Album Reviews: Gorillaz, Peaches, Altın Gün

Gorillaz – The Mountain
London, England/Hawarden, Wales/World

With a very Plastic Beach-like full world embodied in the latest record, Damon Albarn and Gorillaz are seemingly as sharp as ever. With some of their most inspired songs in ages, and a setting to match, Albarn takes all the range he showed on the Song Machine albums and reins it all back in to create a massive next step. After a sweeping intro, “The Moon Cave” mixes a bit of “Empire Ants” and “Stylo” sounds into a grooving, humming beast that somehow also has a symphonic grandeur amid its strings and flutes, familiar yet something else altogether. A lyrical match made in heaven, particularly for these concept records, Sparks add to Albarn’s aesthetics beautifully on “The Happy Dictator,” to the point that it feels crazier they haven’t been bigger lyricists for hire over the years. With the track’s goofy synths and menacing simplicity, you can almost miss the crazy layering and production, as the track uses this wave of memorable little hooks to almost make you blind to the evil in the story, just like an autocrat would like to. Johnny Marr also manages to expand “The Plastic Guru” into one of the album’s most memorable, as it bears a spacey desolation and sadness, but hits with such an emotional weight and explosive intensity that it brings you higher with it. Between the bouncy fusion energy on “Orange County” and the masterful mix of genres and ideas on “Damascus,” you can really feel all the experimentation of Albarn’s last few efforts, as Omar Souleyman slots perfectly with Yasiin Bey to craft this frenetic blend of reality and fiction.

Madlands – Witching Hour (Single)
Toronto

With the quiet hum of nature and a rustic atmosphere, Madlands explode out into the wilderness on their latest single. Blending a cold overall production with a fiery core of keys and guitars, the song feels like a warm glove with the harsh elements always just outside. Amidst all these conditions, the band are a destructive force, like a torrent ripping through the woods, destroying everything in their wake. And just when you think they’ve hit a new calm, their combustive bridges lash out in all sorts of directions, leaving you wiped out in the dust.

Peaches – No Lube So Rude
Toronto

It’s impossible to totally predict Peaches’ next move with absolute precision, except that it’ll be loud, and that’s always been a fun part of following her work. As she brings her punk fury through even more modern pop worlds, Peaches crafts a record that is her through and through but somehow sounds like you could hear it in the wild and still be surprised to know it’s her. The album starts on a blaring, cheerleader-like drive on “Hanging Titties,” with Peaches holding nothing back in the production and delivery in this sonic onslaught. Meanwhile, “F*** Your Face” is a more accessible, yet in-your-face wail to pleasure at all costs, with the electronics cranked to send this message at full volume. There’s a finesse to the sound of “Whatcha Gonna Do About It” that mixes all the overdriven tones of Peaches’ sound and tightens them through an EDM lens to make something all hers, but that also feels like you’d be surprised to find out it was her track. “Not in Your Mouth None of Your Business” itself pushes her lyrics through what one could call an MIA kaleidoscope to make an off-the-wall and blitzing song that is once again, all her attitude, but driving the sound so far beyond her usual flair that it feels like a transcendental move between fitting the new world of pop and maintaining the self.

Blue Hawaii – Best Friend (Single)
Montreal

Continuing their dive into club sounds while blending a mix of their glossier, more delicious pop tones, Blue Hawaii find the perfect, catchy balance on “Best Friend.” Taking an apocalyptic view and using it to harden the power of friendship and deep, meaningful connections, the track uses our modern times to make the love we find feel like the most powerful feeling of all. The whole track drives from top to bottom, but it’s the way the duo layers on new electronics and intense, punchy drums with each drop to make the song feel like it’s hitting a new plateau on each chorus. And while it’s not certain if this title might be signalling a return to their sounds from My Bestfriend’s House EP, this fusion of different ends of their sounds is one of the tightest yet.

Altın Gün – Garip
Amsterdam, Netherlands/Indonesia/Turkey

As they chart their new course without Merve Daşdemir in the band, Altın Gün are diving deeper into heady territory and are succinctly defining what’s changing and what you can still expect from the band. While a lot hasn’t shifted superficially, fans will be able to feel where certain emotional focuses in their songs have centred more. “Neredesin Sen” opens on a guitar-heavy fire of psychedelic flair, with the overdrive creating endless flickering layers over each other, while their usually mesmerizing riffing and thick bass lure you in further. The shifting grooves and spacey synths of “Öldürme Beni” instantly lure you into their explorative world, blending a feel of sci-fi exotica amid a stomping charge that constantly swerves between more traditional roots and explosive keyboard use. The way they pull all these moments and new depth out of “Niğde Bağları” makes for such an invigorating ride as well, as the simple core of the song is taken to a frantic finale through their direction. “Zülüf Dökülmüş Yüze” lets the bass really breathe in a way it doesn’t in other places, and gives the groove-driven song a fun sense of play amidst all the instruments that you don’t hear in the same way on the record.

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