Black Moses

Vancouver’s Black Rice could be accused of playing math rock, but only at an elementary school level. That, by no means, is intended as a criticism of the quartet’s skills. Rather, it’s meant to convey that there’s more melody and depth or arrangement going on here than the usual algebrock tag would suggest. The fresh approach no doubt has something to do with the fact that the band’s membership was cobbled together from a diverse range of defunct Lotusland acts like funk/reggae unit the Liminals and hardcore upstarts Mohan, along with Mercury the Winged Messenger and the Lunar Marmots. Catchy, aggressive and seldom samey, these nine tracks make reports of Black Rice’s live performance mastery believable to say the least.