No strangers to a collaboration album, having worked with artists such as Uniform, Thou, Full Of Hell and Big Brave; Rhode Island’s boundary pushing duo The Body continue their consistent and relentless release schedule. This time around they find themselves teaming up with the post-industrial sonic sculptor Dis Fig, aka Felicia Chen, no stranger to boundary pushing within her own world of experimental electronica, warped DJ sets and noise projects (as well as a notable feature as vocalist for The Bug on 2020 album In Blue). With both acts being well respected in their scene’s, they make for a natural pairing, blending and pushing each other’s concepts of extremes for a truly unique and challenging project.
Orchards of a Futile Heaven lets its tendrils creep in slowly, opening track ‘Eternal Hours’ stirs to life with disembodied noise pulses at rhythmic intervals, low end bass hits and flourishes of cymbal splashes. Unintelligible vocal samples are chopped, warped and layered, soaked in effects and delay, curating an uneasy soundscape from the get go. The tension is a slow build, Dis Fig’s ethereal soft sung vocals juxtapose the abrasive elements of the instrumental and trademark pained vocal howls The Body are well known for. Its simultaneously somewhat distressing, yet hypnotic, which becomes a regular occurrence across the seven tracks.
“The levels of each artists prominence in any given track is regularly traded back and forth”
Initial singles ‘Holy Lance’ and ‘Dissent, Shame’ both lean a little closer to the more accessible style of Dis Fig; the former a four minute blast of swelling bass synths and abstract chirpy instrumentals, revelling in haunting vocal melodies and playing with dynamic intensities, building to a dramatic and powerful crescendo. ‘Dissent, Shame’ at times feels like a more abstract, lo-fi experimental version of an Alice Glass track with its pulsing feedback loops, glassy synth melodies and multi-layered and impassioned vocal harmonies.
On the other hand, ‘To Walk a Higher Path’ and title track ‘Orchards of a Futile Heaven’ lets The Body loose from the get go. ‘…Higher Path’ opening with destructive bass and expansive sample manipulations. Angry, fuzzy synthesis melds with glassy distant synths, the bands trademark vocals battle with Fig and balance each other’s intensities. ‘Orchards…’ kicks the doors down with the cathartic and horrifying vocal screams pierce their way through the soundscape regularly, accented by sharp inhalations and whines. The beat is resonant and percussive to start but become warped, glitchy and unpredictable as the track continues.
Despite having different approaches to their crafts, the way The Body and Dis Fig explore each others creative sampling techniques and curating of noise scapes is highly enthralling. Dis Fig’s use of haunting synth melodies are strewn throughout The Body’s oppressive and overwhelming noise-scape curation, her soft sung and highly emotive vocals regularly contrasting and opposing the duo’s piercing animalistic cries. The levels of each artists prominence in any given track is regularly traded back and forth, showing flourishes of each style at any moment.
“Their obvious chemistry with Dis Fig has led to one of the most interesting and emotionally intense projects so far.”
‘Coils of Kaa’ is the peak of this stylistic melding and at over nine minutes long, savours every moment of this. The track title brings to mind serpentine imagery which is reflected in the instrumental; manipulated samples are woven across the nine minutes, skittering, almost sounding like the hissing of a snake slithering atop the thunderous head rattling bass resonating in the listeners skull. Fig’s vocals slowly unravel throughout, becoming manipulated in stranger ways, succumbing to the weight of the bit crush and in no time at all begins howling, much like her collaborators The Body are known for. Unease permeates the whole track, distant manic rambling and screams are sampled, massive noisy drones and resonant earth hums persist, slowly growing in power and intensity until the closing moments.
‘Coils of Kaa’ fades smoothly into album closer ‘Back To The Water’, the dissonant and clashing tones letting the tension fade away as a soft organ or horn synth hums in the background. A lot of the grit of the instrumental is washed away initially, the samples are cleaner and more intelligible, the percussion has tonality and the drones take a step back from being all consuming. Dis Fig’s vocals are clean as a whistle without layers and layers of effects. The closing track inevitably builds to a crescendo, the vocals becoming manic and The Body’s distinct howls work their way in to overwhelm the synths, wailing feedback and dissonant chords start to glitch and decay before the album abruptly grinds to a halt.
Orchards of a Futile Heaven is another grand success in the long line of collaborative work from The Body. Their obvious chemistry with Dis Fig has led to one of the most interesting and emotionally intense projects so far. This may not open the doors to anyone who wasn’t already a fan of the full-on noise practitioners previous works, however it hopefully showcases the ongoing potential of Dis Fig to a different audience who may not have been familiar with the artists prior work.