Black Time Blackout CD

While the British have taken to the Detroit nuevo garage rock scene to their heart with a greater enthusiasm than most Americans (for instance, in the U.K. people regard the Von Bondies as major stars and actually care about the Electric Six, neither of which is quite the case in their homeland), no one could have expected the English to have spawned a Clone Defects tribute act, which on first glance is what Black Time most closely resemble. Performed and recorded with a technical finesse that makes Billy Childish sound like David Gilmour, Black Time's first full-length, Blackout, boasts more than a bit of the same noisy neo-adolescent frenzy Tim Vulgar and company made their calling card, though with a bigger helping of ugly guitar and lots and lots of sexual frustration. In the great tradition of British versus American punk, Black Time observe an implicit political subtext in songs like "Young Professionals," "Mass Production of Corpses," and "Catholic Discipline" that seems absent from most of their Yankee counterparts, and the injured wail of "White Heat Returned" is sharp and edgy enough to convince most anyone that they're dead serious about their angst. Remember that whole "get pissed, destroy" thing? Black Time sure do, and their barrage of cheap guitar abuse communicates an articulate rage as well as anything to come out of the U.K. in years, and if they don't always sound strikingly original, the results still hit the target hard and clean. ~ Mark Deming

Live Recording

Personnel: Pirate Love (percussion).

Recording information: Rocket Reducer.