by Nathan Springer (@drownloading)
Douglas Dulgarian is a very busy musician. On March 16th his band Jouska released From Elson to Emmet, a crushing 4 track EP, smack dab in the middle of a 40-day tour. Before that, his solo project turned full band They Are Gutting A Body Of Water released a collaborative visual album called Our Hologram Mother on VHS with Apostrophe S. On top of all of that, this Friday They Are Gutting A Body Of Water will drop a new album, entitled Gestures Been, which is the first release from the project in its current form as a full band. The Philadelphia-cum-Albany musician’s dedication to the game is both dizzying and inspiring.
They Are Gutting A Body Of Water began as a solo project. Alone on a tape machine, Doug found an alternate, lo-fi route of recording music. The first, self-titled record was personal and intended to be listened to as a full album: a full snapshot of that time period. Sound clips from strange origins melded with grainy textures to create a feeling of simultaneous apathy and rejoice, comments on situations and occurrences, a distaste for the current state of the human condition, and a celebration of flaw. If you ask Doug, the first record was almost a joke, an experiment, and was never really meant to be released.
With an undying love for strange imagery, tape loops, beautiful (and sometimes awkward) melodies, grainy textures, VHS tapes, and all too often harshly relatable subject matter, They Are Gutting A Body Of Water continues to grow. Now the project is a full band in Philadelphia, with Ben Opatut (David Attias, No Friends) drumming, Evan Moffit (Kenny 3, Coolplay) playing bass, and Michael Doherty (Another Michael) playing keys.
We are excited to share with you the video for “Fake Twenty”, the second single from Gestures Been. The song is heavy, both musically and lyrically, ending with the haunting refrain “What a curse to be anybody’s everything” cutting through layers of distorted guitars. The video, directed by Rachel Levin, is a combination of VHS footage and scattered images that perfectly complement the bleakness of the song. Check out the video below, and stay tuned for Gestures Been when it drops this Friday.