Body Of Research - Vehicle Wasting Away SM079

We're very inspired by the land/rotting industrial landscape around us in western PA and use this band as a reason to travel out to places off the beaten path to record in." - Brandon

Body of Research started as an experimental spinoff from the noise rock band Polar Body. Their first release Useless Transfers was created as a mail collaboration while living in different states during lockdown. When they all eventually returned to Pennsylvania, Adam Hess was added as a guitarist the band recorded a free-form, improvised tape together Center Communication. From this tape onward, the band became a way to explore the abandoned and rotting industrial side of western Pennsylvania and use recordings made in these places for each release.

Their previous releases waded into new age territory which the band intended to continue with, but when work started on Vehicle Wasting Away the band was invited to play some shows with heavy psych and goth bands (Bitter Wish and Gene Loves Jezebel) and wrote new material around that.

The band ended up leaning into a darker sound for the new album and writing more structured songs. The band dove even deeper into recording in unique locations, allowing the landscape to influence all aspects of the music. Experimenting with reamplifying guitars into train tunnels and recording in abandoned buildings/cemeteries.

Vehicle Wasting Away was recorded by the band, over the span of a year and then finished the album with Jake Hanner, who engineered some drums and mixed/mastered it.

57 Laid Bare Ribs: Base track recorded live at an unauthorized show in Blue Spruce Park, Indiana PA. Shortwave radio recorded in an abandoned train tunnel near Oil City, PA.

Dreaming Choice: Guitar recorded in an abandoned train tunnel near Oil City, PA. Some drums are stones thrown into a rotting atom smasher in Forest Hills, PA.

Chaining: Guitar recorded in a train tunnel in Mineral Point, PA.

Three Moods: Base track recorded live at Society’s Cliff in Pittsburgh, PA and reamplified into an empty natatorium in Indiana, PA. Scrap metal recordings done in a shooting range near Penn Run, PA.

Brakes On Trust: Sample taken from live set at the Rendezvous in Turners Falls, MA - recorded by Jeff Gallagher. Drums recorded in an abandoned racing track building in Indiana, PA.

Water Power Transfer: Guitar recorded in an abandoned train tunnel near Oil City, PA.

Crawler: Base track recorded live at the Vicious Circle in Charleroi, PA. Environmental recordings made from woods & railways around western PA.

May I Have Life: Bell recorded in Ebenezer Cemetery in Clarksburg, PA.

released November 7, 2025

BOR is adam / brandon / paul / sky

recorded in tunnels & abandoned buildings across PA

produced by brandon dunlap & jake hanner

PROCEEDS BENEFIT
The Auto(nomous) Body Shop
A Pittsburgh based mobile mutual aid resource supporting bodily autonomy & community care.
linktr.ee/autonomousbodyshop