"I don't need a saddle..." original photo by Rosie Alice Wilson
People a lot smarter than me with brows often furrowed say the universe is expanding. This metric expansion has been going on ever since that supposed big bang 13.8 billion (so they say). "Horses" by the divergently minded South London Gag Salon feel like a universe contracting and doing so fast and somehow the claustrophobic feeling created is gleefully anxious. This art punk-ian extravaganza is so fucking sonically maniacal and oddly aloof at the same time. The stabs of guitars don't only move sideways but in every direction. Think of those shapes as a horn section and you might flash on Oingo Boingo, feel the pummeling fury and you might flash on if Devo and Idles had a weird hyper baby. I absolutely love Joseph Mumford's purely artful sort of outstretched fingered and convulsing vocal aesthetic. Like an amalgam of Russell Mael (Sparks), Jello Biafra (Dead Kennedys), Marc Bolan (T. Rex) and Tim Curry (as Dr. Frank-N-Furter) on copious amounts of adrenalin, Mumford's performance here, crushes together burlesque, post-hardcore, glam and art rock into a potent snort-able powder (figuratively speaking).
Gag Salon (who were in another life know as Palm Honey) brilliantly turn "Horses" up and down at will. It feels padded cell crazy one second and then dreadfully poised and pretty the next. You swallow everything willingly getting caught up in the dense tightly wound musicality and broad, over the top theatricality. The thing is, when you do what Gag Salon do this well (bloody brilliant) it doesn't feel over the top it just feels purely original and so different like a jagged gem within a vast beach of polished river rock.
"Horses" was recorded at Green Door Studio, Glasgow by Chris McCrory (Catholic Action, Walt Disco, Spinn). The band says that it is about "a status seeking yuppie chasing an 'it' girl who eventually realizes they're actually in love with their horse." Hopefully I will interview these boys and delve in further (ya think?).
Gag Salon is Ayden Spiller (drums, percussion), Seb Bowden (bass), Tom Diommock (backing vox, guitar, synth) and Joseph Mumford (vox, guitar).
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
https://www.facebook.com/gagsalonband
https://www.instagram.com/gagsalonband/
https://twitter.com/gagsalonband
https://soundcloud.com/gagsalon/horses-1/s-hxBrzoEMCUT
https://open.spotify.com/track/3FGdZPyBYvPVMen9m28Ula
Introducing Gag Salon: the surviving members of a function band gone up in flames, the guinea pigs of experimental surgery and new age psychotherapy. Fundamentally a pop group, Gag Salon invite you to interrogate the undesirable and exorcise your demons via LCD intensity and Beefheartian wonk.
Gag Salon, Post-Punk, Indie Pop, Alternative Rock, crazy, frenetic energy, South London, art rock, glam, burlesque, "Horses", tightly wound musicality, post hardcore, avant garde rock,
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