Living Body
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Living Body

Leeds, England, United Kingdom | Established. Jan 01, 2016 | INDIE

Leeds, England, United Kingdom | INDIE
Established on Jan, 2016
Band Rock Indie

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"Members of Sky Larkin, Vessels & Juffage form Living Body, releasing debut LP (listen to two songs)"

Living Body is a new musical project from from Leeds-based Chicagoan Jeff T. Smith (juffage) with collaborators Katie Harkin (Sky Larkin, Sleater-Kinney, Wild Beasts), and Tom Evans of Vessels. The group came to be after a one-off collaborative event titled “Sonic Cauldron” after which they continued to work on music and grew to include additional members Alice Rowan (Mayshe-Mayshe) and Sarah Statham (Esper Scout). After three years of working on recordings, Living Body’s debut album, Body is Working, is set to be released December 2 via Barely Regal / Kingfisher Bluez. We’ve got the premiere of “Choose” off the album, an anthemic, horn-embellished number. Listen, along with “Don’t Give Up on Me” below.

Living Body have UK tour dates this month, including a show at Manchester’s Carefully Planned Festival on Sunday (10/16). All dates are listed below.

It should be noted that Katie Harkin will not be playing with Living Body at those dates, as she’s currently in the U.S. playing as part of Flock of Dimes (Jenn Wasner of Wye Oak’s solo project). That tour hits NYC on November 2 at Rough Trade. Tickets are still available. - BrooklynVegan


"A Carefully Planned Festival #6: Past and Present"

Living Body are THE most exciting thing happening in the UK music scene for me at present. I was lucky enough to host their first show in Manchester, and they blew me away. The group were put together by Jeff T Smith, who previously went by the name Juffage. He used to bring an entire band set-up to each show and play it all himself. He then stripped this back to a voice and electric guitar set, and now he’s asked some cool musician friends to help him realise bigger visions of these songs, and see where it takes them.

So far, it’s going very well: pretty, intricate, unusual and ultimately powerful compositions, presented with sincerity and aplomb. The whole set was utterly unique and still somehow ‘catchy’ and accessible. This band are from Leeds in Yorkshire and will be playing at Gullivers on the Sunday evening of ACPF#6. - The Skinny


"Living Body"

‘Don’t Give Up On Me’ is intriguingly tagged as ‘post-Brexitcore’. What does that mean? Is it going to be a lament to a discarded European project, a call-to-arms for a divided Britain? Maybe there will be a plaintive Jeremy Corbyn crying out the chorus as he fights to save his leadership? Or could it feature Boris Johnson banging away on the drums while Michael Gove stabs him in the back with a shard of broken cymbal?

The answer to what post-Brexitcore is, is…well, I don’t know what it is. I’m pretty sure it’s not the last two suggestions, but I like it anyway. To class ‘Don’t Give Up On Me’ under a second totally made-up genre, I’d probably pigeonhole it as ‘experimental menace-indie’.

It’s minimalist, there’s a military-esque drum underneath the repetitive chorus and the vocals are ethereally sinister, a little like how Portishead could make your skin tingle. The first time around it’s almost creepy, but the more you hear it the prettier and more hopeful it becomes. And considering it isn’t a classically catchy song ‘Don’t Give Up On Me’ is insidious, seeping in like an evil earworm. After my first listen I went off to do something else and found myself muttering the chorus over and over without realising it.

Living Body – a Leeds-based group made up of members of bands such as Sky Larkin and Vessels – have just finished off their first tour and are promising a post-Brexitcore album at some point. If this is going to be representative of the genre then I’m keen to hear more. - The Tipping Point


Discography

June 28, 2016: Don't Give Up On Me Single - Download (Barely Regal Records & Kingfisher Bluez)

December 2, 2016: Body Is Working LP - 12"/CD/Download (Barely Regal Records & Kingfisher Bluez)

December 8, 2018: All I Want For Christmas Is You By Mariah Carrey b/w Last Few True (Vessels Remix) - 7"/Download (Kingfisher Bluez)

June 2, 2019: Long Division: New Addition (Vol. 1) - C.R.E.A.M. - 12"/Download (Long Division)


Photos

Bio

Living Body is the project from Leeds-based Chicagoan ex-pat multi-instrumentalist Jeff T. Smith (formerly, Juffage), featuring longtime collaborators Katie Harkin (Harkin, Sky Larkin, Sleater-Kinney, Courtney Barnet, Wild Beasts), and Tom Evans (Vessels).

