ALBUM REVIEW: No Moon – Body Hound
There’s just one word to describe BODY HOUND. Okay, there are probably a few hundred which we’re about to employ, but the one that acts as the most concise summary is ‘inexplicable’.
Few bands have produced math-rock this slick, focused, accomplished and fun this decade, let alone as a debut full length. No Moon is a dizzying instrumental tirade of riffs and revelry from the get-go. Stargazer slowly fades in with shimmering ethereal synths and a single, pounding tom. It quivers with dreamy, poppy layers, like the intro of an acid-hued 80’s video game. Spectrum hurls you bodily into instant chaos; noodling guitars stop and start, locked in rivet tight before flattening into sudden smoothness. Restless, crashing back in hard with tumbling drums, it lurches through reeling chords like a fresher’s week former teetotaller, seemingly haphazard but suffused with a knowing, swaggering strut.
Bloom skips with a flatulent groove, bouncing and snare driven, manically positive over a grinding bass undertow and stabs of guitar. Second Bend plods among atonal single guitar notes, tick-tock toms keeping time as it steadily expands, ever changing before locking into an odd moment of lucidity with a straight drive. Red Stasis bleeps with looping noises, pulsing with restless electro drumming and rising and falling waves of noise. Black Palace begins gently, with smooth, wistful guitar and skittering drums. Charmin soft and subtle, it’d be perfect for the act of carnal love if it wasn’t so weirdly paced. Suddenly blooming into grunting bass and whining guitars, it drones, glowers, and stutters to a close.
On Time And Water lopes along before dragging into a leaden, slug like groove, pushed along by burbling bass. Lush guitar strums drip with saccharine sweetness, wandering bass punching through. Calm Surges jars immediately with atonality, jaggedly strutting with a happy go lucky vibe. Restless, shuffling drums usher in both rough and smooth, guitar and bass grinding and climbing, snaking and slithering, ending in spare, airy sparkles. Pillar Of Light is oddly soothing and insubstantial, twinkling guitars and tolling bass casting light and shade. The Ceaseless Round grinds away, mean guitars locking into a central driving riff. Agitated, there’s irresistible, scampering grooves among the ringing cymbals and spacey guitars.
Monolith slowly rises, tinny drums weakly competing with unsettling synth drones. Closer Voice Eternal wanders with smooth, swinging riffing, bright overlays and rapid trilling cutting in swiftly over tumbling drums. It’s strangely the most ‘together’ of the tracks, with more standard elements peppered with the quartet’s signature fidgety energy.
BODY HOUND’s music will not be for everyone. No Moon bombards and bamboozles, wrong footing with off-kilter rhythms and throwing a welter of widdling riffs at listeners with relentless, boundless joy. For those with open ears and perhaps a bag full of travel sickness tablets, this is a trip well worth taking. To badly paraphrase one C. Montgomery Burns, “Smithers, released the Body Hound”.
Rating: 8/10
No Moon is out now via self-release.
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