gus gus - where are they?

i like 'polydistortion' the first album. and the girl (who got sackd) is cute. apparently theres some like community of fan-sites fr her or something. weird huh.

http://www.discogs.com/artist/Gary+Martin

He is from Detroit therefore he is great.

the first half of This Is Normal had some incredible songs, esp. 'Starlovers' and 'Superhuman'

are they still a going concern?

I haven't heard Attention, though. Also www.gusgus.com says they were supposed to have just released something called "Forever" at the end of June.

"Call Of The Wild" might be the best track they've ever done.

Jesus Dan (Dan Perry) on Monday, July 3, 2006 9:56 AM (7 months ago)

PEOPLE
PEOPLE
DESIRE

The Daniel Agust solo album is gorgeous.

O RLY? tell me MOAR

Same here please.

"I.I.E." is really great, huh.

Was just relistening to a lot of their stuff the other week -- but damn, this version kicks and then some.

their DJ mix for astralwerks was SO GOOD

er sorry, their mix for moonshine

they're on kompakt now? is that right?

Stevie! Stevie's the one who rocked my world with that clip above. I don't know how it is that someone else posted it here. I was waiting for Stevie D. to post it here.

Hi Bimble! I found it on youtube and thought the folk over here would like it. I was going to post more about it but got called away as soon as I'd posted the link. Seeing how they did that track live makes me want to find out what their other live material was from this period.

Oh they were absolutely incredible when I saw them live. Like somewhere in another universe than the Polydistortion album would have led me to believe. That's why I couldn't believe it when their next album was ho-hum. If there's any live bootlegs out there, I bet they're shit-hot, assuming the sound quality is decent.

Got some live stuff now that they did for KCRW in '97 and '99. Been listening to it over the last hour and a half or so and it is DOPE, of course. Ravers would be flattened by this shit.

link plz!

yes, please, post those links! i loved that live vid above, saw them live at Showbox in 99 i think and they put on an amazing show. i had to rifle through my vinyl to see what i had by them and was shocked to find 5 12"s. had no idea i had that many from them but they were quite good for 2 years.

Well I didn't know so many folks would want this. I got it off slsk. Let me upload it and I'll see what I can do. Brian - we were probably at the same show!! Call me or get on AIM. I'm drunk and bored and I wanna talk on the phone to someone.

Hey I never did reply to DanNed did I. Agust solo album: lush strings (possibly all synth ones, not sure), him singing melancholy languid slightly twee stuff over it. In retrospect perhaps a little cliched, but I havent listened to it in ages.

Hey Trayce! You're here at just the right time! I finally finished uploading a bunch of live Gus Gus here. I hope this makes people happy else the mods will kill me and ban me and lock this thread, etc.

Great link Bimble! Thank you.

I have seen them live, but it was around the time of "Forever". Although that was an enjoyable show, this is better.

They released ANOTHER album on Kompakt last month, apparently:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabian_Horse_%28GusGus_album%29

listening to the first track "Selfoss", which is spacey ambient noodling for about 4:30 that suddenly drifts into... klezmer? huh

shiit that live version of 'Believe' is fantastic

new album is really good! Much more song-based than the last one, though the first track doesn't really suggest that.

Weird: at various points in my life gus gus may have been my favourite band and kompakt my favourite label but ... haven't had the urge to buy this yet.

Yeah the new one is quite good, was a bit worried after the last one, especially because I was a bit cool on the ones before that. Heard this one while walking around looking at birds soaring up in the sky and it was pretty much perfect accompaniment. That little Klezmer break is fun but not very typical of the rest of the album.

Though I have to admit, I still really miss the stuff they were doing around Polydistortion or even This is Normal. The newer stuff since then seems way more conventional.

OMG that youtube of "Believe" upthread!! Love that song so much. Rarely has a song threatened so ominously to become its own entire world.

Kinda hoping Mungolian Jet Set go in this direction on their album.

the mellow vibe on the new one is really, really great

BTW I recommend giving 24/7 another shot, I recently pulled that one out and was startled by how much better it sounded given some distance from Attention

Yeah I think it was Forever that really got me wondering about whether I still cared about them, and probably didn't give 24/7 enough attention because of that.

"Within You" on the new album is as good as anything they've done.

ha Sean, I did the exact same thing

really, Forever is a dud compared to everything else they've done; I'd probably like it just fine had they released it under a psuedonym

title track on the new one is amazing. when i was flying to iceland last month icelandair was "premiering" this via their inflight media service. also featured: tim hecker, âme's fact mix, many bizarre things.

i like 24/7 fine but arabian horse may well be their best record like ever.

