Eric Copeland

Fans of the Brooklyn scene will know Eric Copeland as a member of Black Dice and Terrestrial Tones (his drunk on digital noise project with Animal Collective’s Avey Tare). Hermaphrodite, his first solo album, falls somewhere in between those two projects. Ostensibly a collection of 12 loop variations, the album delivers its most developed offerings early on with the African percussion layering of "La Booly Boo” and the spacey, effects-laden "Oreo.” But what follows, although initially intriguing, never rises above sonic exercises. Copeland solo is not as chaotic as Terrestrial Tones and not as textured as Black Dice. He has a way of evoking moods from loops and when he does take the time to cultivate interesting juxtapositions with them, as on "La Booly Boo,” the material stands on its own. But far too much of Hermaphrodite’s second half coasts on set patterns that rise then disappear, sounding more like one man’s contributions to a larger project that we never get the chance to hear.