Body Parts: Fire Dream

It’s always a pleasure to hear a local band’s debut recordings, especially when they are as interesting, dynamic and as polished as those found on Body Parts’ album,

Fire Dream. Built around the core of Ryder Bach and Alina Cutrono, Body Parts use 80s-flavored, funky synth-pop as the basis for their sound. While tapping into the 80s vibe is a trendy move these days, Bach and Cutrono and friends choose it not just for nostalgia’s sake. Their songs fairly and honestly travel to the same sorts of dramatic places that some of the bands of the New Romantic movement, such as Classix Nouveau and A-ha, did, including that vague iciness that keep the uber-catchy hooks from being too saccharine.

Bach’s soaring vocals recall those of Morten Harket of A-ha or, on a more contemporary comparison, those of David Longstreath of Dirty Projectors, while the rhythm section bubbles under beefy synth lines, snaky guitar licks and Cutrono’s counterpoint vocals. A careful consideration of Body Parts’ lyrics reveals that the hints of darkness in the music are not unwarranted, with fatalistic songs such as “Desperation,” “Past Is Coming,” “Unavoidable Things” and “Helpless Child” apparently inspired by Bach’s nightmares. But overall the package is exciting and powerful, serious but danceable, and worth discovering.

- Eric J. Lawrence

Track List:

1. Desperation

2. Past is Coming

3. Be a God

4. Interlude a

5. Unavoidable Things

6. Helpless Child

7. People

8. Interlude b

9. You Inside My Head

10. Reprise, Prelude

11. Wash Over Me

Banner Photo: Stephanie Gonot, Design by Matt Sobel