Originating as the solo project of Navid Eliot from Planes on Paper, Bodies On The Beach soon incorporated Evan Gackstatter and Andrew Ginn into the fold, triggering a shift “from art project to art-centric rock n roll.” The fingerpicked guitar of his previous project remaining to form the backbone of the songs, Eliot develops the Bodies On The Beach sound with a translucent fog of tape delay and reverb, drums and bass rising to cut through the atmosphere with fierce and sincere energy.
If the resulting sound has the wistful, searching energy of a haunting, then the debut Bodies On The Beach EP is aptly named. Ghost is a release carved from the American spirit, a kind of post-country style that pushes through Americana into a rock but remains indebted to what has been.
Based around a recurring dream Eliot had where he met his own ghost, the title track pushes into an ethereal world between reality and dreams, emerging from the realm with a striking empathy and humanity. For Eliot’s ghost is struggling with its own incorporeality, and no matter how many times Eliot reassures him that their conversations are proof of existence, that communication is itself a form of feeling, the ghost’s numbness remains.
‘Ghost’ is sung from the perspective of Eliot, though not in direct communication with the ghost. Rather, he is speaking to loved ones, hoping that they might be more restful than himself. In this shift, Eliot highlights his own similarities to the ghost, or perhaps emphasises the path toward becoming it, a life of lonely routine where feeling is no longer possible but suffering remains.
I hope you’re sleeping alright
I hope you finally find a way,
finally quiet your mind.
I can’t quiet mine