I still think This Is Normal is their best. The new one is great though.

Polydistortion for me, with This is Normal close behind.

I doubt I'll hear another album as obsesssively designed as Arabian Horse from this year. Every surface is sandblasted aluminium, with but a few cues to the listener that mnml/tech house is another shape of folk music. Highly recommended for fans of Luomo.

Belatedly on board with this album.

I just got in from seeing Gus Gus live in Oslo. So at what point did they become the greatest band in the world? Amazing scenes. And one of them was dressed like the Big Lebowski.

I just got in from seeing Gus Gus live in Oslo. So at what point did they become the greatest band in the world? Amazing scenes. And one of them was dressed like the Big Lebowski.

They were always amazing from the get-go.

Saw Gus Gus live in 99 and they were amazing then. One of the best electronic live shows I've ever seen.

Jealous, much... I listen to Arabian Horse and imagine it live.

I had a few single by them in the mid 90s and they just seemed like some downtempo 4AD, trip hop thing.

More than happy to be proved wrong. Need to go and see them live again as soon as.

Polydistortion and This Is Normal are now on Spotify!

Polydistortion was sounding just right this morning.

Biggi from Gus Gus produced the new John Grant album, or at least the electronic tracks, and it sure sounds like it. Great unexpected alliance.

Does the recent 4ad book have anything interesting to say about them?

Okay I had no idea about the connection to the John Grant album, no wonder how much I loved it

Trying to compile a home-made "best of". Heavily weighted to the first two albums, so far.

I hope you're considering "David" and "Call of the Wild" from Attention

also "Hateful" from 24/7

Was thinking "David", "Desire" and "Attention" from that album, I think. At least one of those is likely to end up edited off a CDR-80 though.

obv not "David" tho

"over" from arabian horse for sure

There's a bit about Gus Gus in the 4AD book but the writer obviously thinks the label had lost its way by that point and I can't remember any interesting revelations.

btw adam is completely OTM re: "Over"

I was ambivalent about it when it came out (or not in the Gus Gus zone) but Arabian Horse really is very good.

Fairly certain nothing from "Forever" will make it onto this best of. A surprising amount of Arabian Horse might, though.

Not delving into remixes and alternate versions too much (as am on a time schedule - a holiday) but the GiGi Galaxy version of "Barry" and the Roy's Lady Soul mix of "Ladyshave" will be on there.

CDR80 - Draft
Polyesterday
Gun
Believe
Barry (GiGi Galaxy)
Remembrance
Ladyshave (Roy's Lady Soul Mix))
David
Over
Very Important People
Selfoss
Within You
Changes Come
Desire
Blue Mug (Demo)

Good selection. I'd add this remix from Forever

http://youtu.be/tATWv_jU400

Loving Arabian Horse so much that I'm bemused that I owned but didn't get into it when it came out.

Mexico is out today and it's sounding great. Haven't noticed Earth much so far though.

Read somewhere that Arabian Horse is Gus Gus's and Kompakt's best-selling album. Does that seem plausible?

Any thoughts on Mexico?

I want to listen to Mexico. I will pick up a physical copy soon. Can't imagine Arabian Horse selling more than The Field, Gui Boratto or the first Immer. They all seemed to have a lot more exposure than AH. Unless there is a market I'm not familiar with.

arabian horse is a masterpiece imo but mexico didn't grab on first listen, must try harder

yeah mexico owns too. seeing them week after next, i hope it is exactly like that youtube of "believe" that is the best video on the internet

Mexico is missing something, for me.

Enjoyed this though:

http://boilerroom.tv/recording/gusgus/

I've been playing Mexico quite a bit. A few songs aren't all that me but Obnoxiously Sexual, Another Life, Crossfade and God Application are all pretty good. Looking forward to seeing them on Friday.

Anyone keeping up with them? There was a new album this week, apparently.

Feel it's been downhill from Arabian Horse. I've listened to the subsequent albums, but never a second time. I wonder whether they changed or I did.

Ha, yes. I've had that thought.

