GusGus: Love is Alone (EP) – 2021
Genre: Experimental/Electronic – News from the musical volcano from Iceland…..
The GusGus Festival weeks continue. On 04/30/2021, the combo released the 5-track EP „Love is Alone“. To say it right away: This thing is the warhammer, you can celebrate a rehearsal with the three sensationally good remixes „Stay The Ride“ in Natty Dub, „Our World“ (Bjarki Swipe Right Mix) and „Higher“ (Nasty dUb). With these three remixes the modular synth technicians from Iceland show the rest of the world HOW to produce remixes today without kicking the aura of the original mixes into the barrel.
The opener is „Love is Alone“ feat. John Grant, no, the latter is not the brother-in-law of Hugh Grant, but rather an accomplished US singer and songwriter with a sonorous ingratiating voice and residence in Reykjavik. In 2011 he met Birgir Þórarinsson a.k.a. Biggi Veira from GusGus at the Iceland Airwaves Festival in Reykjavík and from then on he was part of the extended GusGus circle of friends, where they support each other actively – as it is common in Iceland. So it happened that John Grant took over the vocals on „Love is Alone“ and also tells you via the lyrics of the track how the new album of GusGus is called (release date: 28.05.201) : Mobile Home!
Daniel Agust and longtime collaborator John Grant float over the patiently soaring synth grooves with ease on „Love Is Alone.“ The production mixes raw melodies with a pop-oriented mindset and experimental electronic drum lines to create a fascinating feast for the ears.
The track is available at the end of the EP again as an instrumental version, which is ideal for karaoke purposes, which, however, my neighbor does not find now sooo great, the Student apartment community from the ground floor, which I have transformed to GusGus fans, however does so. We have celebrated the one or other GusGus release already a few times by cracking and dancing through the house, Covid-19-conform, of course (f..ck 🙁 ).
Biggi Veira’s remix of „Stay The Ride“ (Natty dub) uses the vocals and instantly recognizable synth lines of the original, but gently shifts the vocals into the musical background and the whole production towards a smooth, organic house-dub feel for festival summer 2021 – which festival summer 2021 am I actually talking about here 🙁 ? Certainly not the one in Germany – because this one will probably fall into the water because of the fucking pandemic.
The band also brought in Icelandic electronic musician Bjarki, who did an excellent job of enhancing the track „Our World“ with his clubby sound. „Our World“ in the Bjarki Swipe Right mix offers a beautifully chaotic standout piece of post-techno dancefloor bliss.
The second remix offering by Biggi Veira – „Higher“ in nasty dub garb – contrasts with the warm tones of „Stay The Ride“ with its stomping, menacing bass sequences reaching down to the centre of the earth. With raves completely out of control in mind, the track turned into a post-techno hammer that is hot as lava and capable of igniting dancefloors.
By the way, on the three tracks „Stay The Ride (Natty dub)“, „Our World (Bjarki Swipe Right Mix)“ and „Higher (Nasty dUb)“ you can again admire the vocal acrobatics of VÖK aka Margrét Rán. Whenever I do, I end up lying under the table, breathless.
Unfortunately, the EP is only available in 16 bit / 44.1 kHz, which, however, only slightly affects the sound pleasures with abysmally deep bass, cleanly defined trebles and mids that come along naturally.
So – and then I say to you „Goodbye“ until the release of the album „Mobil Home“ on May 28, 2021. See you virtually on May 29th 2021 for the release party with live stream on the digital platform „Moment House“, you can register for this via the link
Facts about GusGus: Love Is Alone EP:
Artist: Gusgus
Title: Love Is Alone
Format: EP
Label: Oroom
Release Date: April 30, 2021
Genre: Experimental, Electronic, Alternative, Indie
5 Tracks – 25m 59s
Available on Qobuz in CD Quality
16-bit / 44.1 kHz – stereo
Equipment Studio 1 + 2
My test equipment:
Studio 1 (High End):
- 2 x System Audio SA Mantra 50 (front)
- 1x System Audio SA Mantra 10 AV (center)
- 2x System Audio SA Legend 5 (rear)
- 1 x System Audio Saxo 10 (subwoofer)
- 4 x Onkyo SKH-410 (B) (Dolby Atmos)
- Auralic Altair (audio streaming client with max. 32 bit / 384 kHz)
- NVIDIA Shield Pro with Plex, Kodi (max 192 kHz for Audio, Tidal (MQA Streaming Client)
- AppleTV 4K (Streaming Client) Dolby Atmos, HDR, Dolby Vision
- Amazon Cube 4K (Streaming Client) Dolby Atmos (restricted), HDR, Dolby Vision
- Panasonic DP-UB9004 (4K UHD Player) Dolby Atmos, HDR, Dolby Vision
- Oppo UDP-203 (4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc Player) Dolby Atmos, HDR, Dolby Vision
- Yamaha CX-A5100 (Preamp) 4K, Dolby Atmos, Hi-res
- Yamaha MX-A5000 (Power Amp)
- Sony KD-55A1 (TV) 4K OLED, HDR, Dolby Vision