- In a recent interview with Thump, Swiss producer IOKOI said Body/Head was a meditation on disconnection in the post-internet age. As people navigate cyberspace with more confidence, she argued, the real world becomes more awkward to deal with. (A hashtag that populates her online presence, #HYPERCYBERREALISM, suggests a degree of acceptance, even readiness.) Attempting to redress that balance, Body/Head wants to reunite "a liquefied mind with deeply paralysed body functions"—in simple terms, to give our IRL selves the same sense of freedom and fluidity our plugged-in personas have.
IOKOI resolves to do that by reimagining dance music in a strange form, using Gregorian chants, gristly cello strings and loping drums to lend "Body/Head" an atmosphere our stimulation-starved bodies might more intensely engage with. It's an intriguing concept, but it supposes that music made from digital ephemera hasn't been capable of encouraging such interaction, an idea that Holly Herndon's Platform, among others, would challenge.
The music isn't so radical, but there's a satisfying physicality to the way it moves. IOKOI's voice, a supernatural wisp offsetting the song's heaviness, quivers as if a gale is passing through it. The way she repeats the title reinforces the primitive urgency of "Body/Head," but the spirit is playful as well as funereal—when the word "head" sometimes sounds like "hate" it feels deliberate. Feldermelder turns in a remix that strips away IOKOI's thick sonic armour and introduces oscillating electronics and acoustic strings. It's an unexpectedly pastoral take on the original, but it still feels committed to Body/Head's MO, mining the past to better embrace the present.
Tracklist01. Body/Head
02. Body/Head (Feldermelder Edit)