Githead - Art Pop

Formed initially as a one off for the Swim label’s 10th birthday bash in April 2004, Githead quickly established a life and voice of its own. Its “all star” line up – comprised of Wire’s Colin Newman, Robin Rimbaud (Scanner), and Malka Spigel & Max Franken from Minimal Compact - may have led many to presume that its life would be short, indulgent & acrimonious. Far from it. Githead, from the outset has always been a band determined to carve out its own identity and to refine its vision through its work. 2004’s debut EP ‘Headgit’ playfully set out Githead’s stall of pulsing, funky rhythms, dub bass-lines and deadpan vocals set against chiming guitars with a catchy chorus thrown in for good measure. 2005’s debut album ‘Profile’ took the Githead sound into darker and broader sonic territory garnering a few “album of the year” accolades from those paying attention. Gigs through Europe established the band as a live entity pushing them further into the realisation that Githead is far greater than the sum of the parts. The next album had to be even better than the first, and thus the band now present ‘Art Pop, Githead’s third release and their most fully realised work to date. From the single chord build up that serves as the intro to the album’s opener ‘On Your Own’ (a pop classic for the disenchanted) through to the spaced-out delays that clang the final epic ‘Live In Your Head’ to it’s close, ‘Art Pop’ is a real voyage. Lyrically much less opaque than its predecessors, ‘Art Pop’ brings an emotional depth and breadth which will surprise many; contrast the full-on distorted diatribe on urban existence of ‘Drive By’ (a kind of ‘Parklife’ on crack) with the acoustic emotional nakedness of ‘Lifeloops’ or the joy of an Indian summer day captured in ‘Rotterdam’ with the twin voices of darkness and light on ‘Darkest  Star’. The album also finds the band taking an arch post-pop stance while at the same time turning on brooding tunefulness, unsettling atmospheres and irresistible acid space funk, proving that Githead have the experience to twist art into shining pop magnificence in a single chord change, yet always making the listener aware that their pop is ever tempered by the fact that it is always art. Githead is not the band you think it should be, and ‘Art Pop’ is not the album anyone would expect it to make. Their significance grows with each passing day. In 2004 Githead were a cult classic of the future. That future is now here.

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