Let’s be honest here – when you think of rock and roll, the
\nfirst place in the world that comes to mind isn’t Iceland. Hell, if
\nthe Sugarcubes hadn’t burst onto the scene back in the late ’80s,
\nprobably the only think Reykjavik would have been remembered for
\nwas a summit between Reagan and Gorbachev.<\/p>\n
So it was with trepidation that I approached the debut release
\nfrom Gus Gus,
\nPolydistortion<\/i>. Any band with nine members tends to scare
\nme. Even their cryptic bio kept me from listening to the disc for a
\nfew days.<\/p>\n
But after a few spins on the old CD player in the Pierce
\nMemorial Archives (sterilized for your protection), I have to admit
\nthis is an entertaining, though at times challenging, listen that
\nblows Bjork and her former band away.<\/p>\n
The sparse liner notes prevent me from giving credit where
\ncredit should be issued. It’s hard to tell if it is Daniel Agust,
\nMagnus Jonsson or Hafdis Huld singing. Thanks to the bio, though,
\nsome performances can be singled out: Agust’s vocals on
\n“Polyesterday” and “Believe” (the latter featuring a killer riff
\nfrom Kool & The Gang as a sample) make these tracks some of the
\nbest dance-cum-alternative I’ve heard blaring out of the speakers
\nin a long time. And Huld does wonders on “Cold Breath ’79,”
\nsounding slightly like a more controlled Bjork, only much more
\nfluid in her vocal. (I’d love to know who does the vocal on “Is
\nJesus Your Pal?,” a song which may be the unheralded performance on
\nthe disc.)<\/p>\n
From the minute-long intro of “Oh,” you know this is going to be
\nan interesting journey. Though it stumbles a bit in the beginning
\nwith “Gun,” Gus Gus is able to eventually win the listener over to
\nthe track’s hypnotic beat and vocals. Be warned, though – this one
\nis at least a five-listen track before it becomes truly
\naddictive.<\/p>\n
“Believe,” one of the two singles from
\nPolydistortion<\/i>, is the proof that this band is both shunning
\nthe path blazed for them by the Sugarcubes as well as carving their
\nown niche out in the world of alternative dance. Courtesy of the
\npreviously mentioned sample, this one is going to leave a rhythm
\nburned into your head that is damn near impossible to shake. The
\nother single, “Polyesterday,” allows the band to be quirky without
\ngoing over the top. Maybe it was the control that Gus Gus showed
\nthat made me a believer.<\/p>\n
Not all the tracks live up to this hope, though. The vocal
\nshrieks in “Barry” grow almost to the point of annoyance – as if
\nthe eponymous Bee Gee was having his vocal cords cut with a Super
\nSlicer. “Why?” and “Purple” tend to fall towards the side of
\nboredom as well. Nevertheless, the complaints with
\nPolydistortion<\/i> are few.<\/p>\n
I don’t mean to do any discredit to the remaining six band
\nmembers who I’ve not mentioned – nor do I mean disrespect by not
\ntyping their names with the correct phonetic marks (so much for the
\nease of use of Windows 95). One thing which does make me curious,
\nthough, is the mention of film work and production in the bio. It
\nalmost sounds like Gus Gus is a band who can be appreciated on
\ndisc, but whose true art form is on the small screen – kind of like
\nGreen Jello (I don’t care if that isn’t their name anymore) without
\nthe foam rubber heads and funny songs, if you will.<\/p>\n
What also intrigues me is that Music Boulevard, where I go for
\nmany of the album covers you see here (please don’t sue), lists
\nPolydistortion<\/i> as a limited edition release. Hmm… wonder
\nwhy.
\n(Editor’s note: CDNOW bought Music Boulevard around 1998 or
\n1999.)<\/i><\/p>\n
If Gus Gus can win over a hardened critic like myself, then they
\nshould have little problem conquering the alternative music world
\nthey revel in.
\nPolydistortion<\/i> is an admirable debut effort – and given a
\nlittle more work on the rough edges, they could make us forget
\nwhere they’re from and make us think about where they’re
\nheaded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24473,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5786],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-35677","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-gus-gus","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35677"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35677"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}