Gustaffson
Black & White Film
One Boat Information – DL/CD/Vinyl – BUY
Gustaffson lastly launch their lengthy awaited Album Black & White Film and its not like something you’ve heard earlier than. Whereas a sure orange hued narcissist is hellbent on turning the world right into a barren dystopia, as his tsunami of negativity, disruption and despair hits our shores, Gustaffson ship the right antidote, with a tour de drive of an album; so filled with brightness, emotion, and love, that it washes all of the darkness away.
The album is produced by Elbow’s Craig Potter and has already been given the thumbs up by bandmate Man Garvey and Six Music’s Jo Wiley, who’ve each performed tracks from it on their respective exhibits.
It’s two and a half years for the reason that launch of the band’s debut single Jacaranda in the summertime of 2022, and so they have been slowly recording music and releasing tracks in between Outlander actor and lead singer Andrew Gower’s filming commitments; most just lately in Ellis and You.
The album’s opener is the right observe to get you within the temper and units the scene for what’s to return. A outstanding, swaggering poke on the overprivileged; the track has a deep rock, blowsy groove, underpinned by a thumping bassline and twinkling keys. Andrew has an extremely strong however delicate voice that someway manages to drip the lyrics effortlessly from his lips, from baritone to falsetto and again once more. Like most of the songs on the album, Champagne Socialist is enhanced by superbly rousing gospel model backing vocals, which punctuate the slinky actions within the melodies to perfection, in a Gimme Shelter/Nice Gig in The Sky form of means.
One of many albums excessive factors follows in Nearer, (See video under) which options esteemed actor Ben Kingsley, who supplies the central spoken narrative. Completely paced, the track stops and begins as Andy’s vocals pirouette, arching larger and better earlier than splashing down in a harmonic wash; like falling backwards right into a heat tub. The track pulls in your feelings, finally uplifting, because the these shimmering keys fade.
On Broadway which we lined right here, and was performed extensively on Six Music, follows. It’s theatrical with a lyrical supply that jogs my memory of Carter USM. Yeh, difficult one which however it’s bought a ‘lie again and consider England’ vibe to it. The track flows into the guts wrenching Flowers, earlier than the tempo ups for the funk grooves of Jacaranda, the track that launched us to the band three years in the past. Underground follows, a uncooked rock observe with that rock stable bass at its core, and a descending Cream model arpeggio.
Paris in Summer time provides a little bit of Calypso to the proceedings – a brilliant summer time groove that owes greater than just a bit to Paul Simon’s Graceland period output, carried via into the up-tempo Bonnie and Clive.
The album closes with a prial of crackers. Some Type Of Sweden has an acoustically pushed melody and completely delivered virtually yodelling model vocals. It sweeps together with a fuzzy heat bass and piano. Kingdom is nearly a hymn, with a male voice choir model backing and the road ‘in the event you’re on a ship and surrounded by water, who cares how a lot sand you may have made’. It’s a deeply emotional observe, considerate, provocative, pensive, and superbly delivered.
The album closes with crowd favorite Northern Child, a real northern anthem, with its traditional line ‘there’s extra to life that south of Milton Keynes’.
Black and White Film is a really English file regardless of its blues, rock, funk, and musical influences. It’s exhausting to classify however sits beneath the identical broad dome as Badly Drawn Boy’s In The Hour of Bewilderbeast/Divine Comedy and Paul Heaton. I say broad, as a result of it’s fairly distinctive in its composition and supply, and defies any straight comparability. As a track cycle it’s a superbly performed and delivered slab of stable Britterama. Each track, a narrative, lifted from the experiences and deep recesses of Gower’s psyche. You’ll be able to inform when watching these songs carried out reside what these lyrics imply to him.
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What The Band Say:
BLACK & WHITE MOVIE’ IS PRODUCED BY ELBOW’S CRAIG POTTER & FEATURES EMMY-WINNING COMPOSER BEAR McCREARY AND LEGENDARY ACTOR SIR BEN KINGSLEY
Gustaffson – Nearer:
Directed by Andrew Gower and Nathaniel Holmes, it was filmed on the gorgeous Albert Corridor in Manchester. The video options the legendary Sir Ben Kingsley, alongside an unbelievable solid from Shadow & Bone, Home of the Dragon, Outlander, and extra.
Exploring the collision of artwork and expertise, ‘Nearer’ digs into the shifting panorama of inventive collaboration within the digital age. By means of unseen self-tape auditions, the video captures the uncertainty that comes when face-to-face connections are changed by screens.
Dates:
9 Could – Manchester – Night time & Day – TICKETS
14th Could – London – Bush Corridor [Sold Out]
Gustaffson are on Fb & Twitter and that is their web site
That is Andrew Gower’s Fb and that is his web site: http://www.andrew-gower.co.uk/
Phrases by Nigel Carr, further images by Naomi Dryden-Smith. Extra writing by Nigel on Louder Than Warfare could be present in his Writer’s archive. Yow will discover Nigel on Twitter and Fb. Nigel can be the Producer of New Daybreak Fades – A Play About Pleasure Division And Manchester which excursions this October.
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