Sunday 3 December 2017

EP: BODIES - Soak

BODIES - SOAK EP


Info: BODIES began as the solo project of singer/guitarist David Anthony McGeown, who spent the last year recording with contributions from members of acclaimed Irish bands such as Squarehead, Blooms, Roisin O and Overhead The Albatross. 

Starting out when he ͞had the idea of writing something that documents that mid-twenties period in a persons life where you go through things that teach you how to interact with the world. Not the coming of age high school/college period but the moments in your life where you – truly fall in love, understand friendship & deal with death/mental health for the first time as an adult."

Opening with the rhythmic and tribal brush on snare, BODIES' debut EP Soak sets the scene for a dark and spiritual voyage into the song-writing of David Anthony McGeown. The mournful vocal on 'Nightmoves' and general aesthetic of the music evoke the middle period of Radiohead's discography, trickling guitar progressions and mounting distortion working as the advanced building blocks of your final destination.

'I'm Waiting' finds the song-writer sharing a vulnerability which is entirely honest and forthcoming; "A minor key, to put me at ease / When I'm neglecting, Lord, what's right for me / a sea of green, a fear to displease / I've burnt my teeth, no, it's just not me". The long-term impact of continuously placing the imagined needs of others ahead of your own and the inevitable detriment it can lead to summed up in the opening lines.

In our review of easily one of the best singles to come out this year, 'Numb', last month we wrote; "It's difficult to describe 'Numb' as anything but a glorious piece of music...The combination of the almost apologetic guitar strum, McGeown's beyond the stratosphere vocals which impart a powerful amount of feeling, and the ghostly percussion are a piece of majesty unbound. Everything is executed with the aim of bringing the listener beyond the realm of the present, delivering them through the music to a point of self-acknowledgement."

BODIES - Numb

Acoustic intro grows into a mellow prog-rock ambience on 'Silence', again the theme is one of personal self-exploration, seeking something, anything, in the dark void. 'Settle' recaptures the atmospheric whisper of 'Numb' as Soak draws to a close, you sense the protagonist has finally found some sort of solace from the travails and exasperating milieux which has preceded, a ghostly hand has laid itself on the listener's shoulder and from its gentle clasp lifts you away to the heavens. Soak is a beautiful and dark construction by BODIES, tender yet soul-stirring, it's music that makes you feel and acknowledge things you would sometimes rather not address, which are easier to ignore, and McGeown certainly knows how to transpose that uncomfortable sensibility through his song-writing.


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