Search - Body Haters :: 34:13

The Final Product

Noel Pratt | Washington, D.C., and better places | 06/15/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is where the darkness leads us, once the play of bodies and "love/hate" becomes too tiresome. It leads us back to where it all issues, all flesh. Back to the Darkness Itself. And on another level, this is what is soon to come, isn't it, those of you who've heard this piece...this sheet-metal wall of mechanized menace. Where all flesh is currently "head"ed. 34:13 is Industrial beyond attitude. M.Gira (of Swans and Angels of Light) is the responsible party, and the beauty is that you are tempted to hero worship, yet alternately figure maybe the purest "evil" simply found the nearest available channel. Whatever the case, something's going on here. Thomas Ligotti, take note!

REVIEW NO. 2 (August): A Grey Darker Than Black...and even scarier. The voice of true metal. Solid-state and heavy grinding. Not talking guitars here. Talking about the sound of being caught up in the wheels of the Machine, not just singing a song about it like Pink Floyd. How is this art? Better to ask yourself what kind of psychomusical genius is M. Gira (Swans). Or, imagine Chaplin's MODERN TIMES on acid. Or the WTC screaming as it went down, thus revealing itself to have been a sentient being all this time, an overlord working the marketplace of meat and suddenly all its grist can no longer abide it. That is the hollow-heavy/hallowed sound here, terrifyingly accurate as it first sounds an eerie warning, then begins to realize its own self-precipitated collapse, and then, like the auto-destruct of the "Nostromo" (ALIEN), moves toward the strangely ordained end -- going out nevertheless with the postprophetic inflectionary tantrum of Robo sapiens. If you can remember the LOST IN SPACE episode where the characters get lost in their suddenly overgrown robot, there is at times that kind of a feel in 34:13. A comparison to its companion piece: For the most part, The Body Lovers actually succeeds more at pure horror, whereas The Body Haters succeeds at a more pure emotion -- terror. If you like this, do seek out Thomas Ligotti's award-winning short story "The Red Tower." Each a marvelous work and a wonder.



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