ALBUM REVIEW: GoGo Penguin – V2
Courtesy of Carsten Petersen – the guy who stays at the bar drinking (alone) after all the beautiful girls left to better places.
★★★★☆
I have already reviewed quite a few styles. From Zappa and Beefheart-style madness to Springsteen roots rock, from bombastic art rock to nihilistic punk bands, from experimental pop to full fledged rock operas. I guess, it was just a matter of time until I would stumble over a pure jazz record. Having already been around for a few years, the band in question is called GoGo Penguin, a young outfit from Manchester that recently released their second full-fledged album, V2.
Judging from the snippets and bits and pieces of jazz music I heard so far, I guess, like any form of music, jazz can have its ups and downs. At its best, that music can provide some of the most beautiful and interesting explorations in music. Bands like Weather Report sure are ample proof. At its worst, it can degrade to pure background muzak, at best serving as boring, pseudo-artistic lullabies having as much hooks or atmosphere in 2 hours as Kojak had hear on his head. Which means, not a lot.
The established formula of GoGo Penguin for V2 sounds pretty dangerous. The music is mainly made up of a rhythm section, enriched by bass and drums, as well as piano providing the melodic and atmospheric textures for the tracks, with slight touches of keyboards here and there. The record is entirely instrumental, and the general mood of it is generally a rather quiet and laid back one. In the hands of any lesser talented musicians, this record could have been a complete and utter bore, you know, kinda like that annoying piano bar music you always here after you have had your 10th whiskey and all the beautiful girls have already left to better places.
However, I am pleased to tell you that this record is one of the most enjoyable pieces of music I have come across in the last months. So what happened? What did these kids make right and therefore remind that with me pushing 30, it is about time that I do something interesting with my life as well? Well, first of all, the atmosphere of this record is incredible. It is very hard to describe, but I think that there must be a reason why the band keep showing their shows in that deep black and white colour. Somehow, this matches the mood of the record perfectly! And as much as I like colorful music, this is not meant in a negative way. In a way, this record is perfect ‘midnight music’ along with those black and white images of the band playing in a quiet and peaceful place. For some reason, I always imagine a beach at night, with only shades of black and white and the moon smiling from above. Nutty, yes, but if music can put these strange associations in your head, at least in my case, this is a damn good sign. And damn, these guys pull it off. Just be prepared, this is definitely not music to listen to in broad daylight on the beach or during your workout.
The opening track ‘Murmuration’ establishes the virtues of this record right away, drawing you in with its slow, deep echoey rhythm and somber piano melodies. In its run, the song slightly speeds up with those piano runs just getting more and more gorgeous and the track reaching great intensity. ‘Garden Dog Barbecue’, in many ways, is a real standout from this record. It is probably the only really bouncy, fast track on V2, setting a high pace with some distorted piano notes and the rhythm section following suite. ‘Kamaloka’ then takes another turn and introduces a purely romantic feeling with yet another set of beautifully melodic piano runs – funny enough, it is also one of the slightly faster tracks, providing a kind of urgent feeling along with it.
The rest of the tracks usually follow a rather similar pattern but almost always adding a new flavour to the proceedings, each providing a slightly new feeling and cool melodies. But the real standouts for me are the more epic, ‘progressive’ tracks (yeah, as if you haven’t seen that one coming!). I am talking particularly about ‘One Percent’ and ‘Drown In You’. The former track starts off really quiet only to turn into something incredibly, well, uplifting, for lack of a better term, while the latter piece starts out with a sorrowful melody, then halfway through speeds up and adopts a more menacing feeling throughout the second half with crashing piano chords. ‘Hopopono’ manages to close out the record on another strong note, with some more of these sweet piano flourishes that enrich the record´s sound in so many places.
If I should mention any weaker spots, it would probably be ‘Home’, as it basically relives the same moods other pieces have touched upon, only without doing anything really interesting with it melody or atmosphere-wise. Then again, the weak spots on this record are only few and short and far away from seriously distracting from the mood of this record, so its really just minor nitpickings.
It pretty much helps that each and every track on V2 does not try too hard to be extremely jazzy. Means, it does not take 4 or 5 turns per minute, trying to sound all professional. Each and every track produces a certain kind of feeling and then explores, building on it, expanding on it. Mysticism in ‘Murmuration’, romanticism in ‘Kamaloka’, sorrow in ‘Drown in You’, wackiness in ‘Garden Dog Barbecue’ and sense of uplift in ‘One Percent’. At the same time, those different moods refrain the record from sounding monotonous which is a quite feat given that this record is only made up of piano and percussion. For the next album, I would still love to hear how these guys handle additional sounds or instruments, like maybe more touches of keyboard, flute or anything else. Those dudes from Manchester have greatly explored their possibilities on this album, so the successor will have to bring in new elements naturally to provide a new challenge to these folks.
Now I am done with my usual song-by-song rant, let me just conclude that this, well, is just a mightily enjoyable record. The only negative thing I could possibly say is that the guys had a great chance to combine a great album with a brilliant album cover art, and they totally blew it. Sorry, but that cover with those dots just does not transport any image to me – totally incompatible with the moods on the record. Any black and white picture, be it of that beach or of your performances, will do much better. Or if not, just show a penguin…penguins are cute.
