I really love Gnod. One of the greatest gigs Ive ever seen was at a small pub right in the heart of Manchester's studentland. There was absolutely no seperation between crowd and audience. They played a set of absolutely crushing cement block space rock, kinda like the old Brutalist Crescents of Hulme with the controls set for the heart of the sun. All the local madheads were dancing around with the assorted followers and scenesters. It was great fun. I more recently saw them at Supernormal festival where they absolutely dominated the festival. Im tempted to say it was a religious experience, but that may have been the real ale and samples of singing monks on 'Tony First Communion'.
Last year's 'Gnod & White Hills Dropout' was so good, it was pretty much my favourite album in years. Earlier this year Gnod dropped 'Ingnodwetrust' which is two side-length tracks of papal infallibility. To my mind, already one of the best things released this year. It was with a fair amount of expectation that I sat down and listened to 'Chaudelande vol.1'.
Recorded in some stolen moments during a recent European tour, 'Chaudelande vol.1' is a 3-track white vinyl only release on Tamed Records. Although current vocalist (I say current as Gnod's membership is in constant state of flux) Neil 'the fish' Francis has been swamped in the mix, in swathes of echo on previous recordings, he comes to the fore on this release.
Inexplicably named after Disney's proto-cyberdelic masterpiece, the opener 'Tron' is a spacerock monster. It sounds like the Butthole Surfers playing Hawkwind covers on a massive asteroid heading for Earth. It is truly monolithic, and surprisingly anthemic. Gloriously muddy guitars jostle for space with gigantic drums, bobbing up and down in a sea of Space Echo.I remember hearing this at Supernormal and being absoloutely floored by it.
'Visions Of Load' has an insistent Suicide-esque riff over which Francis wants to know if '...you're ready to go'. Its a very danceable track, with a non-stop beat that Klaus Dinger would give an approving head (G)nod to.
The whole of side two is taken up with 'The Vertical Dead' which sounds like Dan Treacy fronting PiL and been given a boatload of brown acid. A fantastic dubby bass underscores guitar scrapes, whilst Francis sings a psychedelic nursery rhyme over the top. The songs comes to a narcoleptic end midway through, only to be revived into a Doors-y shamanic coda (thankfully without weird scenes inside the goldmine).
Needless to say, I love this album. The title suggests that there will be a volume 2. I cant wait
Buy it
