https://www.high-endrolex.com/18

Gaffa Ghandi Stream Artificial Disgust in Full; Out Friday on Exile on Mainstream

GAFFA GHANDI (photo by Maren Michaelis)

Come on, let’s get weird for a little bit. You’ve got time; you know you do. This week is easily the busiest so far of 2020 for new releases, but while you’re spending the coming Friday pining over this or that landmark arrival — hey, I’m right there too — German experinstrumentalists Gaffa Ghandi will be issuing a debut album through ultra-respected countryman purveyor-of-stuff-that-doesn’t-sound-like-other-stuff-and-also-is-awesome Exile on Mainstream called Artificial Disgust, and they’re seemingly way freaked out about it.

I made the mistake of reading their quote below about the record before writing this, and it’s interesting to discover that they consider some of it to be an expression of pain on some level, because I get way more of a sense of joy from a song like opener “Symphony of Swag,” and even though the subsequent “War on Fire” starts off with a bit of doomed atmospherics, it soon enough finds its way into progressive chuggery and winds airy leads around a rhythmic solidity that reminds of just what an ultra-solid double-guitar foursome can accomplish when they knuckle down, decide to let their songs go where they’re demanding to go, and maybe unleash a little bit of their inner Zappa-tista in the process.

“War on Fire” culminates in due solo flourish, playing it over the top because — again, seemingly — it’s more fun that way, before “Ancient Dominator” shows a spirit of post-rock could be when played staring down the crowd instead of at one’s proverbial shoes. Its midsection is both hypnotic and head-spinning, dumbfoundingly technical and ambient, and as the heretofore central chugging riff of the track comes around, it feels like it might just roll on for the remainder of the song’s total nine-plus minutes,GAFFA GHANDI Artificial Disgust which it does, morphing of course here and there along the route to its eventual fade and the arrival of the well-golly-that’s-significant “Progressive Concepts for a Modern World of Multilayered Structural, Sociological and Individual Changeabilities.”

The title, which is not the name of any book I can find and so I’ll just assume is perhaps someone’s thesis-in-progress, is indeed a thoughtful meditation unto itself, running an academic-ready 16 minutes and unfolding in movements fluidly across that span, finding the guitars once more intertwining lines through expressive leads and intricacy of play while the bass hosts its own clinic in jazz while still serving the song’s best interests and the drums follow suit. Perhaps most impressively of all, as “Progressive Concepts…” builds and shifts and recedes and thins and thickens and winds and turns, Gaffa Ghandi — guitarists Alan Bittner and Frieder Ackermann, bassist Lucas Kazzer and drummer Georg Edert — admirably hold together. They’re not just each doing their own thing and mashing together parts and calling it a song. They’re writing a progressive piece of music that unites them as players. After 10 years together culminating in this first album, a realization of potential might be considered due, but it’s still striking just how cohesive they make seemingly disjointed elements sound.

If you get the CD or the digital edition of Artificial Disgust, it comes with the bonus inclusion “Phobophobie,” which presents six more minutes balancing thoughtful atmospherics and rhythmic complexity in the spirit of the offering preceding. If it’s from “the archive,” and maybe older, fine. It still works in the context of what Gaffa Ghandi are doing across the peacefully dizzying 38 minutes prior, and if you have prior experience with Exile on Mainstream‘s output, you probably already know to trust the label’s taste when it comes to new pickups, but if not, I’m glad to reinforce the point.

Gaffa Ghandi were going to play a traveling showcase of Exile on Mainstream bands to celebrate the release of Artificial Disgust, but of course that has been put off until who-knows-when, but perhaps that delay will give listeners some time to catch up to how much these songs actually have going on. Or maybe it won’t. In any case, it’s awfully fun to try, and I invite you to do exactly that and to listen for the varied emotionalism of Artificial Disgust as well as the varied time-signatures, on the player below.

Band quote and PR wire info follow.

Please enjoy:

Gaffa Ghandi on Artificial Disgust:

Artificial Disgust is the effort of a long-term pain; the joyful and relentless process of putting the ever-evolving concept of being an energetic and boundless live band into the solid and to some extent comparable version of our excesses on stage. Some of these songs had been in progress for quite some time and they have changed with every session we’ve played them live to the point we finally laid them to tape. We are, due to our personal influences and personal behavior, a very diverse bunch of friends with a lot of different specific preferences concerning sound and riff composition.

The album is to this point, in our opinion the most coherent, but also the most diverse offering of our ten-year history as a band. The record features classic ’90s moments of our early stoner and alternative approaches, but also, in a blink of an eye, progressive psychedelic stuff and experimental signatures we figured out in the rehearsal space over various sessions. All those pieces have gone through various stages of different moods, but, at the end, Artificial Disgust is what it is: a bastard of polyphonic heaviness with a hint of a painful, sardonic smile.

Exile On Mainstream will release Artificial Disgust on LP, CD, and digital platforms on April 24th, the LP joined with a download code, and the CD and digital versions bearing a bonus track from the archives. Place orders HERE.

Artificial Disgust was recorded by Jan Oberg at Hidden Planet Studio, Robin Ravn at FKN Recording Studio, Alan Bittner at Frieders Livingroom, Georg Edert at Gaffa Ghandi Rehearsal Space, Torsten Lang at Torstens Livingroom, and Niklas Wenzel at Virtuose Vibes Studio. The record was mixed and mastered by Torsten Lang and is completed with photography and design by Maren Michaelis and layout by Benjamin Butter.

The new LP was meant to see release in conjunction with GAFFA GHANDI’s participation in Exile On Mainstream’s RoadShow 2020 mini-tour including Treedeon, Darsombra, Kristian Harting, and Tourette Boys, but the trek has been disbanded due to the ongoing worldwide coronavirus situation. Watch for the band to reschedule new performances once the situation is contained.

GAFFA GHANDI:
Georg Edert – drums
Lucas Kazzer – bass
Frieder Ackermann – guitar
Alan Bittner – guitar

Gaffa Ghandi website

Gaffa Ghandi on Bandcamp

Gaffa Ghandi on Thee Facebooks

Exile on Mainstream website

Tags: , , , , ,

Leave a Reply