Chad VanGaalen has certainly kept busy over the past few years. In addition to releasing several great albums, he’s produced music for Calgary’s Women, designed album art, and remained closely involved with the Flemish Eye label. The musician hinted at an affinity for warped electronic sounds on albums credited to his given name, but this interest always seemed one of exploratory curiosity than of studied proficiency, as he incorporated electronics into only a song or two on each album. VanGaalen subverts this notion under the Black Mold moniker, releasing a 19-song album complete with “100+ bonus minutes of glitchy oddities” on an included download card.
The sheer amount of tracks on this collection is intimidating. Examining the tracklisting on the back of the digipak reveals titles from top to bottom, packed tightly against one another. And then there are the names themselves – “Fuck Ebay,” “Smoking Rat Shit,” and of course the title track. One wonders: Does VanGaalen intend for this release to be seen as a typical “album” or as an odds and ends compendium of ideas that never fully reached fruition?
Disregarding the additional music available for download, Snow Blindness is Crystal Antz clocks in at roughly 50 minutes, a decent amount of time to invest in any activity in this day and age. Opener “Metal Spider Webs” begins with a lone cello, slowly joined by upright bass, clarinet, vibraphone, synthesizer, and expressive, free-form drumming. Immediately following is “Dr. Snouth,” a minute-long glitch experiment that sounds like an iTunes preview of a Raster-Noton release – completely out of context, and not at all revelatory. It's followed by “Uke Puke,” a song recalling The Books with its found samples, musique-concrète elements, and spliced guitar loops.
The SK-1 that VanGaalen must have been tinkering with on “Dr. Snouth” returns for a more engaging role on “Toxic Lake,” which settles into a groove as he manipulates both delays and circuits on the keyboard and a sequencer -- that is, until he loses interest about a minute later. Indeed, the ADD tendency of genre experimentation pervades the disc; it's especially a detriment if you’re looking to Crystal Antz for a cohesive listening experience. It could, however, prove fascinating if you're as equally into spastic shifts as the artist is here.
VanGaalen certainly has a knack for clever songwriting, and on Snow Blindness is Crystal Antz, he occasionally displays his ability to craft perfectly paced gems. “Tetra Pack Heads” and “Gummed Desk,” two of my favorites, have clear development, intriguing choices of instrumentation, and melodies that stand out among the wealth of seemingly-incomplete, too-brief experiments present. But while VanGaalen seems to be overflowing with great ideas, I’d prefer if he reined them in a little more tightly on his next release.
1. Metal Spider Webs
2. Dr. Snouth
3. Uke Puke
4. Toxic Lake
5. Tetra Pack Heads
6. Rotten Walls
7. Memes
8. Fuck Ebay
9. Wet Ferns
10. Smoking Rat Shit
11. Barn Swallow Vs. SK-1
12. Gummed Desk
13. Virtual Prison
14. No Dream Nation
15. Pristine Boobles
16. Snow Blindness is Crystal Antz
17. Let Behind by the Digital Ships
18. Swimming to Food
19. Finally Someone Invented a Teleporter!
More about: Black Mold
