Gentle Friendly

Our review
Customer reviews
Press release

4...according to our Brian on Wed 12 Oct, 2011.

The ever canny Upset Di Riddim, London's purveyors of noisy outsider rock and interesting experimental pop have a new vinyl outing from Gentle Friendly. I cannot clearly recall a great deal about the last recording from this cracking duo except it was very well received in our old office and got played oodles of times due to it rocking the joint like a schizo gallop-pop horse on PCP. This joint goes down a more mellow, spaced-out shimmery pop route for the larger duration of side one before this floppy-eyed fuzzed-up groove hits you for the last few minutes, all druggy, cerebral and becalmed. Oh shit, that's the second side I've just been cocking an ear at and you know what? It's bastard goodly and left me panting for more. So is the first side, shooting from the starter blocks with tribal psych-pop that has nods towards the catchy technicolour dementia of early Mercury Rev but with softer, sensitive wispy vocals that recall Boston's legendary Swirlies. Then we're in tropical techno mode a la Fuck Buttons but in less studious, yet increasingly trippy and monged mode. Side one (you know the one before side two) ends with another burst of bent-out-of-shape cyber-pixie madness that makes industry-humping berks MGMT sound thoroughly cynical. Great second record from these - liquid rhythms, eclectic moods, heavenly hooks and a wide-eyed playfulness abound, I'm quite satisfied at how much I dig this on its initial spin, another office stormer from these London-based scamps!

* Limited Edition White Vinyl.

* GENTLE FRIENDLY are a duo from London, comprised of David Morris and Richard Manber, who have a penchant for circular melodies, tidal fuzz and rapid junked rhythms. With an austere setup of casiotone keyboard, vocals and drums (sometimes electronic) the band push against the pop boundary, trapping their songs on record like a continuous sun-warped field recording. 2009 saw Gentle Friendly release their debut album ‘Ride Slow’ to critical acclaim, Uncut considered “No Age, Ponytail and Health as spiritual kin” whilst Pitchfork even cited Clipse and Lil Wayne as influences on the band. Since then Gentle Friendly have remodeled and rebuilt their sound into a stronger beast at their home studio called Deep House. Bringing us up to date, new EP ‘Rrrrrrr’ is the first fruit to fall from the tree, with its seven tracks washing the band’s more insistent prism punk alongside more tender, slow filmic textures.

* ‘Rrrrrrr’ as its name suggests uses repetition and a certain minimalist touch to create a wonderfully poignant wide-eyed record. Bittersweet in its tendency to mix more ecstatic moments alongside some contemplative pools, ‘Rrrrrrr’ shows how the band’s emotional range has grown since their debut. Opener ‘Kiwi Chang Cane’ leaps out of a nature sleep, the song swimming with resonance whilst its drums beat and tumble a path through the sidestepping static rush. The song races onwards, with gleeful ascending keyboards reaching out in a questlike fashion akin to the song’s Shaolin monk namesake’s attempt to find his lost brother. Meanwhile ‘Speakers’ finds Gentle Friendly in ballad form with gattling gun snare hits and David’s most heartfelt vocal yet. “Put your arm around the speaker … it’s like dancing without moving” he sings into the relative space of the track, moving focus squarely on a sense of resigned simplicity.

* ‘Rrrrrrr’ is a development for the band in terms of sound and production as much as lyrical scope and understanding. While their self-acknowledged influences (Arthur Russell, Bruce Springsteen, Top 40 hip-hop) are detectable, this record showcases Gentle Friendly as a band who have found their own language, drawing on nostalgia and ritual in equal measure, whilst continuing the tradition of English eccentricity and popular song. ‘Rome Rome’ sees Gentle Friendly at their most immediate, vacillating on overheard music David sings “On the radio she said you should put on a ring, if you like it, if you like it, turn it off”. His metronomic vocal delivery is unstoppable, the percussive treatment dicing itself into each spare beat, creating a feeling of transcendence and of galloping rush. In comparison, ‘Love Scenes’ is a positively nocturnal shift with its clubby house kick and spectral synth soup and panning drum shuffles. Seamlessly blending into ‘Rrride Slow’ with its pitched down vocal gurgle and channelled depths, the record enjoys throwing organic nature against distanced electronics in an almost meditative way.

* Overlapping rhythms, looped mixtapes and revisited lyrical themes make rebirth an important touchstone for this release. This is perhaps best distilled with the track entitled ‘Rrrrr’. Stammering repetition finds a home in swirls of chorus-inflected atmosphere, chiming bells and shaken metal. There’s a feeling of inevitability in the slow melodic cycling and tribal drumming, the whole effect is one of focusing inwards and devotional crescendo. Gentle Friendly are masters of aching sentiment, overheard static and enraptured awakening and with this record they turn the quiet repeated actions of our everyday into a blissful all-consuming wave of saturation.