Brooklyn’s Uniform and Portland’s the Body are two of the world’s harshest purveyors of postindustrial noise, so it was really only a matter of time before these like-minded duos joined forces to up the ante. On this summer’s Mental Wounds Not Healing (Sacred Bones), the members of both bands bring all their signature tricks to the table in laying out seven succinct tracks of unadulterated darkness. Some songs drag behind the beat due to the purposeful sludge-drumming of the Body’s Lee Buford, while his bandmates grind ahead, propelled by the pushy, repetitive electronic beats. Seemingly endless waves of guitar feedback and droning synth bass are layered so their sounds are distorted beyond recognition, creating an uneasy base for vocalists Michael Berdan and Chip King to bounce their unmistakable vocal styles off of each other: Berdan’s raw, deranged rhythmic approach to his lines adds a tiny bit of stability to King’s shrieks—which sound like those of a wounded prehistoric beast. Mental Wounds Not Healing is not made for the faint of heart, and the sheer volume and dark energy Uniform and the Body separately bring to the stage means that a collaborative live show will be at least as ferocious. v
Purveyors of postindustrial noise Uniform and the Body team up for Mental Wounds Not Healing