New one is OK but the vocals are all Daniel I think and they're better with a bit
more variety of voices as on AH.

i listened to Mexico a lot when it came out but find i rarely want to come back to it. Arabian Horse remains a masterpiece though, not a single weak track (even Magnified Love has some redeeming qualities).

i'm liking the latest (Lies Are More Flexible) a lot. it seems more subdued? like it's a winter album while Mexico was a summer album. and while some tracks are closer to Mexico (continuing the tradition of using perhaps the most boring track as the title track) Featherlight / Lifetime / Fuel would all fit on AH. Featherlight is beautiful, in the same manner Seamoss is but with vocal.

agreed on variety of voices! - while John Grant can replace Högni there are times on Fireworks and Lifetime where you can almost hear Earth bits here and there.

ha, Selfoss, not Seamoss!

bumping this because "Gun" is a really, really great song

Oh, I do love Gus Gus:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3mwdn0rYjA

Siri, show me a video indebted to "Windowlicker" that is more restrained but more unsettling

Yes, that.

the album must be getting close! iirc correctly, Biggi said in an interview they were going to release 5 or so tracks before the album, and we now have:

Higher
Stay The Ride
Our World
Love Is Alone

loving all the new stuff. my comment above about Lies being a winter companion to summer Mexico - Biggi said something very close in the same interview, they had a bunch of more introvert / darker tracks, and Mexico (he didn’t name it but that’s what he likely was referring to) was the extrovert stuff they decided to release at the time.

and this collab with Bjarki is beautiful!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjMyzCIe3PY

Strange. I love Gus Gus but feel like I've completely lost touch. Turns out that I've only missed "Lies ... ". "Love Is Alone" has sucked me back into their world.

i still regard the Attention - Forever - 24/7 run as aimless experimentation that resulted mostly in misses (with a few really great tracks), but feels like once they crystallized their sound on Arabian Horse, they’ve been following it to great results.

that's funny--arabian horse felt like a peak to me with diminishing returns after, but maybe i just never found a way into those later records. "love is alone" is great tho.

AH is still their greatest album, but Mexico and Lies are both very coherent and listenable albums, which can't be said about Forever / 24/7 which feel like half baked demos at times

Just playing Selfoss/Arabian Horse/Over and, yeah, that was an incredible version of Gus Gus.

Drunkenly re-reading this thread and ...

"I really thought they were going to be the new Underworld."

Yeah, this. I thought they were going to be fucking massive.

I also enjoyed reading this:

"I doubt I'll hear another album as obsessively designed as Arabian Horse from this year. Every surface is sandblasted aluminium, with but a few cues to the listener that mnml/tech house is another shape of folk music. Highly recommended for fans of Luomo."

And pleased to have found my old best of track list. Had forgotten about that.

was there a poll on AH? if not we should do one!

That playlist:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/56sbweOgHClknuVP4utGw8

Hadn't quite realised that I was so pro-Polydistortion and then Arabian Horse.

Likely to have been compiled while messy and open to the idea that other tracks are better.

I only discovered Arabian Horse this year but it's probably my most played album of 2021. Really incredible sound design and tunes and vocals. All-around wonderful album

the new album is out!
https://gusgusiceland.bandcamp.com/album/mobile-home

Thanks! Good album but my God I've danced to "Simple Tuesday" all three times I've listened to it.

surprised it wasn’t one of the lead tracks!

some interesting bits in this interview: https://www.tanzgemeinschaft.com/gusgus-a-trip-down-memory-lane-14486

and this is a great behind the scene look album by album: https://grapevine.is/mag/feature/2020/08/19/gusgus-the-impossible-band-25-years-of-intrigue-drama-and-music/

lots of interesting details there. daníel was in eurovision?!

The Grapevine feature is, um, a curious thing. It's interesting, though.

I know surprisingly little about this band for how much I've listened to them, so the Grapevine retrospective was enlightening

Arabian Horse - or at least the tracks in my playlist - sounding incredible tonight.

You should add the other Arabian Horse tracks to your playlist as well because there isn’t a duff track on that album

i’d swap magnified love for something from mexico/lies/mobile home and then it’d be a perfect album

I love those quick synth note clusters in "Magnified Love", they make the track for me. I am using your worlds otm

i was going to say we should poll it again so i just went ahead and made a poll:
lost in your POLL - GusGus Arabian Horse

the cover of Fancy "Bolero" feat John Grant is out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIaiU-XIEbU

i would love a full italo disco GusGus album.. Ali Schwarz's remix is nice too

love the new track from GusGus:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrw9E0IxZA0

Lies Are More Flexible and Mobile Home still feel like "winter" albums to me (while Mexico was a "summer" album) so it's great to get a proper summer anthem from them.