Gentle Friendly Confirm Release of Debut album 'Ride Slow'
October 7, 2009, 05:07 PM Views: 295
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 Opposites do attract. The progress of any Hollywood narrative is driven by the conflict between good and evil, hero and villain, however it’s expressed. Magnetic poles will always be divided into north and south. Teenagers tease their loves of a month down the line, socially prickly where soon they’ll be passionate. And, here, dissonance pursues melody: not to obscure, but to complement.
Gentle Friendly is a pair drawn together in harmonious pursuit of this relationship between noise and pop, conflict and comfort, aggression and ethereality. David plays keys and provides the vocals that sit just below the surface; Daniel plays drums and organ, responsible for both the percussive incessancy that characterises passages of their material, and its counterpoint tones of enveloping warmth.
‘Ride Slow’ is their debut album – the culmination of well-received adventures in limited-run releases, the most prominent being 2008’s ‘Night Tape’ EP on No Pain In Pop. ‘Ride Slow’ is released via another capital city independent label of note: promoters-turned-tastemakers-extraordinaire Upset The Rhythm (Gay Against You, High Places, No Age). It finds the pair’s ears bending an insistent narrative around celestial noise on R.I.P. Static delivering affecting restraint on Lovers Rock, and layering tender throbs on Shrines & Shit; variety is always underpinned by singularity, playfulness balanced by concentration.
Peckham, south London is where Gentle Friendly craft their art, shaping creations invisible to the eye but perfectly apparent when lids close and analysis of superstructures ceases. Listen beyond constituent pieces to embrace a whole that is far greater than simple summary outlines: that they employ feedback; that some of their equipment could pass for antique…
Influences, Gentle Friendly have them, and inevitably some are detectable. Yet this is a band unafraid to shift their perspectives, to realign their intentions. So while they can move you physically one second, the next they’re able to move you in a wholly different way, as a banshee shriek fades into a lovelorn sigh and drums fall silent to allow an analogue pulse to present itself to the fore – organic, honest, real.
Everything is ‘as live’, sampling culture eschewed in favour of tape loops and effects boxes. As such Gentle Friendly’s sound is oddly evocative of the past, of both post-punk scratchiness and early minimalist pioneers like Reich and Eno, and entirely contemporary. The duo has shared stages with the cream of today’s cutting edge: HEALTH, Ponytail, Telepathe. They are isolated within a field of young, ambitious musicians daring to do something different: not exactly alone, but far from being part of a scene.
Unless one entirely new springs up around them, of course.
10-Oct London Nail The Cross
19-Oct London Scala (w/ No Age)
Release Date: 2nd November 2009
Label: Upset the Rhythm
Web: GENTLE FRIENDLY on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads
For fans of: Abe Vigoda, No Age, Fuck Buttons
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