GoGo Penguin and the falling walls and upright angles of "The Antidote Is In the Poison"

 

""The Antidote Is In the Poison"

I am by any description a mere poseur when it comes to understanding jazz or the various iterations of it. I like what I like and I love all types of music that stand out on the precipice, where the shapes are uncommon, oblique not just to be weird or different but to lead the way and inspire. I have this quote by Charles Mingus written in pencil on the wall because it speaks to being different, to leading and inspiring, to not following: "I was always doing revolutionary things, things that would alert people, so they would stop being so subservient." 

Every time I dare step into the offbeat latitudes that GoGo Penguin scribe on their world of music I hear all the differences that inspire, I hear something so incredibly far from the pablum that litters the pop landscapes. And don't get me wrong I love pop that is not so subservient. The latest by this musically feral Manchester UK trio is "The Antidote Is In the Poison". The title is a bit of a riddle, it doesn't seem to make sense and maybe that's the point. The intertwining sounds both sublime and stunning that pianist Chris Illingworth, bassist Nick Blacka, and drummer Jon Scott fabricate from whole cloth is so musically and emotionally dense. The sensory overload pulls from a cross generational smashing together of grooves and oblong tones from many places and genres. The musical narration stumbles and falls, dips back and moves sideways. If it were a dance it would be interpretive and fluid and jagged all at once. 

Besides this song feeling like an invention itself, "The Antidote Is In the Poison" features an invention called the Palm Mute Pedal developed by Danish pianist, Otto Sammy. As press notes indicate: 'The custom pedal allows Illingworth to mute and effect the sound of the strings live as he plays, offering a new sound palette for the band by giving the acoustic piano an almost electronic effect.' 

Nick Blacka explains further the thinking behind the inspiration for ‘The Antidote Is in the Poison’: “The starting point for the track was taken from a sequenced pattern on a synthesizer, but we then switched everything back to the acoustic instruments and never used a synth on it at all”.

 "The Antidote Is In the Poison" is a perfect puzzle. It's construction, sideways with beats on were you sense they would be off and vice versa and such beautiful intricacies is something hard to comprehend if you listen too hard. Give yourself away to it, fall under it's spell and all those hard to understand musical construction fall by the way side. You just groove to it, the tensions become soothing, dreamy and ultimately inspiring. Like a masterwork hanging on the wall. 

The new "Between Two Waves" EP is out July 1st via XXIM Records.

-Robb Donker Curtius

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GoGo Penguin have been internationally hailed as electrifying live performers, innovative soundtrack composers, and as a collective who channel electronic and club culture atmospheres alongside minimalist, jazz and rock influences to create music that pulses and flows from the dancefloor to meditative inner-worlds, transporting us into brand new realms.

Their new single, Ascent, is their first for the new label XXIM Records and takes its inspiration from the duality often found in the big events in our lives; moments which can simultaneously make us feel both loved and isolated, fearful but confident, proud and humbled. Ascent expresses the journey through these experiences in life, moving forward into the unknown, but with hope not fear. It also marks the debut of the band's latest member, drummer Jon Scott, who brings his own uniquely propulsive style to the Manchester based trio’s exhilarating music.

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