Dresden-based progressive blues/heavy psych rockers Gavial will release their new album, Thanks, I Hate It, on Jan. 23 through Exile on Mainstream. The band, which has its roots in the moniker Tourette Boys, issued VOR in 2023 as their first outing under the new banner, and they lead into the follow-up with the opening song as the first single in “Control.” The new song gives strong All Them Witches vibes in the vocals, but in its second half, departs toward a different kind of prog-psych fluidity from that bluesier start. Of course, the lesson, keep on your toes or you won’t know where you’ll end up.

Fair enough. The video for “Control” you’ll find below along with the Bandcamp player, and the PR wire brought copious info (the more the merrier) and the preorder links where one might chase the LP down ahead of its arrival next month. It all goes like this:

GAVIAL: German Psychedelic Blues/Post-Rock Band To Release New LP, Thanks, I Hate It, Via Exile On Mainstream January 23rd; “Control” Video Premiered + Preorders Posted

Germany’s GAVIAL has completed work on their new LP, Thanks, I Hate It. The band will release the album through their allies at Exile On Mainstream in January, today unveiling its cover art, preorders, and more, alongside a premiere of the lead single/video, hosted by Everything Is Noise.

Nearly three years have passed since GAVIAL – formerly known as Tourette Boys – released their VOR LP with an updated lineup. Since then, the band – guitarist/vocalist Benjamin Butter, drummer Conrad Brod, bassist Paul Kollascheck, and guitarist Paul-Willy Stoyan – has been operating from the Berlin–Dresden–Leipzig triangle. While most songs on VOR were already written by the time Kollascheck joined the band, the focus afterward shifted: writing together as a four-piece and allowing the bass to become a more active force in shaping the music.

The results of this intense creative period can now be heard on GAVIAL’s new album, Thanks, I Hate It. Here, the band stretches its fingers in many different directions. The opener, “Control,” takes a minimalist approach, concentrating on fusing diverse soundscapes. With “Koru Mindset,” the band ventures into up-tempo territory for the first time, driven by beat and rhythm at its core. In contrast, “Grow” taps into a more classic blues feel, while “Pretender” and “Leviathan” dive into long, sprawling psychedelic jams. The track “Wandern” offers a reinterpretation of an older band song — a piece that further highlights how seamlessly the quartet now works together. The album closes with a cover of Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game.”

As with VOR, the new material is deeply shaped by the cultural, social, and political realities of our time. The album title itself captures the band’s pointed response: Thanks, I Hate It. A reaction to a world burning; societies fueled by hate; technologies drifting away from serving humanity; militarism rising once again; human rights ignored or unrealized; institutions riddled with corruption; and individuals claiming the wealth of all for themselves.

Recorded by GAVIAL in their band rehearsal space, Thanks, I Hate It was mixed by the band’s Benjamin Butter – who also created the cover art and videos for the record – and was mastered by Bernard Camillieri at Xekillton Studios, Malta.

With the video for the lead single and opening track, “Control,” Benjamin Butter writes, “The video for ‘Control’ starts in a classic way: the four musicians of the band GAVIAL are playing music in their rehearsal room. The video deliberately avoids a complex story and focuses on the stylistic design. Right at the beginning, the camera’s view is forced through night vision goggles, which from then on determine the stylistic direction with their striking green coloring. The focus shifts from a single perspective to a multitude of perspectives running in parallel, allowing the eye to jump from one focal point to another across the screen. The video thus turns the viewer into a restless observer who seems to be looking through the lenses of various surveillance cameras.

“With the resurgence of militarism in Europe, images documenting the killing on the battlefields of our planet from the perspective of drones have become increasingly common. From a seemingly safe distance, the horrors of war are transmitted almost live to thousands of screens.

“The video increasingly disrupts this aesthetic with visual artifacts. In the last third, ‘the broadcast’ is interrupted by a visually stunning collage that more and more transforms into an eye looking back at the viewer. The observer is now, in a sense, being ‘monitored’ in an allegory for the dwindling autonomy in our increasingly digitized society.

“In the end, ‘the broadcast’ is restored. However, all the people have turned into shadows and ghosts. What happened to the musicians in this iconoclasm remains unclear. The video ends with a sense of uncertainty that is so palpable when we look at our reality now: are you still observing or are you right in the middle of this video?”