Their debut album Body Is Working was released on December 2nd 2016 in North America via Kingfisher Bluez and the UK/EU via Barely Regal Records.

The result of three years near-fanatical work, Body Is Working was self-recorded at Smith’s studio and mastered at Sterling Sound by Greg Calbi (Bon Iver, The National, Big Thief, Arcade Fire, Paul Simon, Talking Heads, and David Bowie).  The album marks Smith’s first release since 2011’s Semicircle (Function Records), an album which received critical acclaim from the Guardian, NME, Drowned in Sound, Artrocker, Loud & Quiet, and airplay from BBC Radio 1 and 6 Music, Amazing Radio, and others.  In Juffage, Smith has toured extensively throughout the USA, Europe, and the UK alongside artists such as Deerhoof, Mount Eerie, Cloud Nothings, Xiu Xiu, Alt-J, Dosh, and Nat Baldwin (Dirty Projectors).

In Vessels, Tom Evans has received airplay from BBC Radio 1 and 6 Music, plus critical acclaim from Pitchfork, the Guardian, Q, NME, and the Line of Best Fit.  He has also played several gigs and festivals worldwide (including Glastonbury and Latitude) with artists such as Caribou, Clark, Battles, Efterklang, and Low.

As well as a recent interview with SPIN magazine, Katie Harkin has received praise for her work in Sky Larkin from the Guardian, Pitchfork, Drowned In Sound, the 405, and DIY Magazine.  Sky Larkin has also toured extensively, playing alongside Broken Social Scene, Stereolab, The Cribs, and Les Savy Fav, Best Coast, and Marnie Stern.  She curently plays in her solo project, Harkin, and as a touring musician for Sleater-Kinney, and Courtney Barnett.

As a group, Living Body came into fruition after the three musicians took part in a one-off live performance, aptly titled “Sonic Cauldron”.  Here, audience members were positioned within the immersive sensory confines of a large, purpose-built circular PA system.  Smith also specifically designed a computer program to distribute the sound of the musicians playing in real time ambisonically around the perimeter of their chosen venue, a deconsecrated church in the heart of residential Leeds, thereby converting the venue into a musical instrument in its own right.

Following the concert, the project grew into an expanded live group, augmented by additional members Alice Rowan (Mayshe-Mayshe) and Sarah Statham (Crake, Fig By Four, Esper Scout).  As a result, Living Body sees Smith’s previous solo efforts evolve from the unbridled spectacle of live performance based on live looping and super-colossal multitasking into a direct and focused approach, with emphasis on honest and immediate bulletproof songwriting.  Anchored by Smith’s vision of music as a means of bringing joy into the lives of others, Living Body enables him to distill an endless fascination with the entanglement of pop and noise/drone forms into an impeccably unified, cohesive entity.

Since the release of their debut album, Living Body have played several tours throughout the UK, Europe and North America, including performances at SXSW, Canadian Music Week, Tramlines, Sŵn, ArcTanGent, Long Division, and Deer Shed Festivals, with sessions for BreakThru Radio and Daytrotter.  They have also received positive press, features and interviews from BrooklynVegan, Stereogum, Exclaim!, Impose, Drowned In Sound, the Skinny, God Is In The TV, For The Rabbits, Punktastic, Northern Transmissions, Austin Town Hall and Louder Than War, with airplay on BBC 6 Music, Radio 3, Amazing Radio and local stations both nationally and internationally.

Band Members