Body/Head is the experimental noise project of Kim Gordon and Bill Nace, who make eerie and satisfying sounds together. The duo’s new album, The Switch, is out July 13 via Matador. “You Don’t Need,” the record’s first single, is a hint at the dissonance to come. Clocking in at five minutes, “You Don’t Need” is dark and expansive, featuring pulsing synths, battling guitars and Gordon’s wailing, buried vocals. The track is an unsettling, yet oddly soothing experience.
Together, Gordon and musician Bill Nace mine beauty from minimalist depths with sonically abstract compositions that may barely run 60 seconds or evolve with molasses precision over the course of 17 minutes. Following Body/Head’s 2013 debut, Coming Apart, and the 2016 live album, No Waves, the two have united once more for The Switch.
Clocking in at 40 minutes in all, Body/Head’s latest record continues the band’s narrative of melodic, heavy meditations, underscored by Gordon’s vocals and two guitars locked in rousing dialogue. While some might see the lack of percussion as an obstacle to be conquered, Gordon and Nace instead find their particular arrangement invigorating.
“We don’t see it as limited,” Gordon says. “We make rhythms with our guitars.”
The Fat Angel Sings 