Band: Bodychoke
Album Title: Cold River Songs
Label: Relapse
Distributor: Rough Trade
Release date: 09/02/2009
Release: Re-issue CD (with bonus tracks; Re-mastered)

As the caption above reveals, this is a re-issue album, the original 1997 recordings re-mastered! Bodychoke was, because they ceased to exist in 1999, a weird British Noise Rock anomaly which defied proper categorisation and played alternating dark and violent music with frequent dissonance, which however never failed to be strangely hypnotic.

Formed by members of Sutcliffe Jugend and Whitehouse (singer/ guitarist Kevin Tomkins, guitarist/ singer Paul Taylor, cellist Mike Alexander, bassist Gary Kean, and drummers Manu Ros and Jamie Hitchens) in 1993, Bodychoke was to produce three albums (debut Mindshaft and sophomore album Five Prostitutes issued through the Freek imprint, the final one Cold River Songs released through the Purity label) during its lifetime, followed by the Completion compilation issued through 2ndFloorMafiaProductions). Cold River Songs has long been out of print, and today’s re-mastered version comes with three bonus tracks in a package which includes a booklet that contains the lyrics (which was no so with the original release). Although seen as pioneers in the field of Industrial/ Noise/ Power Electronics, there really wasn’t any electronics involved in this band except for that of their guitar pedal effects! In combination with a cello which can produce móre than just the soothing sounds we’re used to hear in symphony orchestras (heck, a cello can sound just as wacky as any guitar, with the added effect of falling within a very eerie sound palate!), you might imagine some people (among ‘em a collegue of mine who took the reference to the band for actual truth, listened to the opening moments of the album, and…lucky for me…decided against doin’ the review, after having first “demanded” to be enabled to do it!) believing that they indeed have to do with electonics after all!

Well, expect the band to go from eerie and whaling (ooh baby, at moments you’ll think you’re listening to the noises made by the actual sea animal)…sometimes even soothing and moodily brooding, with a dark and deep voice alà Nick Cave on tranquilizers to match…to blurting blasts of aggression where the singer (another one?) has an aggressive and higher pitch. Occasionally the band leaves the listener in a confused state of mind by having several tracks roll into one another…and for your reviewer things are even made more difficult, as the label only sent us a cd-R copy of the album, cutting the 9 songs into 99 bits and pieces, additionally omitting to mention in the bio where exactly the songs are supposed to start! When I started listening more attentively to the music on my promo copy and tried to separate the songs, I funnily enough only found 6 tracks…and after a more extensive search on the Internet I found out that my assessment was even correct, the total length of my promo corresonding to that of the original album. So, I don’t know exactly whàt you can expect from the bonus material…you’ll just have to find out for yourselves! Well, it makes things the more exiting for it overall.

I’ve found music of the band at (www.)last.fm/music/Bodychoke (mostly off the three other albums). Personally, I lóve these kinds of bands, as you never grow weary of it with all the little details to be unravelled in the complex whole! Therefore you’ll denitely find this album listed in my year-lists, albeit in the “Re-Issues” category! Of course, I intend to go out and buy the retail version of the album, because listening to this has left me wanting for those bonus tracks!!!

98/100

Tony.