Black Bear

Brooklyn-via-Seattle’s Black Bear is certainly not the first lo-fi electronic musician (think Casiotone for the Painfully Alone or CocoRosie), but where those other artists are mostly lovelorn, unnaturally ecstatic, or just plain crazy, Sam Beebe spouts forth clever lyrics about the similarities he and his friends share with the animal kingdom, among other personal topics. That’s not to say Black Bear can’t be lovelorn, unnaturally ecstatic, or just plain crazy, but his ideas are more fleshed out and well-rounded as opposed to his peers who tend to be more narrow minded in their thematic scope.

The music is a bit strange, yes, but in an age where even US radio is rife with electronic sounds, Black Bear’s palette comes across sounding stuck more in the adolescent years of electronica when free computer programs just started hitting the then “young” internet and finding cheap keyboards at thrift stores was still a new idea. The whole project is steeped in nostalgia, and Beebe is happy to take you by the hand and show you through his maze of sound and memory.

In keeping with Brooklyn’s’ DIY style, you can get a copy of  Black Bear’s The Cinnamon Phase and a signed letter directly from Sam Beebe off their MySpace page. -Patric Fallon

Download-”Flicker Wings”-Black Bear, The Cinnamon Phase

Download-”I Believe in Immediacy”-Black Bear, The Cinnamon Phase

Links and Listen:

MySpace

“Flicker Wings”-Black Bear, The Cinnamon Phase