Black Era is a trip-hop group out of Naples, Italy. They play a tantalizing hybrid of dark down-tempo and sensuous soul that flirts with a sense of Goth. This is heady music reminiscent of Massive Attack and Portishead.

Then was released in 2007 and is their newest album. After a ominous narration, the album sinks in a unrestful but hypnotic grind with “Bark”. The vocals of Dy Darshan immediately pulls you in. Her voice is a beautiful and sticky as a spider web. The other members of the group includes Blob on electronics, All Fuzz on guitars and Muss on drums . they do an excellent job of keeping a tranceful state going for the duration of this fine recording. My favorite track is “Vicious Flag” which has a guest vocal by Ronnie Ketamou. It is an eerie reggae influenced work that reminds me of the best of Tricky.

There is also an earlier work from 2006 titled Point of No Return. It is a little less dark and more soulful with hints of nu-jazz. “The Black Page” and the instrumental “Shielded” actually become jazzy at some points. One of my favorites tracks is “Less Than Zero”, an atypical cooker with a strange narration and a simmering beat that almost reaches the boiling point. I slightly prefer the variety on Point of No Return over the never changing dark mood of Then but both albums show off Black Era as a group to watch.

The albums are available as album zips in 256kbps MP3 from aquietthump netlabel. If you enjoy the music, you can support the artists by buying the albums in CD digipacks with higher quality sound.

Download
Then
Point of No Return