The strength of electronic dance music that is black gold
Brooklyn’s Black Gold is made up of multi-instrumentalist Than Luu and vocalist and keyboardist Eric Ronick, a pair of cool cats who have already earned their “quality” credentials by touring with Ambulance Ltd’s backing bands, M. Ward, Panic At The Disco, Rachael Yamagata, The Hold Steady, Polysics, Scissor Sisters and Jaguar Love. Like their own band, the pair known as Black Gold are known for producing modern dance pop music with skillful production and electronic overtones.
The band has a wide range of musical inspirations from all rock n roll eras. “No style or genre is off limits. We have a lot of fun taking from different artists, different periods, and putting our spin on it. Somehow we ended up with something cohesive and that, without a doubt, it sounds like us,” says Ronick. .
“[Black Gold’s sound is] Breathless experimental … almost every song is a potential single that calls for an extended dance issue, “Raves” Spin “magazine.
Black Gold’s debut album is Rush from 2009. In the meantime, they have already had a best-selling electronic dance single with “Detroit (Shark Attack Remix)”, which has also been released on a limited edition 7 “vinyl record. (with a B-side from “The Picture Show”). On Rush, you’ll hear tracks that invoke T-Rex, Satie, Chic, Michael Jackson (when he was R&B), David Bowie, the Gibb brothers, and The Band. As he said Ronick, no style or genre is off limits for him and Luu.
“Detroit”, in fact, starts the album Rush. Listeners will find electronic dance rhythms that flow in the spaces between soulful singing and keyboard work. Next comes “Plans & Reveries,” which is a showcase of Ronick’s twin talents for singing and playing the keyboard (here, the piano). It seems that Ronick is the pop mind who knows how to write hooks and sing at an emotionally evocative level that surpasses the rest of today’s mediocre vocalists, while Luu knows how to beat you up and highlight hooks with musical textures that add depth to the music. and staying power.
Finally, the album hits “What You Did” and here it gets going. The beat is fast and tasty guitars churn along with David Rosenthal-like keyboards, even as some Stevie Wonder funk-era synths swirl like angry ocean waves in the background. This is a song of the bitterness of a man who finds his lover in bed with another, and Ronick’s voice is at its best telling you how it is. Black Gold’s Rush is so unique in its modern British pop mixed with super eclecticism that Ronick is even given a six and a half minute spot to shine on the piano instrumental called “Canyon”.
Look for Black Gold to be a force for some time.