RE-ANIMATORS

THE BODY

No One Deserves Happiness It was Julia Kristeva who first explored the idea of abjection, in her book The Powers of Horror, referring to the specific feeling of revulsion and cognitive dissonance someone experiences when suddenly forced to confront their own “corporeal reality” — that is, any moment when you face the fact that human beings are profoundly fragile, blood-and- shit-filled fleshbags cursed with a consciousness. It’s a central idea to the genre of body horror, and conceptually, it figures prominently in the latest full-length from experimental sludge duo the Body. It’s their strangest and most difficult record to date, which is saying something considering the depths that Lee Buford and Chip King have plumbed in the past. It’s not the visceral percussion assault of “For You” or the unrelenting punishment of “Adamah” that make the record especially challenging and merciless, but rather the way it marries violence and ugliness with pop sensibilities. On “Shelter Is Illusory,” there’s a howling desperation, but it’s married to an impudent catchiness that takes it from painful to deliciously skin- crawling. All the layered darkness and complex misery is shot through with shimmery moments of beauty too, courtesy of both these evil little twists of grace in the music as well as gorgeous guest vocals from Maralie Armstrong (Humanbeast) and Chrissy Wolpert (the Assembly of Light Choir). No matter how harrowing King’s cries become, how punitive the increasingly industrial percussion grows, or how profound the agony of the textured sound becomes, it’s these little moments of silvery beauty that make No One Deserves Happiness transcendent and unbearable. Settle in and endure. (Thrill Jockey, thrilljockey.com)

A GREAT DEAL OF YOUR WORK THAT THE BODY HAVE PRODUCED HAS BEEN INTENSELY COLLABORATIVE. HOW DO YOU CHOOSE WHO TO WORK WITH?

Guitarist/singer Chip King: Most of the people we work with, we know [and] trust what they do and how they do it. We let them have a hand in how they’re doing what they do. I think that comes from knowing them and trusting them, and let that kind of speak for itself, like with the way they do things.

SO IT’S MORE A QUESTION OF INTIMACY AND TRUST, RATHER THAN A SPECIFIC SOUND?

Yeah, 100 percent. NATALIE ZINA WALSCHOTS