Gyratory System - The Sound-Board Breathes

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4...according to our Brett on Thu 22 Oct, 2009.

For some reason I thought Gyratory System were some sort of bland and dodgy guitar indie band but they're actually a much more interesting proposition. Laying down repetitive, rocky but danceable rhythms as a base they then layer up all manner of instrumentation over the top (main dude Andrew Blick is credited as contributing trumpet, ocarina, recorder and 'snake charmer' amongst others) there's something a little of the back end of post-punk about it, with Pigbag one name being mentioned in the office and some of James Chance's stuff coming to my mind, but I'm getting an undeniable 70s retro-electronic feel from it too. I can well imagine they'd be top fun live but The Sound-Board Breathes is a satisfying experience in itself.

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• The debut album by Dr Andrew Blick - effects trumpet player, producer and driving force
behind Gyratory System - was made using an almost scientific approach, a production
technique he dubs ‘The Process’.
• This involves a rigid structure being overlaid with random free elements, chopped
up, processed and reassembled with magical results.
• Out of this mysterious birth come tracks that are as suited to a dancefloor as they are
the world of the contemporary avant-garde. Their motorik brass and woodwind
counterblast to indifference has set the tongues of the blog world wagging.
• Hailed by the likes of Vice, The Guardian Guide and NME, Gyratory System, with all its
science and formula, actually sounds more like a marching band on acid. Managing to
combine the contemporary, avant-garde and dancefloor, you might file it alongside the likes of
23 Skidoo, A Certain Ratio, Caribou, Holy Fuck, Four Tet or Animal Collective – but
it sounds like none of these.
• Across ‘The Sound Board Breathes’, you will find 11 unreservedly bizarre tracks that tell a
story through sound. An instrumental album that deserves your full focus and open-
mindedness, something incomparable and exciting in the sea of mundane albums that
are released every week.

Barons Court Turret * Sea Containers House * Thermidor
* Brumaire * Yowser, Yowser, Yowser * and Princess
Margaret * Party Unlimited * The Sound-Board Breathes
* Tinseltown * Splurge Gun * Holloway Road *
Banqueting House (Digital Bonus Track Only)