Gate - A Republic Of Sadness

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Customer reviews
Press release

4...according to our Brian on Thu 29 Jul, 2010.

This guy (Michael Morley) with the shit moniker (see also: Bench, Table or Fence) i've just discovered is a member of scrappy NZ racketeers The Dead C. So downtempo electronica was not what I was expecting therefore. The opener starts off like the ambient intro to West End Girls by Pet Shop Boys and loops beautifully for a few minutes, underlaid with static & crackle and some muffled implicit vocal stylings which both add to & detract from to the lulling atmosphere of the tune. His style of electronica is quite understated, primitive and organic, his vocals on 'All' sounding like the ethereal ramblings of a stoned man in a weird trance whilst the music is built on a lo-fi metronomic beat & a rattly hi-hat sample - the amorphous keyboards summoning up thoughts of Global Communication. Odd stuff indeed! Just when you reckon you've got him figured he funks everything up with this weird chillwave disco experiment, his ever demented vocal stylings becoming a slurry elongated monologue draped carelessly (and amusingly) all over the tune. Fucking bizarre record indeed, side two I'm not commenting on because I need my DINNER! Rah!

The first new Gate record in over a decade, A Republic of Sadness isas much a reason for celebration as indoctrination into the creative geniusof Michael Morley. Known primarily for his work in The DeadC, Morley simultaneously has been doing Gate since he s started playing.A Republic of Sadness comprises the apex of Morley s variousinterests in one collection. His guitar and vocal drones permeatethrough looped beats and sounds, arriving at a sound that is not quitedance, not quite noise, not quite electronica and never, ever ambient. LP comes with DL code.

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