DOPE BODY - Home Body Review
Sonically, they sound like an indie band from the naughties but with a distinct noise and post-hardcore element that gives their music the energy that often feels all too lacking in modern day indie or post-punk.
After calling it quits back in 2016 DOPE BODY return to the scene with an ambitious new album. Originally a more noise rock and hardcore band this new albums sees them more accessible channelling sounds alike Parquet Courts. DOPE BODY started out on Drag City and formed in Baltimore.
The album opens ferociously with the enthralling ‘Johnny Bag of Smoke’. Fuzzy guitar tones and hard riffing give this track a real movement to it. Throughout this album there are moments where the music takes an almost Charli XCX turn in its experimentation with sound, noise, and sampling. ‘Sour Apple’’s crawling synth lines while almost funky chorus lead singer David Jacober sings ‘Tastes like Sour Apple’ in a cool way. This track ends in such an incredible way and the bass line they play could have easily been played for another 8 bars. It’s these moments of absence and focus that really stand out on this record.‘Fade to You’ has an almost T-Rex style boogie element to it. You can’t help but feel your foot stomping to this one. Distorted guitar tones and vocals add to this vintage sound they’ve created. Their experimentation with the arrangement is really interesting, sounding like they’re reversing the guitar parts. ‘Lily’ is one of the shorter tracks on this record as more of an instrumental transition than anything else. Sonically speaking this track is interesting, especially with their use of panning.
‘Junk 75’ picks up where the first three tracks left off. Fat thick bass penetrates the listener, before Jacober screeches pure angst through the mic. This track has so much swagger, the crystal clarity on the symbols are a nice highlight. You can definitely hear a wide range of influences on this record so far; it’s not surprising considering this is a band that have always exhibited the edge this gives them.‘Pepper’ is another sonic excursion that unfortunately feels a bit unnecessary and lacking in purpose other than as an interesting musical experiment from the band. It would have been nice for the band to combine this level of intensity in the songwriting and arranging but with a vocalist.
‘Back in Back’ is an interesting track, reminding me of artists like Psychedelic Porn Crumpets. However, I feel like with two instrumentals within the first six tracks you lose some of the momentum of the more fully formed tracks and seem to loose the cohesion that this album deserves. ‘ESD’ is yet another short instrumental track. Though this one is sonically interesting, it just doesn’t really seem necessary or interesting enough to warrant it. ‘Hermit King’ is definitely incredible, being one of the few tracks to take the sonic experimentalism of this album’s instrumentation and combine it with vocals to create something truly unique. There’s a real movement to this music, suggesting that this could be explosive in a live setting. I’m actually almost reminded of King Gizzard on this track, with its reverb-drenched croaking vocals and its sheer speed and the technicality of the bass and other instruments.
‘Living Room’ starts with what sounds like a bit-crunched organ doing a crazy arpeggiated sequence. The drums come in imitation of the frantic synths before replacing them all together. Jacober’s vocals are pushed back and are almost atmospheric — shouting and moody. When vocals are involved on their tracks, DOPE BODY really adds a deep brooding feeling to their music, reminiscent of emo music.
‘Tung Ring’ is another instrumental detour but by this stage of the record you start to feel like these little detours do add something to the album. This song specifically felt like a much needed palate-cleanser to follow the two tracks that came before and provide a welcome breath of fresh air to the project.
Sonically, they sound like an indie band from the naughties but with a distinct noise and post-hardcore element that gives their music the energy that often feels all too lacking in modern day indie or post-punk. The next track ‘No Scene’ is definitely a banger. With its repetitive synths and drum patterns pave way for bleeping guitar parts that are incredibly catchy, fuzzy and warm. This is definitely one of the better tracks on the record. You can’t deny this band has energy; ‘Redux’ is almost as explosive as the opener. This is one of the shorter tracks on the album but still features vocals and actually proves an exceedingly vicious performance.
This is actually a really great album, which definitely contains some catchy tunes and interesting ideas throughout. Unfortunately, the numerous instrumental detours on the album end up ruining the full listening experience, feeling like maybe we could have had one or two more well thought out tracks instead of 4-5 unnecessary instrumentals that bloat the record. When this album is at its best it really does rock; however the inconsistent cohesion across this record really let it down. There is no doubt though that DOPE BODY have really expanded their sound and direction and it will be interesting to see if they can create a more coherent and perfected piece of work in the future.
