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GusGus: Attention











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GusGus
Attention

It's been a year-and-a-half since GusGus released GusGus vs. T-World, a record comprised of pre-GusGus work, and three years since their last new release This Is Normal. In the interim, the group shed two-thirds of its members and actually become a band, rather than a collective or project as it was originally began by nine Icelandic artists. This sloughing off of the old also brings in a new singer and an eschewing of their more poppy efforts in favor of a strong 80s synth influence more organic than the campy computerized monotony of artists like Felix da Housecat and Miss Kittin and the Hacker.

They've replaced three vocalists with just one—dubbed Earth—and the change isn't at first overwhelming. But soon, Earth's soulful vocals—while capable and fitting in well with GusGus' shiny happy disco—do nothing to differentiate the band from so many other light electronica outfits like Morcheeba and Zero 7. Combined with the tendency away to shy away from traditional song structure toward meandering electronica, the effect is numbing. Vocals are treated like samples, looped over and over again, but they're not strong enough to warrant the recycling. Only the title track does this repetition justice; with swirly, space beats enveloping the repeated, accented refrain of "Attention," it calls up a freak hybrid of Miss Kittin and a icily attractive German stewardess.

Other tracks don't fare so well. "I.I.E." devolves into typical drum-and-bass, something you'd hear on any no-brand Ibiza compilation—not something you'd expect to hear from GusGus, a band that previously had a very defined sound. "Your Moves Are Mine" actually ventures back into verse-chorus-verse territory with strong dark keyboards, but the falsetto style of the song sounds like it's paining the singer.

On This Is Normal and their debut record Polydistortion, GusGus had a quirky innocence in their pop-infused electronica that really set them apart. Whether it was the chaotic influence of nine artists from different mediums coming together musically or the alternation of cute, creepy and skin-prickling beautiful that tends to infuse the few Icelandic artists that find an audience in America, it's hard to say. But that personality has disappeared from Attention, and it's sorely missed.

  Laura Tiffany


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GusGus: Attention

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