‘Limbo’ is neither good nor bad, just somewhere in between.
2012, Underwater Peoples
5.0 / 10.0
As a core member of electronic punk rock act Black Dice, Eric Copeland could not be expected to make an album other than Limbo. At just six tracks, Limbo looks like an EP from the outside, but digging into its meat reveals that looks can be deceiving. Coming in over 32 minutes, Eric Copeland has packed Limbo‘s songs with an overdose of electronic arrangements and a confetti of samples. As you might expect based on Copeland’s resume (Black Dice, his solo career, and working with Avey Tare as Terrestrial Tones), Limbo is not inviting for uninitiated listeners. Hell, by this point I’ve had plenty experience with difficult electronic, ambient, and noise combinations, but even Limbo is a mind boggling contraption to me.
I’d like to imagine that Copeland recorded classically structured songs, and then scrambled them to their current nonconforming states. Dissecting a song might reveal pieces of snowy AM radio, jazz flourishes, and snippets of funk. The album has been expertly crafted to sound nonsensical. Don’t expect a cover of The Kingsmen’s version of “Louie, Louie, Louie” on Limbo. Copeland’s song never utters a single, “Louie”, or at least I didn’t hear one. “Tarzan and the Dizzy Devils” could be the music that migraines listen to. I didn’t say it’d give you one; I just said they like the music behind the song. And I’m seriously considering a lawsuit against Copeland for ripping off my recording technique of singing into a desk fan on “Muckaluk”. I’ve been doing that since three-years-old, Mr. Copeland. While there are entertaining moments within Limbo‘s songs, they also drift into becoming background music. I guess you could say that Limbo is neither good or bad, just somewhere in between.
Purchase: Eric Copeland – Limbo
