A single person is missing for you, and the whole world is empty (2016)

The Body announced that this would be their pop album and they absolutely were not kidding! Like a productive rapper, each of the band's output is to a large extent determined by whoever they've collaborated with in bringing it about, and whereas their (very good) collaboration with Full of Hell this year had The Body playing 'weird' as a foil, No One Deserves Happiness shifts the focus of their electronics from doomy atmospherics (e.g. handled by The Haxan Cloak) to dorky weird preset keys and sound effects, handled by I'm not sure who, maybe the band themselves. It's full of beats and jarring keyboards, and even reminds of The Ark Work in places for its glaring lack of interest in subsuming bedroom midi bits into a serious metal sound-world, but goes the extra step (forward or backward? I still can't tell) of still containing those serious metal sounds, and in The Body's case, arty excursions and weird collages to go with their very very (very) real fear of being human.

Thinking about Tim Hecker, Andy Stott, and Klara Lewis' 2016 albums there seems to be a trend in electronic music towards untreated sounds and textures (following from 2013's R Plus Seven and Yeezus), even within 'dark' electronics (where the sources have traditionally gone invisible). The Body noticed and consequently No One Deserves Happiness is as bizarre, 'contemporary', and bring the noise spontaneous as one could ever desire.

bandcamp / -o- / thrilljockey / norman

Somewhere (1986)

Dumb denim jackets go to the Chinese takeaways and beat the kid outside at Street Fighter because he's always there and he plays shit so you'll play him again but you never do

fuckin robocop

Mercyful Fate - Melissa (1983)

It's my day off and I'm sick and this bald cat came in and I think he's made it all worse! He's bald but I'm allergic. He sat on my bed and now I'm worried about sleeping. I used to have a (haired) cat and must've felt like this all the time back then! I blamed the wind and the trees and the sun!

I just can't get enough twin guitar falsetto metal at the mo and Melissa is the best 'cause the riffs are heaps of fun, King Diamond is endearingly ridiculous, and the band's dedication to skulls and satan is fucking unprecedented!

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NO LIFE (1982)

The much adored SEE FUCK U KIRK WHY CANT U DO IT LIKE DAAAVE HAHA demo that's like the worst thing ever to happen to Lars Ulrich

Thrash-political issues aside, I usually always love Metallica and definitely always love lo-fi Metallica and the way "it's how I live my life" is sung on Motorbreath is one of my favourite little things in music ever along with "what went wrong" in Death's Flattening of Emotions, "all you ever wanted" in The Replacements' Little Mascara, "one time for my niggas doin life in hell" in 2Pac's Krazy.

In 1982 they're still doing songs rather than compositions, and all of these songs are excellent. Their heaviness is sort of undercut by a youthful, spontaneous sense of garage-y fun and the eye-of-the-tiger urgency that'd drive them into 'compositions' and cross-genre acclaim. I love this EP heaps.

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Son of a bitch

'cause that's the joke. Not the bullshit hangover cure which has you wincing and crying. I always thought it was the hangover cure 'cause Dan McCafferty sounds like he doesn't care whether his voice lasts 'til the next song or not and that's raw/rugged/cool. Hard rock reviews are hilarious/bad so I don't wanna copy+paste one. Nazareth gave us McCafferty and the best versions of Love Hurts and This Flight Tonight. Hair of the Dog is meant to be their best album. The version here has Love Hurts on it, and McCafferty too. Soon there'll be Loud 'n' Proud, which has This Flight Tonight on it, and McCafferty too. I actually think they're equally good

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Drudkh - Autumn Aurora (2004)

Not grotesque, singular, or ideological enough for open-minded hipsters or metal elitists, Drudkh's Autumn Aurora merges guitar, synth, and shriek together with something subtler: grace. Their folkish origins manage to humble the band into steering clear of the ideologies of their influences, and have Drudkh celebrating the natural in its strength (Summoning) and forgiveness (Sunwheel). This complacency would remain with the band for the underrated follow-up The Swan Road, but unfortunately leave as Drudkh looked to history for the heartwrenching aggression of their epic Blood in Our Wells

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Enmerkar - Starlit Passage (2009)

Buried vocals and pointless drums, the rest is crazy blended guitar layers reminiscent of avant-garders or shoegazers, although there's nothing avant-garde or shoegaze about it- too singular in its vision to be avant, too pretty to be ambient, and too mysteriously sad to be shoegaze. Those guitars..

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Godzilla 2012

MY LIFE'S HARD ALL I WANT FROM A METAL RECORD IS FOR IT TO GRAB ME BY THE BALLS LIKE OCEAN PLANET DID ALL THOSE YEARS AGO

Now we've got L'Enfant Sauvage. Adjective adjective adjective something about rhythm patterns riff rhythm adjective repeat. Fuck that. This rules. Gojira are great musicians who end up writing nice songs unlike some post-Meshuggah tech babies. That's why I liked Ocean Planet so much first time I heard it. I know they're good, I get it, but that song is too, and that counts for a lot more than elitists seem to know. First listen through L'Enfant Sauvage: the songs on here rule. Not a bad one. Some of them are long-ish, but the band go heavy or strange or melodic or transcendent, so they go by without you noticing. Too busy being excited. This is Cancer 4 Cure exciting and I'm Cancer 4 Cure confused at its Cancer 4 Cure passion and intensity. No gimmicks, just genre-pushing craziness and really good songs. Multiple listens needed (no shit)

See what you think

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