Manifesting the spirits of their namesake, Bellmer Dolls may not directly embody the influence of Hans Bellmer or the New York Dolls, but they certainly exhibit tendencies that both expose their punk ethic and betray their affinity for the darker, seedier, and more controversial faces of life and existence. Just as German anarchist Hans Bellmer used his art to revolt against the Nazi party's cult of the idealized human form, dismembering and reassembling doll parts and contorting them into awkward surrealist sculptures of mutant, pubescent female figures, Bellmer Dolls wield their music as a wily weapon of desecration. Captivating audiences with their elegantly tormented performances, Bellmer Dolls spew musical venom that creeps into and seizes its hosts as a deliciously insidious pleasure.
Shrouded in layers of mystery and intrigue, Bellmer Dolls fashion themselves as dark dandies and dapper misfits. Voted onto Paper Magazine's Top Beautiful People list, the band's hermetically archaic aesthetic almost renders them into a surreal vision of tableaux vivants. Onstage, however, they are much more than mere living incarnations of their images: the figures jolt as if resuscitated at the first beat of the drum, unleashing virile, robust rhythms and emitting raw, provocative energy....continued
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They take their name from the dolls of Hans Bellmer, the German artist whose highly charged work characterized Europe's interwar period and foreshadowed the impending cataclysm of World War II. There is definitely something of the reckless abandon of the cabaret in New York City's Bellmer Dolls, as well as the cruel probing of the surrealist, making the Weimar-era artist an appropriate point of reference for them. The juxtaposition of the dark and the sensual in their own work is expressed through pounding beat cut by bursts of feedback that sears like an exposed nerve. These Dolls boast a highly impressive CV of ex- Love Life (whose other alumni formed the celebrated Celebration), Universal Order of Armageddon, and Vanity Set members and Jim Sclavunous (known for his work in Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, the Cramps, Sonic Youth, and 8 Eyed Spy) is at the helm as producer, so it is not terribly surprising how cruelly effective they are.
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