The sound is fuzzy, distorted, loud, random seemingly atonal – no catchy pop hooks here. It makes you stop, turn around and look at your speakers like that old RCA dog. But as the confusion wears off you draw closer as the sounds pull you in. You sit and listen as if a spell has been cast, and you just float away on the dissonance that is Body/Head’s new album Coming Apart.
Kim Gordon with longtime collaborator and friend Bill Nace came together for this project after the shelving of perennial post punk greatness that was Sonic Youth. What they have birthed is a distortion laden masterpiece. Not for everyone’s taste, but those who enjoy trippy fuzziness will immediately download. It’s rare in the millennial scene of modern music to have a band do what Body/Head does and do it so well. This is an album filled with songs that are longer than 3 minutes with deep layers, and come with no Cliffs Notes. This is music you listen to again and again, each time finding something you didn’t notice before. You are left to interpret each gem and make it yours. You turn it up in your headphones and immerse yourself so deep you can just float away.
I had a particularly Zen moment listening to the cover of Patty Waters version of “Black is the Color of my True Loves Hair”. Soon you realize that “Black” isn’t a true cover. At 13+ minutes it’s an epically trippy take on the original. Kim almost chants the title over and over, spinning your brain, trying to understand context, when in the last few minutes the actual cover flows in. Soft and familiar you feel like you can wrap yourself around it, but underneath the lyrical content is the disjointed fuzzy noise that makes it all so brilliant. As I listened to that song over and over I was left breathless and spent in the best of ways.
Coming Apart was released on September 10, and Body/Head are now doing a small clubs tour first in the US, then Europe. This album is a jewel, a throwback to experimental, noise rock from days of yore. It restores my faith in Rock music. Light the candles, clear your brain and start Coming Apart
Get Coming Apart here.
[hr color=”light-grey” width=”100″ border_width=”50″ ]Body/Head on the web:
http://bodyheadmusic.com
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zMBbDMuO4s&list=PLUkpIIjyrx_u0PL0BNKlCodSlK7XeIVzA
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BodyHeadMusic
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WeAreBodyHead
felicia c waters | @feefeelarue
