Body Cargo - Secret Domain
Body Cargo continues to play the tempered style of cold Power Electronics with an obvious ambient and "Death Industrial" feel that we have come to expect. You should know, generally, what you are getting when you pick up a Body Cargo release. His sound directs a listener's attention to texture. Once you know you're getting those long rumbles and gradual changes, you focus more on the details and the assemblage of chosen sounds employed to provide the mood. In my opinion this album makes most sense, and is best heard, as a brief addendum to the 2 prior releases which came chronographicly before this cassette. Of course that isn't to say that you shouldn't get "Secret Domain" if you don't own the other releases, this cassette sounds great on its own as well. It can also be viewed as a somewhat methodical recapitulation of his career's primary themes, modes of expression and techniques to date.
On "Secret Domain" you can hear a bit of a progression in those familiar atmospherics, this time around there is more tension, a tension that can come to a climax at times and boil over, this is a bit of a change of pace for Body Cargo. There is more variety with those densely layered and immersive textures as well. Samples and vocals stand out more so than on previous works. These tracks vary from one to another (sometimes blatantly) in their construction materials and arrangements of said materials, yet each of the four tracks seem built to gradually reveal themselves as one seamless whole. I believe that the medium used here (a cassette) was a very smart choice in that the listener has to hear the material from beginning to end without skipping around, and this is the best way to take this album in, as a whole instead of a collection. The cassette is opened by a sample that is eventually capsized, the voice becoming faint as it echos away into the depths of the raw rumbling thickness of the recording. This is, essentially, a good representation of Body Cargo's sound in general. The adjective that I believe best suits the Body Cargo sound is "disembodied". A lo-fi, dissonance of disembodied electronic soundscapes drifting between samples, vocals and repetative Industrial crunch mashed together to create that thick, dense sound.
Overall, the only negative comments I can make is that this cassettes relatively short duration can leave you wanting more. And I also don't like the cover art. I really think that badly generated computer graphics should stay with Power Metal and Pop and should not be used for Noise/P.E. albums. But those are 2 very minor, and very picky, personal gripes. Throughout the album Body Cargo's focus, attention to diminutive details, choice of effects and "hands-on" craftsmanship allow these 4 short pieces to continuously yield new discoveries, while clearing a route for the next stage of Body Cargo's discography. If you can get a hold of this do so. If you can get a hold of "Konkrete" (put out by Waterpower) and the "Conspiracy of Containers" cassette on Autarkiea as well then I would highly suggest that you grab those up and listen to them sequentially in one sitting.
Body Cargo continues to play the tempered style of cold Power Electronics with an obvious ambient and "Death Industrial" feel that we have come to expect. You should know, generally, what you are getting when you pick up a Body Cargo release. His sound directs a listener's attention to texture. Once you know you're getting those long rumbles and gradual changes, you focus more on the details and the assemblage of chosen sounds employed to provide the mood. In my opinion this album makes most sense, and is best heard, as a brief addendum to the 2 prior releases which came chronographicly before this cassette. Of course that isn't to say that you shouldn't get "Secret Domain" if you don't own the other releases, this cassette sounds great on its own as well. It can also be viewed as a somewhat methodical recapitulation of his career's primary themes, modes of expression and techniques to date.
On "Secret Domain" you can hear a bit of a progression in those familiar atmospherics, this time around there is more tension, a tension that can come to a climax at times and boil over, this is a bit of a change of pace for Body Cargo. There is more variety with those densely layered and immersive textures as well. Samples and vocals stand out more so than on previous works. These tracks vary from one to another (sometimes blatantly) in their construction materials and arrangements of said materials, yet each of the four tracks seem built to gradually reveal themselves as one seamless whole. I believe that the medium used here (a cassette) was a very smart choice in that the listener has to hear the material from beginning to end without skipping around, and this is the best way to take this album in, as a whole instead of a collection. The cassette is opened by a sample that is eventually capsized, the voice becoming faint as it echos away into the depths of the raw rumbling thickness of the recording. This is, essentially, a good representation of Body Cargo's sound in general. The adjective that I believe best suits the Body Cargo sound is "disembodied". A lo-fi, dissonance of disembodied electronic soundscapes drifting between samples, vocals and repetative Industrial crunch mashed together to create that thick, dense sound.
Overall, the only negative comments I can make is that this cassettes relatively short duration can leave you wanting more. And I also don't like the cover art. I really think that badly generated computer graphics should stay with Power Metal and Pop and should not be used for Noise/P.E. albums. But those are 2 very minor, and very picky, personal gripes. Throughout the album Body Cargo's focus, attention to diminutive details, choice of effects and "hands-on" craftsmanship allow these 4 short pieces to continuously yield new discoveries, while clearing a route for the next stage of Body Cargo's discography. If you can get a hold of this do so. If you can get a hold of "Konkrete" (put out by Waterpower) and the "Conspiracy of Containers" cassette on Autarkiea as well then I would highly suggest that you grab those up and listen to them sequentially in one sitting.
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