The video makes its worldwide premiere via Everything Is Noise, who writes how the song, “…shows the band leaning into a bass driven groove with a steady drum beat, and guitars that flirt with the blues. Guitarist/vocalist Benjamin Butter delivers clear, melodious lyrics as the song progresses that echo my sentiments. ‘Control’ gradually builds in krautrock fashion revealing psych-rock crescendos with guitars swirling into the song’s gnarly climax. Butter also directed the video which shows glimpses of the band playing along with found footage behind night vision greens and blues during the build-up before bursting into a Technicolor visual collage that morphs into an eye watching the viewer back, a fitting and trippy visual accompaniment to ‘Control’ that ends with the band as ghostly shadows.”

Thanks, I Hate It will be released on Exile On Mainstream on black vinyl bundled with a CD and digitally on January 23rd. Physical preorders are live at the label webshop HERE: https://shop.mainstreamrecords.de/product/eom117

Digital preorders are up at Bandcamp HERE: https://gavial.bandcamp.com/album/thanks-i-hate-it

Presaves can be found HERE: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/gavial/thanks-i-hate-it

Additional previews of the album and news will be posted over the weeks ahead as we head into the new year.

Thanks, I Hate It Track Listing:
1. Control
2. Koru Mindset
3. Pretender
4. Grow
5. Leviathan
6. Wandern
7. Wicked Game (Chris Isaak cover)

GAVIAL has booked two shows with Mriodom and labelmates Gaffa Ghandi to close out the year and is booking a release tour across Germany to take place in May. Additional live news will be posted shortly.

GAVIAL Live:
12/20/2205 Neue Zukunft – Berlin, DE w/ Gaffa Ghandi, Mriodom
12/21/2025 Chemiefabrik – Dresden, DE w/ Gaffa Ghandi, Mriodom

https://linktr.ee/gavialband
https://gavial.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/gavialband
https://www.facebook.com/Gavialband

http://www.mainstreamrecords.de
https://www.youtube.com/@exileonmainstream3639
https://www.instagram.com/exileonmainstreamofficial/

Gavial, “Control” official video

Gavial, Thanks, I Hate It (2026)

Two nights each in Berlin and Leipzig, on successive nights no less. This is a recipe for ‘everybody’s friends’ when it’s over, and as that’s pretty on-brand for Exile on Mainstream — founder/honcho Andreas Kohl, who knows more than everyone but, like, isn’t a dick about it, keeps the circle pretty tight — but with reunions from End of Level Boss and Ostinato, the ever-mobile Darsombra making an overseas voyage to appear, The Moth who released one of this year’s best records, Conny Ochs and Bulbul, A Whisper in the Noise and Fireflies and Gaffa Ghandi, you get a whole bunch of different styles that somehow fit under a vague descriptor like ‘prog’ just because everyone involved is super-intentional about what they’re doing.

That applies to the label as well. Congrats and much respect to Andreas on 25 years of his label and the badass celebration he’s lined up for it. Still more names TBA, as it happens.

Info follows as posted on socials. Well, not exactly as posted. It was an Instagram textblock thing and I broke it up into paragraphs to make it easy to read. Me back in 2014 would probably laugh at me in 2023 doing that. “Short paragraphs. Who ever heard of that shit?”

And so on:

25 Years Exile On Mainstream

8/9 May 2024 – Berlin, Neue Zukunft

10/11 May 2024 – Leipzig, UT Connewitz

25 years! A quarter century of Exile On Mainstream. So, let’s celebrate. In a big way. On the 8th and 9th of May, we’ll meet in Berlin at the Neue Zukunft, and on the 10th and 11th of May in Leipzig, the city where it all began for us.

Both the Neue Zukunft and the UT Connewitz are inseparably connected to the history of Exile On Mainstream, supporting us far beyond the ordinary.

As it has become a tradition by now, and because we are hopeless romantics, we have three special reunions for the festival: Ostinato, A Whisper In The Noise, and End Of Level Boss will reunite for one-time only performances bringing back memories of the early days of EOM and connecting to current sounds and tunes on the label.

But that’s not all: get ready for some collaborations between the invited bands, which are as much a label tradition.

