Playlist: The Bodies

Ahead of opening for Danish punk quartet Yung tomorrow night at The Shacklewell Arms, Maxwell and Angus from The Bodies picked a few songs for us in preparation for the show. Have a listen below:

Angus:

Bad Breeding's 'Vulnerable Hands' from their album S/T - a heavy footed stumble-drunk lullaby for the greater London housing authority.

Hello, World!

A rolling barrage of atonal belching which, at its climax, discovers itself as a bramble bush of electric thorns.

A warm hug at arms length. The song bridges the intimate and spacey in a melancholic micro-opera. Sounds like when your mate finally tells you why he's been acting weird.

The first music to be shared from #N/A - the forthcoming new studio album from NISENNENMONDAI, recorded with legendary dub producer ADRIAN SHERWOOD in Tokyo, and released outside Japan on his On-U Sound label. #N/A (literally, Nisennenmondai with Adrian Sherwood) is a new studio album which sees the cult Japanese trio filtering their epic motorik jams through the mixing desk of the legendary dub producer. Nisennenmondai are three girls from Tokyo, Sayaka Himeno (drums), Yuri Zaikawa (bass) and Masako Takada (guitar), who have been playing instrumental music together since 1999. From their initial beginnings as a noisy no wave band openly referencing influences such as Sonic Youth, DNA and This Heat, they have since honed and streamlined their sound into a more minimalistic pulse with an emphasis on the hypnotic possibilities of repetition, creating a sound that can be likened to ‘organic techno’. Much beloved by other musicians including Battles, Prefuse 73 and Chris & Cosey (Throbbing Gristle), in recent years they have made more connections to dance culture, in particular with their 2015 collaboration live and on record with electronic producer Shackleton. Recording their new album with Sherwood has resulted in them sounding bigger than ever before, with a greater emphasis on small rhythmic details and subtle dub touches, reminiscent in places of the classic Basic Channel sound. This international edition of the album includes 2 bonus ‘live dub mixes’. Whilst Adrian showed considerable restraint in his production job on the studio album, on a subsequent live date at Tokyo’s Unit club he was recorded deploying a wild array of FX tricks, dropping in splashes of cavernous reverb and space echo delay to the performance of two pieces from the band’s previous album N’. www.smarturl.it/nisennenmondai-onu

A band trying not to be a band and failing but in a good way. The textures fall into uncanny valley in a manner almost as disconcerting as the droplessness of this 10 minute brain fingerer.

This gorgeous left-to-righter flutters through its unhinged centrepiece and slips off into the ether like a passing thought.

Maxwell:

I saw This Is Not This Heat earlier this year and it was a very special concert. To do justice to such complex arrangements - letalone ones that have not been performed in something like forty years – is no mean feat. 

We are playing some shows with Less Win in June. Their upcoming album is phenomenal, and I hope that it reaches the audience that it deserves.

My parents used to play this album a lot. For me this song juxtaposes an eight year old me sitting in the kitchen with a twenty year old me sitting at the desk at night in my university halls bedroom.

A cover of an Odyssey song by Tindersticks, and from another record that my parents played a lot. The unmistakable sound of Nottingham.

Fifty years of hurt never stopped me dreaming.

Yung, The Bodies and Tears perform at The Shacklewell Arms tomorrow night (14/6/16). Grab your tickets here.