| 1 | Turn me On | 4:46 |
| 2 | Be There Soon | 5:23 |
| 3 | Take it Down | 0:54 |
| 4 | Where Did You Go | 8:20 |
"We have all been there at some point or another, maybe even last night. There are those moments when you are drifting into or out of sleep when it is hard to identify exactly what is real and what is imaginary. Time spent working through the hazy gauze separating waking and dreaming blurs the edges of perception and leaves us sorting through myriad versions of hyper-reality. The music of Body/Head has always existed for me within this liminal space. Whether it is Kim Gordon’s spectral, invocation-like vocals and churning guitar work or Bill Nace’s reality altering guitar conjurings, the duo have spent over a decade creating a singular body of work that rides that very knife’s edge. Are their sonic constructions here to help you or to harm you? To guide you to safety or to lead you into ruin? Where the listener sits mentally at any given moment helps determines the outcome along countless dualities. This mastery over unpredictability is why I have constantly considered them the most potent band going.
While time the past few years has been strange in all walks of day-to-day reality, Body/Head continues forwards as a force as constant as the tides. They offer forth the Come On EP now as a sort of proof of life photo, a transmission to remind you that they are still out here and ready to serve on a moment’s notice. Its four tracks have been assembled from a combination of old and new parts to create a composite whole that is every bit as vital as any other chapter within their discography. Equal parts raw and shine, current statement and hint of future releases to come, Come On is Body/Head operating on all cylinders. The concept was to create a statement along the lines of classic 2x7” EPs like Chain Gang’s Deuce Package or Dynasty’s Gate and to that end Come On delivers in full."
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Kim Gordon--Vocals, Electric Guitar, Synth
Bill Nace----Electric Guitar, Piano, Echoplex
Engineered by Seth Manchester and Vice Cooler
Additional home recording by Kim Gordon
Mixed and Produced by Bill Nace and Seth Manchester
OM78/TLR147
(Released as a Double 7inch
Split release between Open Mouth Records and Three Lobed Records)
Creative alchemy doesn’t just happen in the studio or in the practice space; so much of it is the product of solo time with one’s instrument, learning how body and wood and electronics fuse, and of subconscious processes as one lives one’s daily life—picking up the ambient noise of the world outside, listening to others’ work, talking through ideas with friends. For Kim Gordon and Bill Nace, time together these days is limited to live performances and recording, so they’ve gotto bring all their magic to every encounter. Lucky for us, these are two experimental sorcerers of significant renown.
Their debut album together as Body/Head, Coming Apart, from 2013, was more of a rock record—heavy, emotional, cathartic, spellwork in shades of black and grey. The Switchis their second studio full-length, and it finds the duo working with a more subtle palette, refining their ideas and identity. Some of it was sketched out live (if you’ve not had the fortune of seeing them in that natural environment yet, see 2016’s improvisational document No Waves), but much of it happened purely in the moment. Working in the same studio and with the same producer as Coming Apart, here Body/Head stretch out, making spacious pieces that build shivering drones, dissonant interplay, Gordon’s manipulated vocals, and scraping, haunting textures into something that feels both delicate and dangerous. Less discrete songs than one composition broken up into thematic movements, a slow-moving narrative that requires as much attention and care from the listener as it did from everyone involved in its creation, it is a record that sticks around after it’s done playing.
