Body/Head - No Waves LP
$21.98
Label: Matador
Our Review:
The Dead C scribbled "The AMM of Punk Rock" as the opening track on their 2007 Future Artists album. Whether their intent was sarcastically self-effacing or ignobly grandiose, that Dead C title makes for a pithy rejoinder in defining the blustery strategies not only for The Dead C, but also for what Kim Gordon has been up to since the tragic flame-out of Sonic Youth. That said, Body/Head is Gordon's sporadic improv-noise duo with Bill Nace. In studio and on stage, the two construct "scripted improvisations" through a churning wash of squalid feedback, heavy-lidded hypnosis and anti-rock form destruction. Gordon and Nace smear and slime their dronemusik with some classic Sonic Youth atonal confrontation and crumbled amp demolition. All of this sounds remarkably like a drumless version of The Dead C – with the notable exception of Gordon's off-kilter voice. On No Waves, she warbles even more like Jandek than she has in the past. These three long-form Body/Head pieces were recorded live at the 2014 Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, Tennessee. Given the approaches engaged with automatic writing and spontaneous effluvia of leaden sonic bluster, the raw immediacy of a live recording suits them just fine.
