GENTLE FRIENDLY - 'Rrrrrrr' EP out NOW!

Kiwi Chang Cane MP3

Yes, we're very happy to shout from the rooftops that Gentle Friendly's new EP entitled 'Rrrrrrr' is OUT NOW through Upset The Rhythm on heavyweight white vinyl. You can buy it in all good stores around the world or from our webshop for £7 (inc. p+p within the UK) HERE!!!

Here's more on the record...

GENTLE FRIENDLY are a duo from London, comprised of David Morris and Richard Manber, who have a penchant for circular melodies, tidal fuzz and rapid junked rhythms. With an austere setup of casio keyboard, vocals and drums (sometimes electronic) the band push against the pop boundary, trapping their songs on record like a continuous sun-warped field recording. 2009 saw Gentle Friendly release their debut album ‘Ride Slow’ to critical acclaim, Uncut considered “No Age, Ponytail and Health as spiritual kin” whilst Pitchfork even cited Clipse and Lil Wayne as influences on the band. Since then Gentle Friendly have remodeled and rebuilt their sound into a stronger beast at their home studio called Deep House. Bringing us up to date, new EP ‘Rrrrrrr’ is the first fruit to fall from the tree, with its seven tracks washing the band’s more insistent prism punk alongside more tender, filmic textures.

‘Rrrrrrr’ as its name suggests uses repetition and a certain minimalist touch to create a wonderfully poignant wide-eyed record. But why Rrrrrrr? Rrrrrrr can be the sound of an engine idling, a death rattle, the buzz and howl under the influence of heat. The EP is standing in for a reality, away from words and closer to feeling, following instincts and worshipping the detail. Bittersweet in its tendency to mix more ecstatic moments alongside some contemplative pools, ‘Rrrrrrr’ shows how the band’s emotional range has grown since their debut. Opener ‘Kiwi Chang Cane’ leaps out of a nature sleep, the song swimming with resonance whilst its drums beat and tumble a path through the sidestepping static rush. The song races onwards, with gleeful ascending keyboards reaching out in a questlike fashion akin to the song’s Shaolin monk namesake’s attempt to find his lost brother. Meanwhile ‘Speakers’ finds Gentle Friendly in ballad form with gattling gun snare hits and David’s most heartfelt vocal yet. “Put your arm around the speaker … it’s like dancing without moving” he sings into the relative space of the track, moving focus squarely on a sense of resigned simplicity.

‘Rrrrrrr’ is a development for the band in terms of sound and production as much as lyrical scope and understanding. While their self-acknowledged influences (Arthur Russell, Bruce Springsteen, Top 40 hip-hop) are detectable, this record showcases Gentle Friendly as a band who have found their own language, drawing on nostalgia and ritual in equal measure, whilst continuing the tradition of English eccentricity and popular song. ‘Rome Rome’ sees Gentle Friendly at their most immediate, vacillating on overheard music David sings “On the radio she said you should put on a ring, if you like it, if you like it, turn it off”. His metronomic vocal delivery is unstoppable, the percussive treatment dicing itself into each spare beat, creating a feeling of transcendence and of galloping rush. In comparison, ‘Love Scenes’ is a positively nocturnal shift with its clubby house kick and spectral synth soup and panning drum shuffles. Seamlessly blending into ‘Rrride Slow’ with its pitched down vocal gurgle and channelled depths of caveman techno, the record enjoys throwing organic nature against distanced electronics in an almost meditative way.

Overlapping rhythms, looped mixtapes and revisited lyrical themes make rebirth an important touchstone for this release. This is perhaps best distilled with the track entitled ‘Rrrrr’. Stammering repetition finds a home in swirls of chorus-inflected atmosphere, chiming bells and shaken metal. There’s a feeling of inevitability in the slow melodic cycling and tribal drumming, the whole effect is one of focusing inwards and devotional crescendo. Gentle Friendly are masters of aching sentiment, overheard static and enraptured awakening and with this record they turn the quiet repeated actions of our everyday into a blissful all-consuming wave of saturation.

* See GENTLE FRIENDLY play LIVE with ISLET at The Lexington on November 16th!! More here: http://www.atpfestival.com/newsview/1110280956.php