It's strange to think that the malformed noise made by Black Dice was once released through EMI, albeit as part of a deal signed by their former label, DFA. That moment didn't last long, although the relationship has been somewhat rekindled here, as Eric Copeland returns to DFA for the first time since his other band released Broken Ear Record in 2005. The label's gone through vast changes in that time-- the dramatic curtain call of LCD Soundsystem, an acrimonious split with label co-founder Tim Goldsworthy-- but for Copeland things remain pretty much the same. In fact, it's possible that he's become even less proficient in the intervening years, choosing to un-learn as he goes. Joke in the Hole is his latest raggedy solo venture, essentially a series of samples and beats patched together so it manages to feel like both the best and worst drug experiences of your life all tied together in one woozy package.
Copeland has maintained a strong punk aesthetic over the years, choosing instinct over skill, divining thrills from crude, base forms. Even the cover art for Joke in the Hole looks like a copy of the Pet Shop Boys' Introspective that's been tossed into a 70s porn emporium. There's a lighter touch here than on most Black Dice records, with a fondness for pop forms weaved into the confusion. That's become a strain threaded through much of Copeland's solo work, coupled with a skill for combining humor and z-grade sleaze that positions him close to the feel of John Waters' earliest films. Still, this is a subdivision of the world he creates in his other band, just one that has a little more logic to its rhythms. If Black Dice records often resemble a group of people furiously tossing around garbage, Copeland's solo work is the sound of him arranging the trash into pretty shapes.
Pitchfork's Marc Masters commented on how each release by Copeland has gotten "more viscerally enjoyable" in his review of 2012's Limbo, and that continues here. "Grapes" is about as funky as he'll ever get, driven by a loop that resembles a flattened-out Nile Rodgers guitar line that hilariously falls apart when extended to the point of disintegration. Copeland never exactly plays it straight, but there are moments on "Bobby Strong" and "Cheap Treat" where the obsession with degrading his source material lightens, closing in on the ultra-hectic rhythms of big beat. It's better when he's trying to assimilate the feel of a gut full of beer wobbling around on an impossibly hot day, which he does to wonderfully vomitous effect on "Babes in the Woods". If Copeland is interested in the conventions of clubland, it's at the point where someone’s puking on their shoes outside the venue, a distant throb of bass beating into their brain through the brickwork.
Copeland has always had a taste for the puerile-- Black Dice signed off from major labeldom last time out by constructing a cover collage that featured (among other things) the initials of the band scrawled over a naked, bent-over ass. Here, he dresses up his songs with titles like "A Little Tit" and "New Leather Boogie". DFA is even releasing an accompanying 12-inch to Joke in the Hole titled Masterbater. It might seem juvenile, or even wearying that he's still ploughing that seam after releasing records for so long. But it continues to fit perfectly well with what he's doing, which is essentially creating filthy, funny, non-dance music, all somewhat akin to filtering samples through the frivolous approach of an oompah band. Mostly it's like coming across a public-access channel late at night, where it never feels like the people on screen are fully in control. It works because Copeland isn't too rigidly stuck to his aesthetic, instead setting up his stall and letting the chaos pour in.
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