Gnoomes - MU!

Sitting here, listening to a few of my favourite artists of the last few years like Goat, Flowers Must Die, White Manna, Follakzoid, I realise that these bands, apart from the obvious broad church of psychedelia they inhabit, also have an experimental reach going well beyond the folk music of their respective countries. They make me think a lot about the music that laid the foundation for my own musical tastes. They strive to make their music multicultural rather than cultural. They pay no deference to musical fads. They revel in patchworking sounds into something new and vibrant, and even if the results are sometimes perplexing, they’re always fresh, always stimulating.

Gnoomes is another such band. ‘Utro’ is as strong an opener as I’ve heard in a while. A suffusion of fuzzed up guitar and unearthly synthesiser backfilled with monstrous bass and served up as rave music for psych fans. It’s as cool as it sounds. ‘Sword in the Stone’ is a motoric rocker which sounds like something that might have resulted should Alan Vega have written a song for Tears for Fears.

Gnoomes also explore the sunnier side of 60s psychedelia on ‘Glasgow Coma Scale’ the starry-eyed verse sounding for all intents like The Beatles ruminating over their spiritual journeys to the far east on St Peppers. Doesn’t last too long as they segue effortlessly into some dizzy sprawl of guitars, stopping along the way for some experimental keyboard sounds sounding vaguely prog-rock. I love the freedom of it, and I admire the cogent structure that never derails, just carries the listener all the way. Guitars needs sitars track ‘Sine Waves Are Good For Your Head’ might engage in repetition (sines waves after all) but it allows for some subtle guitar parts which all piece together in peaceful counterpoint.

The actual sign-off here though is ‘Feel Now’, and it appears to be a sequel to the last track. Now I’m confused because I feel the same, however, the sentiment has changed and the pace has quickened to a kind of musical Koyaanisqatsi, a literal life out of balance. So, how am I feeling? Pretty upbeat. Gnoomes make me want to dip more deeply into my musical library.