The ‘bodycatchers’ album “Mosey” is full of ambient lo-fi electro pop grooves that contain echoes of Egyptian Lover, Bronski Beat, Chromatics, the Postal Service and Glass Candy. Discover the first track ‘Contact’ the December 7th in Formula Indie

The band bodycatchers has been described as “how daft punk would sound if they were actually punks. “by fellow WA ambient artist, The Floorists. The new release from bodycatchers, Mosey, is a snapshot distillation of the underground punk rave scene of Olympia, WA into digestible synth pop curations with catchy hooks and unblinking grooves.

“Mosey” was born during the social distancing restrictions of covid-19 and is infused with a love of old school electro, disco, funk and post punk from beginning to end. The album is loosely themed around the imagery of doomed shuttle launch Soyuz 1 and its brave pilot Vladimir Komarov projected against a backdrop of human tragedy merging with metaphors for quantum physics and behavioural psychology to tell human stories using a scientific lens. This is all under the hood- on its surface, this album talks about love, broken relationships and promises and the inevitable march of time in a way that listeners can connect with.

“Mosey” was recorded reel to reel with Captain Tripps at High Command and mastered by Amy Dragon at Telegraph Mastering. The album is entirely made up of analogue synths and samples with a multitude of freewheeling oscillators churning through its syrupy and dangerous sound constantly on the verge of imploding. All of this is held in check with the veteran hands at the songwriting wheel. Selidoras cut his teeth on the underground punk circuit for years writing popular underground songs with the Hail Seizures such as “Last Transmission” and “Song for the Ride” as well as “Metro” and “Mass Ave” with rexmanningday.

His new project bodycatchers has as much innovation as tradition working in tandem to explore new spaces and rhythmic ideas with 909’s propping up the dirge-like chanting floating at the surface of these songs. The hypnotic and haunting vocal melodies have been distorted almost beyond recognition through an analog vocoder to create a sense of human-machine symbiosis examining the difficulties of genuine communication whether through songs or through space -guiding lights and themes for bodyatchers.

This project blends the emotionality of Bronski Beat vocals over the robotic danceable drumbeats of New Order and lays the groundwork for exploring a whole new sonic vistas with each new performance and recording.

BIO

Hailing from Olympia Washington, bodycatchers is the latest project from former rexmanningday. and hail seizures member James Selidoras. He was a familiar face on the underground punk touring circuit pre-covid. His love of adventure has propelled him to travel constantly over the years, whether hitchhiking or in various different bands. With the Hail Seizures he went with the group to europe without any plan or return tickets, building bikes in Amsterdam to tour on a whim and ending up playing Czech Republics’s “Woodstock” (Trutnov) after having a random conversation with an organizer while sharing a smoke and busking on the streets of Dresden. With rexmanningday. he worked with Vicky from Box Fan and Sadie from G.L.O.S.S. to create songs emulating their favorite 90’s emo bands. He also was part of the synth pop outfit razzm’tazz which is beloved in Olympia by those who were there for their performative and well dressed shows. Outside of music he has written, directed, edited and produced the public access sitcom “Bing Bong TV”, was a cofounder of a restaurant worker cooperative and is currently getting his masters in Environmental Science when not working on bodycatchers.

After hearing the same genres of punk music for years on end and getting bored with screaming unintelligible emotionally laden words at audiences night after night, in the last few years James started listening to Glass Candy, the Chromatics, Bronski Beat, Light Asylum and New Order and fell in love with music afresh. This inspired him to explore new sounds using synth music with nods to disco, electro and funk.

For the project bodycatchers, he has abandoned his familiar guitar driven punk stylings for grimey underground synthesizer dance sound and manages to find a unique and personal take on life, romance and technology filtered through his anarchist punk memories and his newfound neurotic obsession with scientific accuracy with his lyrical references. His love of thick sounds and drone is present in this project, as well as his respect for a good melody and thoughtful and incisive lyrics for more active listeners. The music is informed by -but not constricted to- disco music, funk and punk music without being overt about any of these sonic references. This project is the sound of an underground punk rave, or as one reviewer noted “it’s how daft punk would sound if they were actually punks”.

bodycatchers Brief

bodycatchers is the sound of Olympia’s underground rave scene distilled into electro-infused synth pop dance grooves. It’s been described as “how daft punk would sound if they were actually punks”. Uncompromising and experimental in it’s execution, bodycatchers twists traditional pop themes and tropes into new forms and explores their sonic territory to find new worlds, unique moments and memorable melodies inside of hypnotic machine-led beats.