GoGo Penguin – A Humdrum Star (Deluxe) (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 58:25 minutes | 1,07 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Blue Note Records
Gogo Penguin is an experience, almost a challenge. We know the fascination of Chris Illingworth, the pianist of the trio from Manchester, for robotics and the concepts of transhumanism and human upgrading. The music he’s been creating since 2012 with bass player Nick Blacka and drummer Rob Turner manages to merge machine and human like no one else. A classic formation, a jazz education, an electronic consumption and, in the end, this GoGo Penguin sound, incomparably fluid and superbly recorded by producer and sound engineer Joe Reiser, the true fourth member of the band.
With A Humdrum Star, the palpable tension between acoustic sonorities and electronic ones is magnified even more. The melodic fabrics are also further refined. The legacies of this or that illustrious elder can also show up from time to time (Brian Eno, Philip Glass, E.S.T., Roni Size, St Germain, Amon Tobin, Massive Attack, Bill Evans, John Cage…), GoGo Penguin still manages to take all the credit and keep their own identity. Finally, the atmospheric feelings cherished by the three Englishmen are never a smokescreen hiding shaky skills. Quite the contrary, in fact. Illingworth, Blacka and Turner could easily cause an unnecessary sensation, but they prefer to focus on the compositions, their improvisation phases and most of all the blurring of stylistic boundaries… Starting with softwares like Ableton and Logic and ending up with such musical intimacy demonstrates how far GoGo Penguin has come in only a few years. The future is theirs, now more than ever.
Tracklist:
1-01. GoGo Penguin – Prayer (02:54)
1-02. GoGo Penguin – Raven (04:57)
1-03. GoGo Penguin – Bardo (07:14)
1-04. GoGo Penguin – A Hundred Moons (04:27)
1-05. GoGo Penguin – Strid (08:08)
1-06. GoGo Penguin – Transient State (05:59)
1-07. GoGo Penguin – Return To Text (05:22)
1-08. GoGo Penguin – Reactor (06:17)
1-09. GoGo Penguin – Window (05:21)
1-10. GoGo Penguin – So It Begins (04:01)
1-11. GoGo Penguin – A Hundred Moons (Alternative Version) (03:40)