THE BODY AND DIS FIG - ORCHARDS OF A FUTILE HEAVEN

Released: 23/02/24

Given the osmium levels of heft inherent to The Body (AKA Lee Buford and Chip King) and Dis Fig (AKA Felicia Chen), the US artists’ coming together is more like a collision of two neutron stars, rather than a mere collaboration. Both have spent their careers pushing at the conceptual boundaries of what it means to make ‘heavy music’ – The Body via their phenomenal brand of experimental metal, exemplified by 2021’s I Need All I Need to See; and Dis Fig with her singular take on dark-electro (she’s also, it’s very much important to note, the vocalist for the sublime British industrial-dancehall artist The Bug) – and on their debut LP Orchards of a Futile Heaven, comprised of twisted melodicism, brain-melting rhythms, and punishing distortion and beats, topped off with Dis Fig’s voice, redolent of Beth Gibbons in a state of dark ecstasy, the two parties’ particular set of skills combine to make something remarkable indeed.