By: Jamie Jones
Dope Body | facebook |
I get the feeling Dope Body would like to be a more difficult band than they actually are. Despite being a labelled a noise band the label has rarely fit them well – sure, they’ve always been loud, but that’s not quite the same as being Noise. They’ve seldom submitted to the chaos the noise genre demands, instead lacing their songs with neat hooks amidst the din. Their last outing, Lifer, sounded like they’d given up trying to be awkward and pushed their internal pendulum as far towards conventional song craft as they could. The way they tell it you’d think Kunk would sound like them stepping aside to let it swing back towards mayhem.
According to the band the 10 tracks here were written between takes whilst recording Lifer when they left the tape running and moulded the jams into songs. Opener ‘Casual’ has a loose drum groove that’s definitely the product of jamming, and whilst Zachary Utz’s guitar screeches and wails and Andrew Laumann’s voice is smothered in distortion and reverb one thing is immediately clear – even when they’re aiming for experimental Dope Body can’t help but being catchy. ‘Casual’, ‘Old Grey’ and ‘Down’ are probably the closest thing to pop songs the band have ever written – the latter of the three coming across like a corroded take on new wave. With different production they could be fit for radio.
There are a few noisey instrumentals on here; – two in the first four songs, which dulls the albums momentum and gives the impression this is a more experimental record than it really is. But they’re entirely forgettable. They sound like pieces the Infinity Machines incarnation of GNOD would shake their head at and maybe warp into something with a bit more bite. Some of the songs do bring the noise in a more abrasive fashion – closer ‘Void’ is a freight train of caustic rock that rampages onwards until it comes off the rails for a messy crash of a finish and ‘Goon Line’ sounds like malfunctioning industrial, like someone has jammed an axe into the console, all hissing static and mechanical whines. But even when pummelling away Dope Body can’t help but show a little more brains than brawn – the delicate cymbal work of David Jacober belies the thuggish one-two thump that makes up the songs hook.
Laumann is developing into a fine vocalist, but not necessarily a fine punk vocalist – he may attack the notes like a leopard on a gazelle but he’s still got his focus on melody as much as on power. And his lyricism is surprisingly considered for what’s supposed to be a largely improvised set. What most people will likely remember from ‘Old Grey’ is his seemingly ludicrous yells of “I’m living in a trashcan!” like Oscar the Grouch breaking down in an AA meeting, but if you strain and make out his distorted words he paints a vivid portrait of the squalor of the underground scene – “All I see is disgruntled basements / brutalized stages / holes in the hallway / boarded up faces.” You’re not entirely sure whether he’s hating or relishing being amongst the grime and grot – “tell me what’s real/tell me what to feel” he demands. Confusion is sex, as some other serial guitar abusers once said. Kunk might not be that but it’s conflicted nature is, at times, quite seductive.
Dope Body have often sounded like a band being pulled in several directions – their love of 90s US hardcore outliers and noisey alt-rock is evident but they’ve never sounded quite sure whether they want to take it in weirder or more accessible territory. On Kunk they almost manage to do both – I don’t think they have it in them to go fully avant-garde, but the scuzzy off-kilter rock they’ve ended up with suits them just fine anyway. Utz may still be their secret weapon – like the best noise guitarists he sounds less like a man playing an instrument and more like one doing battle with static and feedback and fighting to force it into shapes – but it’s the oddly danceable backbeat and Laumann’s growing confidence as a vocalist and a singer that makes up the heart of Kunk. They’re still a band at war with themselves; a struggle which every now and again brings out the best in them.
