Surely I can’t be the only person who would cringe at the inclusion of “slick bedroom production almost exclusively inspired by 10CC’s ‘I’m Not In Love’” as a description of a release in its promo material. Things look really grim when the opening track, ‘The Gaudy Side of Town’, comes on with funk-lite bass slapping last heard on the theme song from Family Ties and Kenny G style sax noodling. And when your vocal timbre is so close to George Michael’s, you really need to steer clear of stealing Wham! melodies and singing “healing time” over and over as your hook. The dry as bones drum sounds have an appeal, but I’m really needing to clutch at straws to redeem the track. I just find it dire.
‘The Walker’ picks up the quality somewhat. A comatose rhythm is punctuated by a disturbingly well recorded gunshot sound (especially when listening through headphones) which is rendered slightly impotent through overuse across the track. The fact that ‘Cry’ is a cover of former 10CC members Godley & Creme’s 80s hit (and it comes complete with direct pastiche of the original’s video clip as well – which even features Kevin Godley) is enough to have me fearing the worst. However, it’s sheer lethargy, with everything feeling as if it’s about to fall over from inertia, actually begins to transcend its MOR roots. It’s as close as I’ve ever come to understanding the attraction of the hypnagogic, which I’ve generally found to be a poor excuse for the kind of bland taste nostalgia/retroism that would be abhorred in any other generation but which has inexplicably found currency amongst the contemporary underground. On the whole, the album struggles with this exact problem, though it does widen it’s reference points at times. ‘False Bottom’ juxtaposes free-jazz ecstasy with Miles coolness before melting into dark, psychedelic dub and is probably the standout track for me. ‘The Beatdown’ heads into triphop regions, the kind of paranoia Massive Attack explored around the turn of the century, while ‘Faded High’ does krautrock as seen through the eyes of the early 80s.
Unfortunately, for every transcendent moment, there’s another ‘tasteful’ sax solo (‘Spanish Platinum’), banal lyric (“I want your body on me” – ‘Faded High’) or horrid bell-rhodes synth plonk and kitsch spoken word come-on (“The Last Prom On Earth”), leaving me with a bad aftertaste. There are worthy moments on GAYNGS’ debut album, but any nostalgia I might harbour and allow to encroach upon my listening is a long way from 80s soft-rock/AOR and there just isn’t enough going on here for me to hear it dragging itself out of that particular mire.
Adrian Elmer
*
