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The Bodies Obtained

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Location: New York, NY

Website: http://www.myspace.com/thebodiesobtained

Bio: The path that leads to The Bodies Obtained is a long one. Conceived in Detroit, MI, not much is known of the extremely elusive duo ... (more) (there isn’t even an existing photograph of the artists) other than the fact that they took their name from the Joy Division song “Day of the Lords”, and whatever other little bits of information they make available to the public via cryptic press releases sent to the media from within the band’s camp. The Bodies Obtained are of indiscriminate age, and are somewhat involved in the music industry, watching it cannibalize itself from the inside while creating music on their own terms. TBO is only now fielding their first album, From The Top Of My Tree to the greater public. A timeless piece of music, …My Tree could have been conceived in 1978, 1988, 1998 or 2008: it’s the sonic documentation of an ongoing project that spans electronica, experimental rock and synth-pop from a group who have experienced it all. With songs akin to those of Brian Eno, the Residents, Throbbing Gristle, and Fad Gadget, TBO use their anonymity to lead the listener to explore a realm that could be associated with those bands: an obscure place where nothing is quite what to expect around the next bend. Discord and discomfort are as important as reward and satisfaction, and the album is a living, breathing testament to that rhetoric. The music itself is heavier than most electronic bands out there, more synths, more echo, more ether, more meaning. One member of TBO attests: “For us the band’s name also ties into our reason for making music. Due in part, to that perfect act of nature that put us here, in this body, at this time and place. Finding music attractive, it has forced us to express our ‘art damaged’ selves through it”. Song titles like “Let the Worm Seize the Day” and “The Pig that I Am”, channeling even more ‘80s electro gloom, validate the band’s statements off the bat.

Having never performed live, The Bodies Obtained prefer to crate their own universe on their own and present it, fully formed, to the world, but who knows what the future will bring? More music, certainly, now that this first dispatch has seen the light of day. More love songs perhaps, like “If You’re In Love With Me”, and more cold-fusion synth production, of course. Whatever it is, we can be sure that The Bodies Obtained will do It on their own terms, in their own method, and in their own world. (less)