#!/bin/bash
This is how you begin a bash script, and I’ve written a few of them out of boredom. One I’ve put the most work into is an endless loop that spews out appreciation (or weird things) in response to an artist’s name. I’ve written it to sound very human. This album, “Mosey“, reminds me of that script and its almost human-like presence in Terminal, and the inherent limitations it has communicating, and that trouble communicating partly reminds me of myself.
Bodycatchers is a new music project of James Selidoras, an artist whose love for adventure has taken him to many places. Originally he was part of Rexmanningday and Hail Seizures and toured extensively as an active party of the underground punk scene. As time went on hearing and performing the same kind of music, the artist started to feel things are becoming stale. The excitement was understandably gone until James discovered and started listening to New Order, Glass Candy, and The Chromatics among others. That was a moment of reinvention and a huge boost of inspiration, and James started exploring and experimenting with sounds, influenced by many different genres. Bodycatchers is a project where he has practically abandoned the traditional sound of punk and embraced a much different atmosphere. It’s synth-laden dark and dancy electronic music, and it sounds a little bit as if Bruce Haack had combined forces with Daft Punk and gained an additional edge of emotion from Moby.
The project has just released its first EP – “Mosey”. The release consists of 5 tracks, each exploring themes of love through the lens of space explorations and science. Vocals warped to become robotic and sometimes almost unintelligible at speaking out its mind feels like machines dabbling with love and emotions. Not becoming any wiser of it or finding any answers, but each try seems to take them closer. It’s a human lost in space (of feelings) with a communication platform being the only connection to reality. The limitation of words and warped speech makes for thought broadcast both scrambled and yet clear as water.
“Contact” brings to an isolated yet large spaceship, full of lights and indicators moving intact with the beat. Introspective thoughts fill the head. “Many Worlds In·ter·pre·ta·tion” sounds like being dangerously close to a belt of tiny meteorites shooting past and burning in Earth’s atmosphere. Things start to malfunction a bit and adrenaline level rises in soundscape full of excited synths and his vocals warped to sound like something coming from a slowed-down tape machine.
“Infrared” is a cosmic tune playing in an extraterrestrial dancehall densely populated yet it feels somewhat alone. There is a hope of love and passion in the air, and you’re the one human giving a good look at everyone to detect the sheen of metal underneath, searching for someone as flesh and bones as you are. “No Body” follows with pulsing synths and a rather ominous atmosphere it brings in contrast with the vocals flickering like a holograph. “Are You Sleeping?” ends the EP in the most spiritual and peaceful key. It sounds as if you’ve reached the inner sanctum, this sort of a slightly damaged palace that holds the truth you’ve been seeking for. Populated and held together by machines and forces you cannot understand, the messages still look scrambled, but for some reason, you no longer feel the need to decipher. A peaceful afterthought to a journey feeling alienated by yourself and all the others, and slowly working through things as it carried on.
The backstory of the EP is that I was in another project- an emo band- called rexmanningday. We broke up cause some folks moved away and I was starting my BS in Environmental Chemistry. I got wrapped up in school and tried to start a few new projects but had trouble getting folks to stick with it. Then covid. As that happened I started listening to Light Asylum, Bronski Beat and Talking Heads a bunch. I had never considered synths. So, I used it as an opportunity to teach myself synthesis and not need to rely on anyone else- the project is basically me avoiding guitar (what I always play) in order to learn. In the process, as I learned more about science, I started to shift the imagery and context of the lyrics. The two biggest drivers were the story a friend from russia told me about Soyuz-1 and how I have trouble communicating. Its about recognizing sentience or humanity- and its sort of a love letter to the possible future where a computer digests all of our human history/output to understand us and hopefully it will find these songs from me to them. I am kinda misunderstood but feel like I understand these computers/synthesizers more than people. So it’s mostly for this totally ridiculous future fever dream.
James Selidoras
It’s a beautiful album exploring the emotional complexity within ourselves and the struggles communicating with others and trying to bring forth what you really feel. It is really difficult, and it’s laden with those little aggressively blinking error LEDs when you fear you did something wrong… But ultimately, it’s all about how a person feels trying to work out all those emotions.
Don’t forget to support this project and to follow on Instgram, Facebook, Twitter, SoundCloud, YouTube, and Spotify. If you enjoy her music and are able to provide monetary support, you might consider downloading it on Bandcamp.
You can obviously find it in the following Playlists: Less Than 1,000 Followers, Indie Only, Alterindie State Of Mind, and, Sickest & Dopest.
P.S. If you enjoy discovering new artists and fresh new music you can subscribe to this blog Less Than 1,000 Followers and follow the Playlist with all the artists that we have presented here!!!
This coverage was created via MusoSoup #Sustainablecurator