Orchards of a Futile Heaven

2019年に PTP (PURPLE TAPE PEDIGREE)からの衝撃的デビュー作『PURGE』、そして翌年の2020年にはTHE BUGとのコラボレーションを果たしHYPERDUBからリリースするなど、その名を知らしめたFELICIA CHEN = DIS FIGとドゥーム / スラッジ・バンド、THE BODYによるコラボレーション・アルバムがTHRILL JOCKEYよりCD / LPリリース。
「ヘヴィ・ミュージック 」を共通項にドゥーム・メタル、スラッジ、ノイズ、インダストリアル、パワーエレクトロニクスをカオティックな空間の中、融合させる力技を見せつけています。

Dis Figs challenging, cathartic work ranges from boundary-breaking DJ sets to post-industrial noise and performance art. Several years after making the astounding In Blue with the Bug, she teamed up with the Body, a duo who have always resisted categories but never fail to produce unrelentingly bleak and heavy music. Orchards of a Futile Heaven is sludgy and apocalyptic like one would expect from such a collaboration, but theres delicate elements which give the smoldering fire and ashes an ethereal glow. "Eternal Hours" is a march of crunching static with floating dub echoes, countering intimate sighs with harrowing screeches. "To Walk a Higher Path" incorporates field recordings of whoops and hollers into a fractured, buzzing rhythmic framework, setting up for a sort of chain reaction between the calm and harsh vocals. Dis Figs multi-tracked harmonies coalesce into an anguished wail during "Dissent, Shame," which strangely feels like the albums most pop-influenced moment. By the end of the album, though, Dis Figs vocals sound as tormented as the Bodys Chip King. "Coils of Kaa" is a nine-minute dirge filled with haunted shrieks and thudding percussive waves. "Back to the Water" starts out calmly but soon turns into a sort of torch song from hell, with Dis Fig lamenting "I miss you" before being engulfed in distorted throbbing. The Body and Dis Fig make perfect sense as collaborators, and Orchards of a Futile Heaven is appropriately beautiful and terrifying. ~ Paul Simpson