Black to Comm's Marc Richter is an artist that perpetually seems to be on the verge of releasing an absolute masterwork, always creeping closer and closer but never quite nailing it. Alphabet 1968 does not quite buck that trend completely, but it is an oft-brilliant and unforgettable album nonetheless. Richter's impressive artistic evolution is showing no sign of slowing.
Marc Richter’s stated intention for this album was to realize a more “classic” and song-based aesthetic than he has shown before. To my ears, he seems to have been largely successful: Alphabet 1968 is filled with pianos, vintage synthesizers, strings, and an omnipresent patina of tape/radio hiss that evokes a vague and enigmatic past era. Also, the noisier and more industrial influences evident on previous Black to Comm albums has been markedly toned down and replaced by a sparser, more meditative vein of surreal darkness (though traces of the old harshness remain in “Houdini Rites”). His success at songcraft, on the other hand, is little more open for debate, though Marc has kept most of the pieces under four minutes and shows an unexpected talent for crafting melodic hooks.
There are strikingly beautiful moments strewn all over Alphabet 1968: “Jonathan”, "Rauschen”, “Forst”, and particularly “Musik For Alle” are all excellent and otherworldly. The piece that sticks in my mind the most, however, is the closer (“Hotel Freund”), which starts off deceptively with several shrill, clashing tones before abruptly launching into something that sounds like a bittersweet slow dance in a haunted ballroom. My other favorite moment is likely the melancholy and haunting organ and (possibly) theremin (or singing saw?) duet, “Traum GmbH,” but I keep finding new things to like about other pieces each time I listen to the album, so that may change tomorrow.
Interestingly, however, “Traum GmbH” is also the best example of how Alphabet 1968 falls just short of perfection: while achingly moving, it is over in under two minutes and never quite progresses beyond its opening motif. Marc is singularly adept at finding and layering the perfect sounds together, but shaping his strange and wonderful loops into actual songs still seems to elude him somewhat. Of course, Black to Comm’s prematurely abandoned soundscapes are usually much more creative and rewarding than much of what I’ve heard from other bands this year, so that seems like something of an unfair quibble. Unfortunately, great potential breeds high expectations.
That said, Richter remains a wizard at finding great samples, creating perfect blends of textures, inventively using found sounds, and borrowing the best elements from a wide range of influences. Alphabet 1968 is a crackling, mist-shrouded dream of an album, filled with backwards instruments, twinkling chimes and music boxes, beautifully sad melodies, and buried voices. In fact, this may very well be Black to Comm’s best album so far, but I would not be at all surprised to see it followed by an even better one.
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