Body Meat (Chris Taylor, Max Hipp and Luke Thinnes of DIY synth-pop solo project French Kettle Station) played a brilliant and strange fifteen minute set at Globe Hall this weekend. A local experimental no-wave project born out of the Rinoceropolis circle, Body Meat’s idiosyncrasy and oddity are the exact cause of their brilliancy.
Their albums consist of ‘The World’s Largest Drum’, and ‘Several Heads’. The artwork for both album covers are collages of found images: a sneaker, a kickdrum, the earth as seen from outer space, if that serves as an indicator of what you can expect from them. Their songs are eccentric and off kilter, avant garde and modular.
As untraceable their sound, information on the project is incredibly sparse. It’s limited to single email and information for their upcoming show on Oct. 8th at Boulder Theatre, and of course you’ll find me there.
Live, the three operate pedalboards, synthesizers, a hybridized drum-kit and guitars programed to play a wash of sounds, including flutes, voices, general garbage, all combining into a spherical cacophony that rests on an unvarying under two-minute track run.
Their riffs are constantly telescoping into one another, rolling into drifting tempo shifts and math-rock signature changes. They play in fifths rather than thirds, and the result is a disjointed decollage that takes all your attention to decode, only to leave you in dire need of more confusion.
The thing about Body Meat is that they are not necessarily pleasant, nor do they try to be. They instead are unmoored, ranging in tonality and color, living both in and outside the world of standard experience. Body Meat is incredibly aware of the world and the language it is working within, but it’s logic is as intuitive as jazz or improvisational electronic.
I recommend listening to their collaborative album with The Washboard Abs (Citrus City Records) titled REDUX- a good entry point for early listeners because it is more accessible, slightly more conventional, yet distinct and wonderfully weird as well.
Their lopsided melodies are in line with projects like Palm, the late electronic underground cellist Arthur Russell and Ty Segall and the Muggers if you’re further interested in the experimental underbelly of the good, the bad and the indie.
