Gus Gus - Forever

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  • There are two GusGus (or should we say GusGuses?): the 4AD-approved, self-proclaimed nine-member collective and Is-Jesus-Your-Pal? icy weirdos, and the sexy, sultry and silky, “I still have last night on my body, David, I wish you were with me” house glorious luminaries. Forget the polymorphous and ever-changing line-up (there is only three of them left now), the GusGus of now has nothing to do with the GusGuses of then. If 2003’s ‘Attention’ (their best and most coherent work to date) was shamelessly joyful, ‘Forever’, their first album in four years (and, also, the first long player for the young London Gung Ho! imprint), is trying – and failing – to recreate that same euphoric feeling. It is not all that terrible, mind you. You might remember the double A-side they released for Great Stuff in 2005, ‘Lust/Porn’. At the time, next to the label’s other electro-house explosive and propulsive bangers, the new GusGus stuff sounded pale and slightly frail. On ‘Forever’, though, ‘Lust’ is strangely fascinating, in a neo-minimal kind of way: one single grinding melodic hook being tweaked over and over again for ages - actually more fun and prismatic than it sounds. But while it is interesting to watch it circumvolve for a while, I doubt anyone’s core will be shaken by it. ‘Porn’, on the other hand, is still as exciting as Anna-Nicole Smith fingering herself in her grave. ‘Forever’ is inconsequential drivel, too fast-paced for its own good (with added SURF guitars to make it more appalling), while new single ‘Moss’ and album’s finale ‘Mallflowers’ are both so predictable, beat and structure wise, that even Eurotrash icon Whigfield herself wouldn’t want to be seen dancing to them; as a grande finale, it frankly gives a terrible and bitter last impression and makes you wonder if anyone is still really caring. At this point, this band has nothing to do with what this band twice was, or what it once promised and delivered. They should have given up by now, or just changed moniker. I know I have changed. And submitting myself to the sounds of GusGus’s tired machines sounds all but too mundane and extra ordinary.
  • Tracklist
      01 - Degeneration 02 - You Never Change 03 - Hold You 04 - Need In Me 05 - Lust 06 - If You Don't Jump (You're English) 07 - Forever 08 - Sweetsmoke 09 - Porn 10 - Demo 54 11 - Moss 12 - Mallflowers
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