Trensmat Records

GNOD
5th Sun

Spiralling around a gargantuan 14.5 second repeating bass riff, Gnod bring forward the end of the Mayan calendar by a few months with some ominous seismic vibrations. Though clinging for dear life to the central bassline, guitars, samples, and various sonic debris are permitted to do their own thing, creating an ever-shifting, unsteady tectonic base. Battle drums punctuate the murk and a lone voice babbles unintelligibly before raising to a louder call-to-arms. This is the intro music for the triumphant return of some colossal ageless beast. As a final head-scratcher the final sound we hear is a haunting synthetic voice instructing us to "...stop being weird". Well at least that's what it sounds like - you may need to replay this track several times to solve all the riddles within.

On the flip is a dub version of the A - perhaps a quaint (g)nod to the time when 7 inches was the favoured diameter for quick fix audio injections, and people had no problems listening to basically the same song twice. When a band couldn't be arsed recording a b-side, the nearest junior engineer was given free reign of the console and commanded to "go nuts!" for the remaining 43 minutes of pre-booked studio time, lashing as much delay/reverb on everything as possible, while waggling the volume on the vocal track like a 4 year old drawing an explosion with a crayon.

Is that what Gnod have done here? Essentially, yes...and how! If it is indeed a junior engineer, he has spent his 43 minutes well, with an eery mastery of the deep black arts that raises the A-side to even greater heights while simultaneously busting it apart. The various strands get their time in the (5th) sun - guitars bust out and shred unhindered, drums are distorted and echoed well into the red, and that goddamn bass riff swells and swells, eventually sapping the life from everything around, swallowing the lot and ultimately shitting out the delay-soaked detritus for nearly a full minute on the run-out. In summary, this record is a fitting successor to Prince's 1999 as planet earth's official global end-of-times floor-filler.

The 7" comes with digital copies of the tracks on the record. Pre-orders will be immediately sent a link to the download package in both 320Kbps MP3 & lossless FLAC format.

VERY limited edition transparent gold vinyl 7" in silk-screened sleeve (+ 2 downloads).

July 2012, TR030.

AUDIO SAMPLES

Gnod offer up two tracks, the A side, a thick, super distorted dirge, all downtuned riffage wreathed in celestial shimmer, pounding death march drumming and soft swirls of ethereal synths, some serious heavy psychedelic space doom for sure, and easily the heaviest darkest thing we've heard from these guys yet, and it had us definitely wishing this was way longer than just a 7".
The flipside is the 'dub' of the A side, and basically douses the whole thing in delay and a murky lo-fi patina, the sounds a bit blurrier and more washed out, the snares dubbed out and sent careening into the ether, the track laced with more weird samples, the overall vibe surprisingly much more heavy, the guitars gristlier, the drums more industrial, and like the A side, we wish there was a 30 minute extended edit, cuz this is the sort of blissed out psychedelic industrial dubbed out heaviness we never want to end.
Aquarius Records

Gnod have been laying bad ass grooves for a few years now via such esteemed aural outlets as reverb worship, not not fun, blackest rainbow, blending stoner, drone and mutant psychedelics they’ve garnered a reputation for being the byword in what passes for out there. Quite frankly ‘5th sun’ rips up the rule book, okay arguably it sounds as though it was recorded in a swamp, inside a port-a-loo, on naff tandy mics c. mid 70’s resuscitated from burnout and rescued from a flea market but that kinda adds to the charm and hitherto enhances its sonic density, a howling inferno channelling some lost tongue this brute solemnly crusades upon an impending apocalyptic axis darkly determined and resolutely unflinching achieving a death locking brooding karma with its ceremonial / ritualistic heralding, certainly one for the stoner purists and edging ever so subtly towards the kind of doom dished delicacies normal associated with the likes of the mighty rise above imprint. The press release makes light that the flip – incidentally for all you note takers here entitled ’5th dub’ – is the result of unused studio time being debunked by the band leaving the studio engineer to twiddle around with the master tapes. If anything the preferred side given its freakier, more frazzled and readily applied with the kind of fried handiwork that makes it a head trip experience worthy of the entrance fee alone, a bastardised and bludgeoned behemoth of sound reared on the dark sonic altar of the Sabbath and bled with the cross generic knowingness of Acid Mothers in a head lock with Sun O))) and slavishly gouged with the deathly arcane imprint of the White Hills and served up in a swirling cauldron of dissipating psych mirages, ancient arabesque motifs and stoned out beatnik bliss out kisses, beards will grow – death dub anyone. As ever bound to sell out on pre orders alone and arrives uber limited pressed up on orange wax housed in the labels now trademark silk screened sleeve. Awesome.
God is in the TV

