Photo Credit: Body Meat
STARCHRIS DUE AUGUST 23RD VIA PARTISAN RECORDS
Body Meat shares his third offering, “North Side,” off of his debut album Starchris, due August 23rd via Partisan Records. The album blends chaos, complexity, and pop appeal, drawing inspiration from the intricate world-building and storytelling found in role-playing video games. In it, Body Meat – the musical project of Chris Taylor – weaves a narrative akin to a transformative hero’s journey, with unexpected turns and dynamic levels of intricacy, ultimately culminating in moments of realization and peace that play out in the music itself.
Following the pounding thrills of previous single “High Beams,” “North Side,” unfolds slowly like a brief respite in the hero’s journey, nourished by Chris’ layered vocals at song’s core. “North Side” arrives alongside a visualizer that features gameplay from a video game that Chris coded himself. Chris depicts feelings of uncertainty through glitchy syncopated synths and abrupt sonic changes as the protagonist delves deeper into the virtual landscape, still struggling to beat the level.
In his own words, Chris outlines the game’s central plot: “A shop keep returns to his forest after a long and tiring journey. Hesitant, he runs across the bridge that connects the world to his home. A strange patron awaits him. He is used to selling great weapons that help keep the realm at peace. Upon entering his humble shop he is thrust into a void: A great orb is unleashed. The orb engulfs the forest and chases the shop-keep deeper into the void. A mysterious being appears and helps the shop keep escape the orb. Thrust into a realm between worlds, here the shop keep makes a stand and must defeat the orb to bring the forest back and return to the place he once called home.”
Body Meat’s video game will be available to be downloaded on Mac and PC soon.
Building upon performances at SXSW earlier this year, including Stereogum’s official showcase and his inaugural Body Meat Lost Odyssey club night in NYC, Body Meat will be DJing at TV Eye on June 22nd. The event titled “Spiral,” is a nomadic event series curated by YEAR0001 that showcases emerging and innovative artists. The night will also include performances by Full Body 2, Club Casualties, Purelink, and Black Decelerant.
Since creating the moniker in 2016, Taylor’s releases as Body Meat have functioned like distinct musical sandboxes with different dimensions and house rules established for each one. Taking inspiration from early stints in Denver art-rock bands, Taylor’s music as Body Meat is rooted in piecing together the debris in the aftermath of unpredictable genre clashes and making sense of them. His singular blend of trap production and Ethiopian / funk music on his two previously released EPs, Truck Music (2019) and Year of the Orc (2021), existed in a plane all of their own, with Pitchfork describing the latter as “chaotic, overwhelming stuff, which is part of the point.”
Body Meat
Starchris
Partisan Records
August 23, 2024
1. A Tone in The Dark
2. The Mad Hatter
3. High Beams
4. Electrische
5. Focus
6. Right Here
7. Crystalize
8. North Side
9. Starchris
10. Im In Pieces
11. Demons
12. Õbu No Seirei (Spirit of an Orb)
13. Paradise
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