Aural Aggravation

The Body and Cel Genesis share ‘Whole Wide World,’ the title track and second preview from their debut collaborative album of the same name, out November 13 via Thrill Jockey.
The song wastes no time getting to the point, fusing the punishing force of power electronics with a bitter nihilism that runs throughout the record. Built on lyrics by Chip King and Pauline Poderoso about exhaustion and the limits of continuing to place hope in humanity, the track offers a direct distillation of what emerges when the two projects’ sounds and sensibilities collide.

That confrontation extends to the song’s construction. As Chris Danko of Cel Genesis explains, when bandmate Poderoso delivers the line “You want a key change?,” the song gives way not to a key change but to a crushing breakdown, a moment that plays with spectacle while deliberately addressing and challenging the listener.

About the track, Chris comments, “What was once before you – an exciting, mysterious future – is now behind you. Lived; understood; disappointing. You realise you are not special. You have struggled into existence, and are now slipping silently out of it. This is everyone’s experience.”

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The collaboration was first conceived on tour, with few parameters set in advance, letting Cel Genesis’ maximalist compositions and aggressive editing meet Body’s improvisational approach on even ground, with both projects pushing their ideas to their outermost limits. The resulting record draws heavily from trance, distortion, and experimental electronics, anchored by the visceral interplay of dual drumming from Lee Buford and Nick Cowman and the combined force of both groups’ vocals.

Recorded at Machines with Magnets by Seth Manchester, with additional recording by Andrew Oswald in California, Whole Wide World evolved over two years of recording and meticulous editing. Some songs began with electronic beds generated by Cel Genesis, while others grew from live drums, with each group reshaping and reimagining the material.

Whole Wide World is a dense and heavy album, but one that nevertheless feels joyful and fresh—an uncategorizable ode to egoless invention. It’s a work born of artists with disparate approaches, who feel compelled and comfortable to surrender them in service of the birth of new art. Whilst the album was made with joy, its themes confront today’s harsher realities; we see this play out through the eyes of an unrelenting optimist processing the death of possibility itself.

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Photo: Chris Danko