Until
a few months ago, the future of Icelandic super band Gus Gus
was looking as bleak as the long winter nights of their sub-arctic
mother island. After two inspiring albums on 4AD, mixing their
indie pop inspirations with modern technology and dance beats,
the nine-piece collective slowly started to disintegrate. The
release of Gus Gus Vs T-World in 2000 revealed the
cracks more openly than expected. The album was mostly made
up of old recordings, exhumed from back in the days when T-World,
namely Herb Legowitz and Biggi Veira, was not yet the musical
entity within Gus Gus. Despite its clumsy attempt at hiding
the facts, the album, by all means an excellent collection of
dance moments, seemed to announce the end of Gus Gus as we knew
it. After a few changes in its ranks, nine becoming four, Attention
sees the welcome return to form of the unlikely troop.
Ditching the incredible diversity of their two first albums,
Gus Gus bring their music right back to the bare essentials.
More focused and dense than Polydistortion or This
Is Normal, Attention has a lot more in common
with the original T-World sound. The two opening tracks assert
this slight change of direction with aplomb. If the melodic
treatment is familiar, the use of radical vintage electro/dance
sounds and beats shows a more upfront approach. While Unnecessary
still demonstrates some connections, especially with Believe
or Polyesterday, it also sees the band venturing into
more assertive grounds. The cheesy hook on David proudly drags
the track back to 1984, whilst setting it firmly into today’s
musical landscape at the same time. If it seems fashionable
these days to draw inspiration from the eighties, Gus Gus can’t
be accused of jumping in any kind of bandwagon. Their previous
records already borrowed a lot from early electro, only to transform
it into something resolutely modern and poetic. With Attention
however, Gus Gus go further, defining new rules for their old
game. If new singer Urdur Hakonardottir, aka Earth, doesn’t
possess the same vocal flexibility and ethereal qualities as
previous chanteuse Hafdis Huld, she has nevertheless perfectly
embraced the band’s ethic and contributes to great extent
to the general uplifting mood of the album. Contributions from
former Gus Gus singer Daniel Agust, on the superb Desire,
and Finn electro kitsch master Jimi Tenor, on writing and backing
vocals duties on Call For The Wild, provide some interesting
moments. In between, Gus Gus offer their own interpretation
of early house with Dance With You and I.I.E,
before returning to calmer territories towards the end of the
album, concluding with the luscious Don’t Hide What
You Feel.
The period of instability following the implosion of the original
collective and the departure of some key members has incontestably
shaken Gus Gus. If Attention doesn’t possess
the same burning intensity as Polydistortion, Gus Gus
have retained all the major elements of what made their music
so singular in the first place, allowing them to develop their
sound and explore new musical grounds.
3.5/5 |
