All of their work up to this album has been strictlyinstrumental: amorphous compositions, largely ambient, combiningelectronic textures and drone with murky samples, buried melodies andother unidentifiable audio goop. The Bodyshop is a departurepoint for the group; not only is melody front and center on almost allof the tracks, several actually feature vocals. Just to place thisalbum is stark relief to previous efforts, Beequeen also include acover of Nick Drake's "Black Eyed Dog," with lovely vocals byMarie-Louise Munck of Danish band Armstrong. This is still identifiableas the work of Beequeen, but it feels like a quantum leap for the bandin terms of structure, composition and production. There are stillplenty of pretty moments of quiet psychedelic nebulousness, but thereare also upbeat numbers like "On the Road to Everywhere," which sets alively post-jazz melody against layers of encroaching drone andchirping arpeggiators. It achieves a beautiful complexity, with certainelements standing out in bold relief and others blurry and shapeless,just beyond the realm of cohesion, like thick globs of color on aparticularly formless work of impressionist art. On the whole, thealbum feels very sedate and beatific, but there are tense undercurrentsof radiant darkness that permeate tracks like "Blackburn" and "BuzzbagDrive." The latter is a standout track, a dark Lynchian westernfeaturing noisy swathes of electric guitar from guest Erik Drost,member of Girlfriends and newly of the Pink Dots. At 37 minutes, thealbum feels a bit truncated, but not a moment is wasted. It's unclearwhether this is indicative of Beequeen's future artistic direction, orwhether this was a one-off tangent into partial coherence. Either way,it's a very welcome departure for the group, and speaks to theirongoing evolution and unwillingness to submit to the forces of creativeinertia. samples:
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