Album Review: 24/7 - GusGus

GusGus' move to Kompakt for their latest album release speaks volumes. This is an album that only continues the move away from the accessible pop-tech-house of Attention that we glimpsed on last album Forever.

And such a move represents a decision that BlackPlastic can't help but lament. In a typically Icelandic fashion 24/7 is a slightly unhinged minimal tech-house album.

BlackPlastic will precede what we are about to say with the assertion that 24/7 does contain moments of greatness - the soulful vocals of 'Hateful' and the contrast between it's angular, unemotional production and its lyrical content.

But everything is so damned spaced out, in both senses of the phrases. The vocals and minimal sound create a weird sense of isolation - the whole album feels delirious - and at the same time it feels like everything is built with such a focus on slow progression that the result is an album incapable of surprising the listener. Case in point - 'On The Job' with it's repeated shouts of "On the job, 24/7 never stop!" over it's 11-minute length... It's an acidic tripped out epic but it ultimately feels meaningless.

The synthesizers are, as always with GusGus, key here. Therefore you can understand why they have tried to strip everything else out - the likes of the evil sounding, acidic 'Take Me Baby' are far better than your average minimal output. The album is a paranoid, lonely one that conjures the feeling of the band's cold homeland in a way so far from the likes of Sigur Rós that it bears no comparison.

The problem is that GusGus also know how to write a good tune, yet on 24/7 it feels like all the actual tunes have been sacrificed - put out to pasture in favour of a concept that simply doesn't have the mileage to compare favorably to their earlier work.

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24/7 is out now, available from on CD and LP [affiliate links].

Album Review: Gus Gus - Forever

BlackPlastic loved the bass heavy analogue synth's of Gus Gus' last full LP, Attention. Truly, truly loved. 'David' so perfectly encaptured that feeling of waking up and being content with one's lot yet still desperate to rewind the clock to last night... The synth lines on 'Desire' still evoke so much more feeling than entire back catalogues of their contemporary's... 'Call of the Wild' is still glorious and 'Don't Hide What You Feel' still holds more soul than a dozen of your favourite funk or hip hop joints rolled into one. And as for Earth's vocals...

Who knows how something like Attention came out of Iceland... So isolated with a population so small. It perfectly captures the feeling of Reykjavik.

Perhaps ironically Forever has taken a long time by anyone's standards... Attention was released in 2002 so five years have passed since their last album and whilst singles and the odd track have appeared during the interlude Gus Gus' release schedule has been almost as barren as their homeland. Opening with the instrumental 'Degeneration' one can't help but feel perhaps a little disappointed... 'Degeneration' is pure Gus Gus, lovely warm distorted basslines, ice-y atmospherics, synthetic strings... Yet it seems such a waste to open without a hint of Earth's fantastic vocals or something that sounds a little more current.

Thankfully 'You'll Never Change' corrects the former if not the later. When concentrating on the specific sounds there is no faulting 'You'll Never Change', it perfectly demonstrates a band who have mastered their equipment and the final breakdown equals much of the best work on Attention, sadly it just takes a little to long to get to the good stuff. This is a theme that is re-occurs a little too often throughout the whole album. 'Hold You' may be slightly formulaic in the beginning, a little too reminiscent of middle of the road, mainstream 'funky' (yes, BlackPlastic feels unclean) house, but things eventually descend into lush, warm synths and acid lines by the song's close.

Thankfully a lot of the album is more confident. 'Need In Me' is like a soulful take on Booka Shade's genre defining 'Manderine Girl', synths build and, Earth's vocals finally get the room to breath. Title track, 'Forever' has some of the filthiest basslines you'll have heard this year... This is truly the sound of a techno outfit impersonating a rock band in the most intelligent way.

There are a lot of instrumentals (half of what is here) and with a vocalist as competent as Gus Gus' Earth that seems a shame. What's more so much of Forever has had a drip fed release it is impossible not to feel a little underwhelmed. Of the 12 main tracks (there is a bonus disk available) at least six have been previously available for those who've known where to look, which is not to say there's nothing here for the collector... Tracks like 'Moss' are absolutely, pure Gus Gus gold. Sensual synthlines carry a warm vocal performance that marks Forever's finest moment. As such it is hard to complain, yet whilst there is definite room for Forever to grow in BlackPlastic's heart, when compared to the sublime Attention, Forever just doesn't have the power to last the duration.