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| GoGo Penguin pianist Chris Illingworth performing at Coachella in Indio, CA on April 23, 2016. Photo: Robert Kinsler |
Now, I 've just watched the music video for GoGo Penguin's new song "Bardo" and it's amazing. Make sure to check that out and catch up on this amazing jazz-minded group from Manchester in the U.K.
The media release below just landed in my inbox and I had to share.
GoGo Penguin Releases New Single “Window”
From Their Forthcoming Album A Humdrum Star
Out Feb. 9 on Blue Note Records
Releases Video for Their First Single “Bardo”
Upcoming U.S. Tour dates include NYC, DC, Los Angeles, Seattle & Chicago; Set To Make Their Bonnaroo Debut In June 2018
GoGo Penguin has released “Window,” a stunning new single from their vivid forthcoming album A Humdrum Star, which is set for release February 9 on Blue Note Records. MOJO awarded the album 4-stars calling it “the most insistent distillation of their potent brand of piano-driven melody and groove.” The UK trio has also announced a US tour, which includes their debut at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival this June. Full list of dates below.
This week the band also released the video for their single “Bardo,” which The New York Times called “hypnotic,” adding that “there’s no need to parse this music; it’s in perpetual motion.” Watch or embed via YouTube: https://youtu.be/lDLzlsf0McM
Different worlds have always collided in the sound of GoGo Penguin. The Manchester-based trio conjure richly atmospheric music that draws from their shared love of electronica, their grounding in classical conservatoires and jazz ensembles alongside indie bands, and a merging of acoustic and electronic techniques. Over the past few years, it has earned them rapturous responses all over the world—The New York Times highlighted them as one of the 12 best bands at SXSW 2017—and proved that they’re just as at home playing to muddy festival goers as jazz fans. A Humdrum Star builds on the heady momentum of its acclaimed predecessors—the 2014 Mercury Prize-nominated V2.0 and their 2016 Blue Note debut Man Made Object—and transports it to new realms.
“I think we felt even more liberated on this album—and I think there’s more of each of us on it,” says bassist Nick Blacka. Their latest material reveals both native turf and far-flung influences. They evoke the symbiotic flow between Nick, pianist Chris Illingworth, and drummer Rob Turner, as well as their seasoned relationship with producer and sound engineer Joe Reiser (credited as the “fourth member” of GGP, both on tour and in the studio) and co-producer Brendan Williams. As with previous albums, these tracks stemmed from a love of electronic music, whether collectively developed from “sketches” written by Rob on DJ/producer tech including Logic and Ableton, or composed on the bass or at the piano. That electro-acoustic tension pulses throughout the new album.
“We started with this idea of ‘inner and outer’, and opposing things that are essentially the same,” says Rob. “A lot of the textures and sounds do come from the electronic writing, but Brendan also wanted everything to be made as organically as possible.”
There is poetry and precision in GoGo Penguin’s new work—and intimacy and vastness. Their titles tend to speak volumes, in tandem with their evocative instrumentals. They’d actually completed the new album’s track-listing before settling on the name for A Humdrum Star—yet it captures a distinctive tone. It’s taken from a quote by American astrophysicist Carl Sagan from his 1980 TV series Cosmos: “Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people.”
GOGO PENGUIN – US TOUR DATES
May 4 – Elsewhere – Brooklyn, NY
May 6 – The Hamilton – Washington DC
May 8 – Teragram Ballroom – Los Angeles, CA
May 9 – The Loft – San Diego, CA
June 7-10 – Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival – Manchester, TN
June 12 – Dakota Jazz Club – Minneapolis, MN
June 13 – Constellation – Chicago, IL
June 14 – Constellation – Chicago, IL
June 15 – The Armory – Fort Collins, CO
June 16 – Bluebird Theater – Denver, CO
June 17 – Revolution Hall – Portland, OR
June 20 – The Triple Door – Seattle, WA
Check out what the critics have said about GoGo Penguin:
“an energized sound... the band’s new album takes hold right away and sustains an upbeat groove… It’s a piano-driven blend with all the traditional aspects you’d expect from the genre while still scanning as something refreshingly vibrant and contemporary.”— Pitchfork
“…a construction of jazz, classical, electronica, and trip-hop building blocks, it flows together naturally. Their playing centers around delicate piano, which weaves in and out of a tumultuous maelstrom of intense drumming, and a fury that seems to push the limits of what a double bass can achieve.”— SPIN
“With the lineup of a standard piano-bass-drums jazz trio, GoGo Penguin made a different kind of music: repetitive and accretive like dance music, richly chorded over ostinatos, reveling in permutations. As much as it improvised atop its structures, the group burrowed into them, building tension and momentum from within, turning them into meditations or shaping them into galvanizing crescendos that crested in a standing ovation.”— The New York Times
“To ask whether GoGo Penguin plays jazz misses the point of the sense of adventure in contemporary popular music... They are experimentalists in pursuit of superior improvisational music. The groove matters most... the trio knows what it’s doing and does it exceptionally well.”— Wall Street Journal
"Jazz, techno, hip-hop and dubstep are glimpsed here, but for all the looping motifs and dance floor vibes, this is the work of three sure-footed improvisers with deep jazz roots"— The Guardian
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