The Body played a show booked last minute at Flywheel in Easthampton that was 100% worth the hour and a half drive. With Support from Worcester's Mountain Man, and noise artists Noise Nomads and Muslin, the art gallery was blaring with sound making your vision distorted. I'm not used to reviewing noise artists but I'll do my best, but Merzbow will be a default FFO.
Muslin
Genre: Electronic/Noise/Chillwave FFO: Merzbow, Teen Daze
When I saw a sound board set up, I was honestly dreading it based on the last noise artist I've seen and didn't enjoy at all, however, Muslin put his own creative spin on the genre. from what I could see on the sound board he had all his switches and dials, but also had what looked like his phone plugged in to act as a keyboard. while still using raw distortion and feedback, he created beautiful melodies with the keyboard and synthesizer being played over movie samples and oddly enough, dolphin noises. With all the lights out except for a light on his soundboard, the performance was very enjoyable, and I apologize for misjudging the music to begin with.
Noise Nomads
Genre: Noise/Sludge FFO: Merzbow, ?????
Noise Nomads put on a performance that I have never seen before and probably will never see again. Despite the name, Noise Nomads is a project put on by one person and the room was so dark I couldn't even see who it was. The setup was a bunch of different pedals on the ground that were plugged into what looked like a big metal Christmas tree with candles lit on the ends and two rocks holding down two ends of the "stump" while the rest of the tree is left to sway around, and a bass guitar that lay flat on the ground. The "christmas tree" is very hard to describe but if you've seen my snapchat (Feel free: coonxtang) you know what I am talking about. Anyway, what this artist did was cycle through different pedals to produce different noises which channeled through both the bass and the christmas tree. They basically played sounds through the tree by twirling it, flicking it, pushing it back and forth, or banging the rocks against it on the bottom. The sounds were as eerie as the performance was unique. eventually they picked up the bass and begin to strum very heavy muddy and distorted notes to the poit where you could almost see the sound. Overall this performance changed my view of noise music completely based on the fact that Noise Nomads combined the sound with a visual and made their own form of art that speaks for itself.
Mountain Man
Genre: Post-Metal/Sludge/Noise Metal FFO: Russian Circles, Downfall of Gaia, Devil Sold His Soul
Now if you know Mountain Man, you're probably looking at the genre right now thinking "what is he talking about?" well believe me I was shocked at the sound they have now. Unknowingly to me, Mountain Man recently released an album with a more post-metal sound than their usual chaotic hardcore. The band also unknowingly to me had a cello and two, yes thats right, two drummers. Mountain Man began with the cello playing a beautiful melody over a movie sample, which lasted for a while but really made you focus. Eventually the rest of the band joined in and played this beautiful post-metal sound that I never knew they had, my jaw dropped at how incredible it was.As for the two drummers, I couldn't really tell who was playing what until I heard one and didn't see the other but eventually I could actually distinguish the two and then I could understand why they had them both.
https://mountainmanhc.bandcamp.com/
The Body
Genre: Experimental/Electronic/Noise/Sludge Doom/Drone FFO: Sunn O))), Thou, Old Man Gloom
If You've seen The Body, you know what to expect. This was my second time seeing them. The Body set up their gratuitous amounts of speakers paired up with their two sound boards. during the check, they pointed out that it wasn't coming out of one of the speakers and I just thought "it already sounds super loud and clear as day, what difference would it make?" as soon as the speaker turned on I regretted saying these words. The Body began with their raw sound making everything rumble, so loud your vision would distort and no lights on except one green light very dimmed in the center. One thing I remembered from last time was how far away the vocalist would scream into the mic but you could still hear him perfectly fine. This time you could hear him so well that I feel like he didn't even need a mic. The sound was absolutely terrifying between the distortion and samples and the vocals everything could be heard perfectly. I feel like people walking by were thinking there were people in Flywheel suffering from being tortured. The Body is an audio assault that is not to be missed. You only get the full experience live.
https://thebody.bandcamp.com/
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