Ah, Gnod. We’re rather fond of these trans-Pennine bong riffers here at the ‘Towers. Here in my hand I’ve got their new 7” on the reliable psych-murk-merchants Trensmat, starring a new cut ‘5th Sun’. It’s all crunchy bass rumbles, metronomic doom beats, submerged guitar scree and echoed, buried vocal exhortations, for a deeply hypnotic weed riff jam. It’s reminding me of Sylvester Anfang before they turned away from the dark side, crossed with White Hills circa Hp1. In other words it’s really good.
Flip it and ‘5th Dub’ is pretty much how it sounds like it’s going to be. Lots of echo, emphasis on the offbeat, but still the same doomy stoner melodies and harsh grumbling tones. This side’s got some clearer dynamic shifts, too, for optimum head-noddability. In fact this version’s laden with just as much stoner goodness as the A side, not just a companion piece or an oddity but a proper heavy stoner grooving mini-classic in its own right. Sweet disc. (Recommended, 5/5)
Norman Records.

Trensmat‘s latest offering from GNOD is droning, doom-laden, bass-heavy affair, with baleful vocals and snare drum barely emerging out from under the crushing bass chord that totally dominates the A side.
If you want to get the best from this record you want to play it loud on a system that can deliver bass that you can feel. I can vouch that anything else will sell you short, and that includes decent headphones. Recorded at Chaudelande (the same place where, unsurprisingly, recently reviewed releases Chaudelande Volume 1 & 2 were also recorded), and backed by a dub version of the same tune that stands tall in its own right, it has been pressed to limited 7″ translucent orange vinyl and will doubtless sell out quickly.
Giblog

The so-far, 6 year life span of this Manchester rhythm n drone collective, originally started out as the doom side project of a couple of now defunct bands, which feature two of its cohorts as current and founding members.
With well over 20 releases spanning vinyl, cassette and CD-r, plus countless improvised live sets across much of the UK and Europe now indelibly etched into the minds of all who attended (some unwillingly I’m sure) it would seem that their sound, for this release at least, has just come full circle. The ritual has peaked at new highs and as yet, uncharted, mind altering states of doomanic/shamanic consciousness.
With an almost cult like following and the ability to slay minds with their sometimes shambolic but damagingly good live jams, these Mancunians are the stuff of legend and the prophecy it would seem, has been fulfilled - offer your souls as payment at the altar and enter the dark realm within these spiralling spools of blackened wax. Hails Gnod!
The list of labels this troupe have released on (yup, it often feels like that) is growing to be just as diverse as their ever eclectic sound and whilst at times it could seem like 5th Sun has been cut up from the recent Chaudelande sessions (The Vertical Dead from Vol.1 especially) it’s no less of a gem and the luxurious/made to pre-order stylings of Irish independent label TrenSmat RecordS is sure to make this a gnotable Gnod release; worthy of the wax it graces and of your cash. Thou shalt succumb. Heavy as HELL.
Foxy Digitalis

Celestial bass-driven sludge engaged in an endless uppercut to a corpulent beefy flank. Superior dub treatments on the reverse haul the bulk through a series of delay units exhumed from the wreckage of the Black Ark. Washing out the doomy gristle with an industrial-sized dental sluice, the haemorrhaging heaviness rides out on a Monopoly Child Star Searchers meets Sleep vibe.
Record Collector

More deep space shuffling from this Manchester quartet, who really know how to plug their thug riffs into the rings of Saturn (although i find the B side somewhat tacky). Calling all greasy truckers.
The Wire

Curious about Gnod? Allow me to set the mood: a methodical pace sets the tone for blurry rock, as deep, churning guitars melt over string-bending bass on Side A. Psychic Ills mashed atop Religious Knives, or Guardian Alien probing Jennifer Gentle? You do the math; Side B is more of the same, and it all adds up. It’s like a vacuum is sucking all the sounds up, as they’re just out of reach (not to mention crackly like oat bran) no matter how high you turn it up. Some would call it lo-fi, others no-fi; I just call it a damn-good way to gargle away the day’s disappointments. This is an import. Not only that, it’s just about sold out at the source. You know what to do.
Tiny Mix Tapes