L.A. duo Body Parts resists categories with ‘Fire Dream’

Having a conversation about genre distinctions with an experimental band can feel like an experiment of its own.

Thankfully, Ryder Bach and Alina Cutrono of the L.A.-based Body Parts leave the daunting task of classification to their listeners when they open up about their pop-shaded debut, “Fire Dream,” which came out a few weeks ago.

“I think it’s cool that two people can listen to the album, and they both walk away from it with one person thinking it’s a dance album and another thinking it’s experimental,” Bach says. “The way I feel about genre is: All rules out the window.”

However one chooses to categorize Body Parts, it works: The band’s November residency at the Satellite saw a dance floor packed with revelers. The band’s strong musicality, showcased in carefully selected harmonies and synth arrangements, flirts with an ‘80s groove on “Fire Dream,” which was consummated on the Satellite floor.

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The showmanship of their live performances – complete with choreography – shouldn’t deter you from the challenging songwriting sewn into “Fire Dream,” which took about a year to create. “I think that this album had a clearer sense of intention,” Cutrono says. “It was a long process that I feel had a lot of thought behind it.”

That intention, like the band’s genre category, is open to interpretation. “The original idea of the album changes every day as we play it for new people,” Bach says.

Lyrically, Bach has a way of delivering a great deal of sentiment with simple, direct ideas. There’s a theme of vulnerability, a dimension that Bach feels could be further explored by today’s bands.

“There’s this stigma of caring, of having a genuine care for what your music is,” Bach says. “I think that’s really dumb. Too cool to care -- what’s the point of that?”

Body Parts will be supporting Fire Dream throughout 2014, starting with West Coast tour dates in January, and an upcoming performance with Portland band Shy Girls at the Roosevelt Hotel on Thursday.

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