Released almost eight months ago, yet once again a way too precious recording to ignore…
Country (for what it’s worth): U.S.A.
Members: Bruce Moallem
Production: Bruce Moallem
Mastering: Simon Heath
Artwork: Simon Heath
Type: six-panel digipack compact-disc
Duration: 75:39
Genre: harsh yet introspective Dark Ambient / Drone / Doomwave / Sad Post-Rock
Introduction: with the Demosthenic title The Weight Of Regression – I will come back to this subject immediately – God Body Disconnect offers us its eighth album under that moniker. God Body Disconnect is the major solo-act by Bruce Moallem, whom you might recognize as well as part of the Cryo Chamber Collective, Underwater Sleep Orchestra, and who recently started a new project, focusing on doomed Dungeon Synth, called Vikorra Doom (you can expect a review on this outfit’s debut soon!).
I referred to the importance of the album’s title (as a matter of fact, this goes for about all God Body Disconnect recordings). Seen Bruce’s turbulent and complex past and present, where mental ill-being and a psychiatric history took control over (a part of) his life, this album canalizes some of his personal thoughts, ideas, and visions. He ‘serves us a harrowing story dealing with traumas, regrets, and gnawing thoughts of revenge’ and ‘drags us down to the mysterious, brooding pathways of the innermost self’ (taken from the label’s biography for this specific release).
Content: the introducing part is a fragment from some interview (at least, I think it is), a recording that lies at the roof of an intake conversation or so. A deep voice narrates, asks questions, reassures. Soon, however, things evolve into harsher proportions of auditioned darkness, when eerie drones, ghostly synth-waves, chaotic field recordings, metallic mechanics and piercing noises float by. Momentary drums fortify the dense, oppressive atmosphere. After about three minutes, then again, things morph into a pounding heaviness, when down-tuned strings (so heavily droning), gloomy synths and menacing beats, all of them multiple-layered, get canalized into one colossal, partly introvert and partly expressive, synthesis of captivating ambience. Emotions appear: nostalgia, tristesse, incomprehension, helplessness, regret, anxiety, even disorientation and agitation… And still everything evolves – and that’s a strength behind, or around, God Body Disconnect’s personal, appealing sonic magnificence. At seven minutes, other found sounds enter, as well as another spoken passage from some candid confession-oriented source. Little later, industrial clamor and electronic rumbles paint a vision of confusion and discomfort, like a reflection of a scarred face in a broken mirror that isn’t yours.
This is the story of The Weight Of Regression. Through a combination of field recordings / samples (from sounds from the subway or the street [like trains or sirens], over recorded voices [taken from many angles], to door-locks and machines, or elements of nature, and so much more), doomed string-based drone-textures (varying from melancholic over eerie to overwhelmingly heavy), and an almost decadent and opulent amalgam of both beautifully-mesmerizing as well as deeply-haunting and softly-sedative keyboards, this soundtrack accompanies the listener into a somewhat mysterious yet captivating dreamworld beneath one’s subconsciousness.
Besides those enigmatic Dark Drone Ambient alike parts, God Body Disconnect brings forth some chapters of tranquil Post-Rock / Sad Americana / Doomgaze too; cf. a curious, peculiar piece like Dosed And Dreaming (what a title…), created around a spine of dreamish guitars and strange yet intriguing drum-patterns (it’s not that strange that Lynch / Badalamenti do come to mind, is it…). Or what about the overwhelming yet despondent monument Remnants Of A Soldier, with those massive Doom-laden guitars, those militant drums, that lead that carries you away, and those additional voices…
Conclusion: The Weight Of Regression for sure is the most enigmatic, dismal and secretive God Body Disconnect recording to date (and my personal favorite, for what it’s worth). It’s more than an open-hearted, idiosyncratic and reflexive narration; it’s a wistful and thoughtful tale of life; a human’s life and it’s many limits, it’s sorrows and its dark-minded considerations.
https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/album/the-weight-of-regression
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/god-body-disconnect
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/god-body-disconnect-0
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/atrium-carceri-cities-last-broadcast-god-body-disconnect