, I just typed that. NOIR is exactly what a crisp Spring morning deserves, but I can honestly tell you it would fit perfectly into your late night smoke sessions as well....full text |
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