Prayer in Dub

NYを拠点とする4人組バンド、Body Meπaのニューアルバム。即興音楽、ロック、ジャズ、フュージョン、コンテンポラリー・クラシックの伝統が交錯した、曲の構成や雰囲気の新たな実験に挑み、エネルギーや感情的共鳴の意図的なシフトを示唆する、より長い曲から簡潔な曲まで幅広い展開。

Body Mepa is an instrumental quartet consisting of veterans of the New York music scene, each boasting a lengthy and impressive resume. Guitarist Sasha Frere-Jones is a respected music journalist and founder of post-rock group Ui; Greg Fox is a boundary-pushing drummer and experimental electronic artist who has played in groups such as Liturgy, Ex Eye, and Zs; bassist Melvin Gibbs has worked with countless jazz and rock legends from Sonny Sharrock to Henry Rollins; and guitarist Grey McMurrays collaborators include Laraaji, John Cale, and Sō Percussion. All of this is to say that these musicians are highly disciplined, and they have an uncommon chemistry as a unit. While they sounded somewhat like a noise-rock jam band on their debut, 2021s The Work Is Slow, their 2024 follow-up Prayer in Dub is on an entirely different plane. Often flowing seamlessly from piece to piece, Prayer in Dub is a transcendent work that continually elevates with each passing moment. "Etel" begins with rolling drums and angular yet airy guitars, ever ascending towards ecstasy. "Adnan" suspends euphoric guitar textures in mid-air and adds several gripping basslines. "Deborah" has knottier, more abrasive guitar playing over a more ambling, back-country rhythm. "Scout" begins lo-fi and reserved, then shifts into clarity as the patterns become more defined and detailed. The drumbeats twist into dazzling formations, yet everything else builds at a steadier pace, and by the end its all developed into an all-powerful force. "Goodbye" feels like spaghetti Western riffs getting swept off into the distant sunset, calmly ending an album that is at times overwhelmingly beautiful. ~ Paul Simpson