In 2019, England's
GoGo Penguin issued
Ocean in a Drop: Music for Film, as a stopgap between full-lengths. One of its tracks, "Time Lapse City" inadvertently offered a metaphorical description of the band's approach to making music. Always in motion, shifting constantly between repetition, rhythms, and improvisation, this is a group clearly influenced by
Philip Glass' early minimalist, cyclical recordings. That said, they absorbed them simultaneously with devotion for techno, drum'n'bass, post-bop, post-rock, and electric jazz. The group's self-titled fifth album underscores the accuracy of these influences alongside new musical directions.
The best verb to describe the music found here is "propelled." It doesn't rely on grooves so much as energetic trio conversation: the space behind
Chris Illingworth's suspended, alternately hovering and biting piano lines is framed by the rich, woody tone of
Nick Blacka's upright bass playing and the skittering, forceful, breakbeat-driven drumming of
Rob Turner. Their inherent group lyricism and infectious rhythms are in full force as
Illingworth's skillful sound-sculpting is revealed in more intricate detail on opener "#1" as it produces natural, rustling atmospherics and ghostly, floating piano.
Turner's infectious percussion is tweaked with found objects and prepared props and delay, while
Blacka adds fat percussive plucks, reverb, and arco playing as both a tonal guidepost and rhythmic backdrop. First single "Atomised" is introduced with rolling breaks juxtaposed with
Illingworth's hypnotic piano lines.
Blacka offers the changes through each minimally evolving cycle. When the pianist moves afield, it's with cascading chords that eventually drop out to allow
Turner's kit a snare groove that pushes the tune toward lithe, mutant, almost unbearably beautiful funk. "Signal in the Noise" commences with the pianist strumming the strings inside his instrument as
Turner and
Blacka assert a pedal-to-the-medal post-rock groove upon which
Illingworth inquires in layered chords, shimmering ostinatos, and beat-conscious vamps. On "Kora,"
Illingworth emulates the pulse and tonality of the African folk instrument as
Turner adds funky snare breaks and tom-tom choogle.
Blacka helms the hooky melody as the pianist begins to extrapolate in fours with intervallic pulses. While "To the Nth" is introduced by reverbed glissando piano and the intricate accents from
Turner's kit add force and motion in equal measure. The number gradually unfolds with syncopated, classically tinged post-bop; a lyric melody develops between repetitive piano lines and fat, meaty, distorted accents from
Blacka.
If there is one complaint about this beguiling, driving outing, it's that after its 44-minute running time,
Gogo Penguin's "magic in motion" aesthetic is so beautifully articulated in this immersive, mysterious music, they will leave listeners wanting much, much more. ~ Thom Jurek