“I said ‘’I’m gonna make a project where I can change the genre and anything about it whenever I want. That is always going to be the goal for this band.’”
This was the stated mission of Body Meat aka Chris Taylor, the upstate New York based singer, songwriter and producer. Having honed his craft in various bands in Denver, he decided he wanted a project where each release sound “like a new and unfamiliar landscape”. Thus Body Meat was borne and his debut album Starchris is released on 23 August via Partisan Records. The creative freedom expressed has produced an album like no other. Experimental and challenging yes, but also beguiling with its unfamiliar sounds chopped together with electronica. Taylor shares that the main inspiration for the record was video and computer games. Starchris is an explosive hero’s journey unfolding in real time, inspired by the world-building found in role-playing video games.
Opener ‘A Tone in the Dark’ is akin to a musical stretch of the limbs, taking a moment to clear the mind and body so it is prepared to exchange in what is to follow. ‘The Mad Hatter’ then bursts into our eardrums with a kaleidoscopic myriad of sounds, beats jumping around and a distorted vocal which begins with a statement of self-affirmation “I am right here“. This is a mantra used to ease panic but also with loved ones to express devotion. ‘High Beams’ continues this dancing electronica but it’s interspersed with sections which sound like interference on the airwaves, an attempt to knock off course perhaps. The chaos by the end is utterly thrilling.
Taylor states that ‘Electrische’ arrived through an exercise in free writing and overthinking. The opening beats come with a tinge of anxiety and tension, accompanied by a distorted vocal with its repetitive lyric. Its mesmerising and hypnotic with the pulsating electronica bewitching the listener. Halfway through a dream scape is entered with shoegaze synths creating a moments pause before the beats resume. The vocal becomes sharper in focus, as if making sense of what has gone before.
The light bobbing beats of ‘Focus’ is followed by ‘Right Here‘ perhaps the most straightforward of all the tracks on Starchris. Haunting and ethereal it is placed in the centre of the album, perhaps to give space to take a moment before heading into current single ‘Crystalize’ . What the heck are those sounds at the start? A chainsaw? Taylor’s creativity has no limits. ‘Crystalize’ bounces off the walls, it’s a roller-coaster of a track, as if bursting with the frustrations of love and relationships: “I just wanna be with you.” The electronic wanderings here are soaring and anthemic, THIS is music to lose yourself in, a musical epic within 6 and a half glorious minutes.
‘North Side’ slowly unfolds, contemplative and yet mesmerising as it bobs and weaves through beats and in and out of distorted vocals. The video features gameplay from a video game that Taylor coded himself. He depicts feelings of uncertainty through glitchy, syncopated synths and abrupt, sonic whiplash as the protagonist delves deeper into the virtual landscape – still struggling to beat the level. The parallels with the reality of negotiating our complex world could not be more obvious.
Title track ‘Starchris’ continues the self-questioning of the protagonist with regards to love, but here there is a hint of Eastern vibes, before a moment of calm and a re-establishment of self-belief. ‘I’m in Pieces’ initially presents a slower paced, calmer view but expect the unexpected as out of leftfield comes these bursts of electrical pulses, sharp and crisp until everything stops mid-track. Taylor doesn’t play by any sonic rules. On ‘Demons’ again there is self-examination with a gliding soundscape, thoughtful and reflective. Ōbu No Seirei (Spirit of an Orb)’ is an ethereal 8 minutes which ebbs and flows until it builds into stuttering rave pace towards the end. “I can’t move, move, move. I can’t move, move, move.” repeated over and over, as if stuck in the video game. Starchris finishes with ‘Paradise’ the end of the video game, still in the basement and the associated frustrations. It’s quiet and contemplative until the pounding begins, as if hitting the enter button over and over and over, the vocal progressively becoming more distorted until the very end.
Body Meat is an artist who likes to immerse himself in various genres and blend them together to create songs which are unpredictable in their trajectories. The resulting debut is a whirlwind of soundscapes which take the listener along unpredictable paths. It is a breath of fresh air to listen to an artist who obviously revels in the possibilities of sound, who doesn’t feel hemmed in by convention. The album cover features four clones of Taylor in a car, in active poses suggestive of various gradations of joy and despair. Taylor shares: “I hope people have fun listening to the album and enjoy the ride of it. I want it to feel like [the listener] is in that car with them.”
For more information on Body Meat please check his facebook and instagram.
