Whether one is attracted to the music of Seattle\u2019s Gumshen or not, it certainly cannot be denied that this music is at least interesting. And the reason couldn\u2019t be more succinctly and literally expressed than in title of the group\u2019s seventh release Progtronica<\/i>: the amalgamation of classic prog rock and electronica is the foundation of Gumshen\u2019s music. Now if a band was to carry this combination out correctly, then the outcome could be something amazing. But if they do not, then the music will at least sound unique and different. Although Progtronica <\/i>has all the attributes of the former, it sadly is closer to the latter.<\/p>\n
It is only the prog rock moments of Progtronica<\/i> where Gumshen shines and excels. For instance, on the eight-minute long \u201cFragile We Are Castles,\u201d the band plunges into a very fine instrumental jam session right from the outset for six whole minutes, sounding like a resurrected \u201870s prog rock outfit. Similarly on \u201cBell Ringer,\u201d the band goes into another great retro instrumental jam trip during the final three-and-half minutes, starting with an almost Emerson Lake & Palmer-like synth solo, followed by a guitar solo that carries the song to its finale. <\/p>\n
And it\u2019s not just the prog rock influences that spawn the best songs on Progtronica.<\/i> The folky \u201cFine One To Talk\u201d is the one anomaly where the band deviates from the prog\/electronica formula, but ends up creating a pretty good song; it starts off almost like a simple folksy number, and very smoothly and beautifully transitions into a psychedelic space-rock dream.<\/p>\n
However, on one hand, where Gumshen gets the \u201cprog rock\u201d part of Progtronica<\/i> right, on the other, it is the \u201celectronica\u201d part where the band doesn\u2019t quite hit the mark. The most obvious culprit is \u201cBait & Switch\u201d with its grating synth noises and annoyingly comical song structure. It seems like the band here is trying to mimic Devo or someone similar, but they end up making a total fool of themselves in the process.On \u201cStipulation,\u201d the group tries its hand at electro pop, but ends up making a mere dull pop song out of it, apart from the one-minute electro instrumental jam towards the end, which concludes the otherwise bland track on a high note. <\/p>\n
\u201cLiquid,\u201d which is one of the best cuts here, is the only exception in the collection of unexceptional electro-leaning tracks on this album. But even this song, alongwith the rest of Progtronica, <\/i>including the other album highlights\u00ad <\/i>\u2013 \u201cFine One To Talk,\u201d \u201cBell Ringer,\u201d and \u201cFragile We Are Castles\u201d \u2013 have a rather anemic sound. And this is probably the main reason why this album isn\u2019t as good as it should be. The production is rather dull, and the energy in the music doesn\u2019t really get translated into the final product, even on some of the excellent jams; all in all, this makes what could\u2019ve been a pretty good album just a mediocre one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":31810,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[9333],"rating":[5619],"class_list":["post-43528","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-gumshen","rating-rating-c"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43528","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\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=43528"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=43528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}