UK’s Trio GoGo Penguin (GGP) Continue to Evolve Their Own Unclassifiable Genre on S/T Effort (ALBUM REVIEW)

The Manchester, England trio, GoGo Penguin (GGP) have racked up rave reviews for inspiration and originality since 2013, when they settled on their current line-up of Chris Illingworth (piano), Rob Turner (drums) and Nick Blacka (bass). Fusing jazz, classical and electronic influences (amongst others) with a thirst for innovation, they won the Mercury Prize for album of the year in 2014 and have enjoyed a success matched by precious few vocal-free groups post-millennium. They’ve reached a point, commonly called confidence, where they can simply march forth with a self-titled album, their sixth, and third for Blue Note. This follows their acclaimed 2018 Humdrum Star.

What began as an instrumental jazz trio, certainly not the conventional piano trio, has evolved into a kind of music that even the band members cannot adequately describe. In their sound, there have been detectable traces of modern developments in jazz, such as Sweden’s free-thinking Esbjörn Svensson Trio (aka EST), or minimalist classical composers like Steve Reich, John Adams, even Erik Satie. Yet, all in their mid-30’s, you can hear that they have grown up in the golden age of electronica, with echoes ranging from rarefied techno (think Aphex Twin; Carl Craig’s Innerzone Orchestra), and the emotive melodies and crescendos of European House, through to Roni Size’s jazz-infused drum ‘n’ bass.

“Because I play the double bass, I think I always wanted to have jazz in our music,” Blacka says. “But as we’ve moved through the albums, it’s been a very gradual thing for me where I’ve now finally come to accept that we really just aren’t a jazz band. This new album is the one where I thought, ‘Fuck it, there’s no point even worrying anymore!’ That has been really liberating and freeing for all of us.” GGP employs computer technology to compose with, then finds ways to record (and perform) the results on acoustic instruments, with help from a surprisingly limited arsenal of effects pedals and delays. Rob Turner confesses, “I spend way more time on my laptop than I do on my drums. The ratio is probably about 90% to 10%.”

While those descriptions may give the notion that their music is a bit too esoteric, inaccessible, or too “new age like,” it’s surprisingly accessible due to the melodies, the brooding, transportive nature of their music; and the interplay of the three band members. GGP continues to build quite a buzz globally, spurred on in part by accolades from The New York Times highlighting them as one of the 12 best bands at 2017’s SXSW, proving that their appeal extends well beyond just a jazz audience, and, of course,  the widely acclaimed 2014 Mercury Prize-nominated (England equivalent to Grammy) V2.0, and their two Blue Note releases, Man Made Object and Humdrum Star.

It’s easy to think you are listening to an electronic album when in fact it is totally acoustic. You may have already heard the first single, the album’s second track, “Atomised,” a favorite of the band’s that has GGP gliding over a powerful UK garage beat with a propulsive groove, emblematic of their overall sound. Throughout, Blacka generates some of the most interesting sounds from his electric bass that we’ve heard since Jaco Pastorius and there’s a special flowing interplay between Illingworth’s glistening, floating piano and Turner’s drums. 

They’ve also released a second sing, “Kora,” about the instrument of the same name. Chris Illingworth explains: “People often ask us where we get our inspiration from when writing new music. The reality is you never know where it might come from, it’s best just to keep your eyes and ears open and then you’re ready for it. Kora is a good example of this. There’s a guy who often sits in Piccadilly Gardens, day after day, who plays the kora for hours. It’s an incredible sound. Considering how loud and chaotic it can be around there, you can hear his music so clearly. You’ll see people stop and watch for a while, it’s difficult not to as it’s so beautiful. I’ve tried approaching the piano in different ways like emulating synths or translating guitar patterns to the keyboard. Hearing this guy and other great kora players like Toumani Diabaté inspired me to try some kora patterns on the piano and this in turn became part of the inspiration for this track.

Some of the same elements from the previous album are likely employed here as explained first by Turner, “We started with this idea of ‘inner and outer’, and opposing things that are essentially the same,” says Rob. “A lot of the textures and sounds do come from the electronic writing, but Brendan{co-producer} also wanted everything to be made as organically as possible.” This provoked various DIY twists, such as chains and even a tape measure held against Nick’s bass strings to create the rustling rhythms.”  Illingworth described one of the passages on the previous album comparing it this way to “the fader on record turntables, where you flick it to another groove and then back again.”  

There’s a mix of melodic passages with dissonant ones and repetitive ones, resulting in almost a trance-like listening experience (especially late at night). It’s a minimalist approach mostly, not unlike the famous trio, The Bad Plus, but with a vastly different sound than that band because of GGP’s electronic compositional foundation. It’s interesting that while the previous album had an intergalactic feeling, this seems a bit more acoustically grounded, a deceptively simple yet complex sound that grows in appeal with continued listens.

 

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3 Responses

  1. Pretty sure they were only nominated for Mercury Prize in 2014 as Yoong Father’s won that year iirc

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