Tickets presale is open: https://shop.mainstreamrecords.de/product/eom25tic

http://www.mainstreamrecords.de
https://www.youtube.com/@exileonmainstream3639

The Moth, Frost (2023)

Conny Ochs, “Hickhack” official video

There’s precious little you can trust in life and I know, I know, I know I’ve said this at least several times in the past, but you can trust the taste of Exile on Mainstream‘s Andreas Kohl when it comes to finding and issuing interesting, innovative and — perhaps most importantly — actually good music. I’m not saying the label and I are always 100 percent on the same page, but in all honesty, even stuff that I’m not super-all-over, I’ve never checked out an Exile on Mainstream release and regretted it. I hold the imprint to a pretty high, almost unrealistic, standard and have for a long time now. That standard has never not been met.

Gavial — and kudos to the band on changing their name from the former Tourette Boys — will release their debut-under-the-moniker VOR through Exile on Mainstream on May 19, and that’s all I need to know to get on board. Nonetheless, I’d be a prick if I didn’t actually include the PR wire info here, you know, for good measure, so here it is:

GAVIAL: German Blues/Psychedelic Rock Quartet Formerly Known As Tourette Boys To Release VOR LP Through Exile On Mainstream In May

Exile On Mainstream excitedly welcomes German quartet GAVIAL to the label, and is preparing to release the band’s new LP, VOR.

The story of GAVIAL began nearly fifteen years ago as a project adapted from a Nirvana song and pun as “Two Red Boys.” Having released three albums as Tourette Boys, two collaborations with UK-based blues musician Tim Holehouse, and a split EP with labelmates Gaffa Ghandi, the band played countless gigs and tours with bands like Acid Mothers Temple, Dyse, Gaffa Ghandi, The Skull, True Widow and Sleepy Sun. This musical project is based on friendship even though the musicians live in different cities. The vast and untouched landscapes between Berlin and Dresden may have contributed to the inspiration for the sound of the band, which repeatedly tries to ground Psychedelic abstraction in modern blues. The result is more reminiscent of the desert rock that we know from the vastness of Arizona than the urban hustle and bustle in big cities. Shimmering soundscapes, partly dark and melancholic, then again full of hope and glaring light filled with the comforting, but nonetheless ominous heat of the desert – GAVIAL remains true masters of that.

It’s 2023, and it’s time for a turning point… on multiple levels. With VOR, the band’s fourth album is for the first time distributed on a label, uniting with their friends at Exile On Mainstream. For the recordings in 2022 the band grew from a trio to a quartet, and with that move comes the name change that was long overdue, which the band explains by stating, “In the last few years, we frequently discussed our music, videos, and name and tried to reflect on our decisions during that time. Concerning the name of the band, we have come to the decision that it is no longer appropriate to continue using it. Affected people deserve respect and we think that this band name shows a lack thereof. For that, we want to apologize.”

VOR is once again characterized by the search for a contemporary expression of the blues without questioning its authenticity. GAVIAL weaves musical inspiration from ambient, soul, gospel, and country into different threads from a carpet of sound that simply ignores the sharp cliffs of redundant categories such as retro or stoner. The music doesn’t need name dropping, but if you still want to make room in your thematically sorted record shelf, you’re welcome to make some room in the compartments in which you put your Screaming Trees, Flying Eyes, Black Crowes, or Woodcocks, so that GAVIAL can find space in them. Sorted alphabetically, VOR also cuts a fine figure between Gaffa Ghandi, Geraldine Fibbers, and Giant Sand.

Lyrically, GAVIAL is cautiously concrete, exploring the ambivalent depths of the soul where there are more questions than answers. Singer Benjamin Butter intones lyrical sketches of emotional states between melancholy, quiet anger, and hope, reminiscent of Charles Baudelaire, and turns the voice into another instrument. The interplay with driving bass lines and Americana-esque guitars results in music as it should be: melodic but not profane, accessible but with a fragile base.

VOR was recorded in the band’s rehearsal room and mixed by Benjamin Butter and Bernard Camilleri, who has become their go-to sound engineer. Bernard Camilleri did the mastering at his Xekillton Studio in Malta. The artwork is from the Flowers Of Terrible series by Berlin-based artist Hamid Yaraghchi.

Exile On Mainstream will release GAVIAL’s VOR May 19th on Black Vinyl LP and digitally, and a limited CD version will be made available at the band’s concerts.

https://www.facebook.com/Gavialband
https://www.instagram.com/gavialband
https://gavial.bandcamp.com
https://linktr.ee/gavialband

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https://www.youtube.com/@exileonmainstream3639
http://www.mainstreamrecords.de

Tourette Boys, Zorn (2019)