Rare DM
Vanta Black
(Independent)
1/5
Rarely have I heard albums I don’t enjoy, but Rare DM’s Vanta Black is one of them. From Brooklyn, New York, Erin Louise Hoagg (also known as “Errmine”) has released her debut dark electronic and underground dance album Vanta Black under the name Rare DM. Just give up now if that’s too confusing.
The songs—I use the term loosely—are fraught with her conflicting emotions about a break-up. This turmoil is expressed in 45 minutes and 41 seconds of incessant synth and drone noises increasing and decreasing in pitch. The sounds are slow and whiny, like her voice.
The most unbearable aspects are the bells, beeps, pings, and trills. The frequencies fluctuate so often that I was rolling around whimpering due to the pain they caused me.
Music is supposed to be pleasant; I feel that I am being punished when I listen to Vanta Black. My immediate headache was only granted relief between each of the 11 songs and when the album, mercifully, ended.