By the time ex-
Black Moth Super Rainbow leader
Tobacco released his fourth album,
Sweatbox Dynasty, in 2016, anyone who had heard a single song by either his former band or his solo incarnation knew exactly what to expect: blown-out beats informed by hip-hop, goopy synths that sound serrated and sticky at the same time, and bubblegum-sweet and horror movie-spooky melodies with vocals fed through an overworked vocoder. That the sound hasn't worn out its welcome at all after being trotted out so often with only tiny tweaks here and there is a testament to
Tobacco's singular vision. It's also proof that his initial idea for making music was a pretty darn good one.
Sweatbox Dynasty fits in nicely with his previous work; most of it sounds like it could have come from any point of his long career, which is perfectly fine. He even went back to his original way of working, recording tracks onto cassette, then transferring them to a sampler for further mutilation. A couple tracks stretch out a bit, like the glitchy closing track "Let's Get Worn Away," which sounds like the theme songs from a bunch of different public access TV shows from the early '80s spliced together while he was drinking cough syrup. A few others are brief instrumentals that have a cool idea and then don't run it into the ground by trying to do too much. Get in, make some weird noise, get out. They serve as nice palate-cleanser before the next warped pop tune starts. And like any
Tobacco project, they are very warped, very poppy, and very unlike what anyone else is doing. It's rare that someone has an idea this good and unique in the first place, double rare when someone can keep going back to that same idea and find new ways to express it. In that regard,
Sweatbox Dynasty is another oddball triumph for a one-of-a-kind artist. ~ Tim Sendra