Need New Body - s/t
(Cenotaph)

The music here is all about the rhythm, sounding like Can's kraut rock taking a trip to the center of an American city, getting beat up, and being left for dead with no pants on. The rhythms vary greatly in sound, using everything from banjos and sitars to saxophones and the human voice, but always are a communal affair with all members of the band (including guests from Bablicon) pledging allegiance to the same groove. But unlike a lot of rhythm-centric albums, there is a lot going on along the edges, in between, and everywhere else that isn't right in the middle of that one sludgy groove, showing a wild, overactive imagination not just in rhythm creation but in album creation as well.

Relating listening to the album to a trip to an odd amusement park is not too far off, as much of the album revolves around a single storyline--likely the result of odd hallucinations itself--that is strange enough to be the basis of the world's first drug-themed amusement park. The narrator of the story is a flamboyant man who approaches the listener to get back an owed $20 and to warn of the presence of a certain ominous banana-stealing "monkey." As the story evolves, somehow dragons and a pissed off Japanese man get involved; if all this sounds juvenile, it certainly is not treated as such, as the voice acting is all given with an urban, Bohemian flair that makes the story sound hip even if underneath it is pure ridiculousness.

This play, both voice acting and related sound effects, is a persistent thread throughout a large part of the album, appearing both in loose, improvised songs that seem to be included to continue the plot as well as added on top of full songs with solid grooves. "20$ish" starts the story, introducing the narrator and the storyline while a clanging cacophony of notes is played, echoing the warning about the monkey's presence. "Monkey Dancer" is another section of the play but is actually a composed song, using organ and what sounds like kazoos to create a jumpy groove, with all the dialog and sound effects happening on top--the angry Japanese guy having his tirade and an "I told you so" from the narrator.

While the songs with voice acting are easy to identify as being part of the play, many songs don't seem to have much to do with the story and work very well stand-alone. "Banji" is a country/folk sing-along with jazz undertones. Taking the pots-and-pans clang of the lead-in track, "Gamble On," "Banji" rests on a bouncy pattern of trumpet blurts that are soon counter-balanced by several human voices mimicking a higher-pitched trumpet. Saxophone trills and blares fill out the background. "C.R. Eyeball" is another great song, using a sound like shuffling feat as the beat to the track, with a plinking piano sound as the main melody. It's quite similar to a Black Heart Procession song only with a lead singer doing more of a strained blues wail along with silly but complimentary background vocals. Contrary to these songs, instrumental "Dirty Bitch" echoes the harsh tribalism of This Heat's "Horizontal Hold."

After the voice acting is over--and therefore the play as well--there's still a third of the album left to be heard, and some will find this section of the album to be the most adventurous part. "IiImpi" starts off with a simple sitar part, but eventually that instrument fades to the background, finally giving the saxophone enough room to let loose, probably the only instance of soloing on the album. "Black Kite," on the other hand, is a weird concoction of beats and guitar sounds--sounding like lawn mowers running, rayguns exploding, and coffee percolating--while a pleasant, sparse piano part is being played in the background. "Witchipoo" is a new wave dance track with a high-pitched keyboard riff; only it has two lengthy raja ganja sitar jams stuck in the middle of it. The album is capped off by the annoyingly funny "Crak," a reprise of the charismatic narrator from the play. Sounding like a studio outtake, the vocalist directs the saxophonist on what to play and then breaks into some righteous Michael Jackson-style singing while the rest of the band laughs uncontrollably in the background.

Need New Body is a rare record that is able to pull you into its world and keep you there, combining elements from rock bands like the kraut of Can and pre-post-rock of This Heat and jazz bands like Sun Ra. There are elements of the band's sound that aren't enjoyable (the flamboyance of the narrator can be grating). However, these distractions take up only a small amount of space on the album, and when the band comes together to form one dense, thick rhythm, it is total immersion.

jim steed 2001 aug 17