Natural History
With their never-ending chaotic rhythms, Dope Body sound as if they could rattle themselves apart at any moment, making *Natural History* so riveting. The most violent jam, “Beat,” is a noise rocker built atop battering bass and robotic drums, while “Out of My Mind”—grungy post-hardcore that gradually morphs into brutally percussive prog—is a close second. The band also offers up a clutch of killer hooks throughout, and Andrew Laumann’s slurred yowls surf on surging waves of fuzz in “Weird Mirror.”
Primal hardcore thrash vibes, ya'll gotta sit with this Natural History! A spasm of styles and directions, showering sparks from a half-melted mad thickness — welcome to the fold, boys!
The Baltimore noise-rock quartet's sophomore album, their first for Drag City, finds them softening their sound but still nailing the sweet spot between savagery and self-awareness.
Dope Body's second album finds the Baltimore quartet doing the kind of thing that's both thoroughly expected -- young 21st century band plays around in decades' worth of noise possibilities, with particular focus on '80s indie efforts -- and gratifying, in that at their best the group puts all the pieces together pretty damn well. The opening "Shook" acts as a fine statement of intent in that regard, starting with what appear to be distant chimes as well as cut-up scraggly and big slow drums, even while singer Andrew Laumann acts more as a calm pronouncer of words than a shouting or shrieking dervish. But if they're starting to resemble anyone in particular, it's almost where the late lamented Brainiac left off, combining that band's ear for compressed, twisted hooks with a thorough appreciation of all that noise legacy. It's not a bad route to go at all, and on songs like "Weird Mirror," "Road Dog," and "Powder," they balance out those sides very well. On the flip side, though, some songs tend to drag or otherwise seem dully ugly rather than compellingly grotesque, as can surface on what sounds like fairly un-ironic post-hardcore braggadocio on "Beat."
This Baltimorean quartet alternate between a slurring, droney development of Albini-style math rock, all grinding bass, delayed vocals and brutally clear percussion; and a playful, tongue-in-cheek take on hardcore punk, with plenty of jaunty basslines and frantically escalating power chords. On tracks like Powder, the harmonised lead guitars even reach towards something like hair metal, although the guttural vocals always keep things anchored at a scuzzier level.