It has been a while – quite a while to be honest – since I’ve reviewed a release from Gurgles; this is a pity, so I’m happy to have something new to listen to and write about.
For those of you who have not heard of Gurgles, or possibly have heard of them but not actually heard any of their music. What they do is hard to describe in a pithy sentence. It’s quite proggy, a little poppy and frankly somewhat strange. That’s strange in a good way.
‘How D’ye Like Me’ is one part Buggles, one part Yes when they went ‘all modern’ and produced by Trevor Horn, and one part that sits somewhere in a kind of Bozo Dog Band, Neil Innes sort of area. Or it’s a kind of electro prog-pop in a sort of early early 80s style with the odd zoom off in an odd direction. These odd zoom offs are the spoken lists that appear; lists of mainly strange fashion items, some of which may provoke some memories if you’re of the right age.
This, frankly confusing, breakdown doesn’t tell you that the song is a catchy number that will have you humming along in no time at all. And if you take time to listen, you’ll get that it’s a clever song about trends and how they change. Or at least that’s the sense I get.
The other thing is that the members of Gurgles are scarily good musically so they have the ability to combine sounds and styles that may not, at first sight, go together. So the combination of 80s’ electro-pop with straight out of the early 70s prog synth makes, in their hands, perfect sense.
Look whatever you may be taking from my review, the thing is that this good music and fun music guaranteed to make you smile. In a phrase, fab gear.
The info
Gurgles are a three piece (Bass, Keys, Drums) brother-and-sister plus Bradley Cunningham Bradford based progpopband.
Songwriter and Fender Rhodesman is Augustin Bousfield, co-producer of much of Saint Etienne’s recent output, solo keytared up electropopper and ex of Mucky Sailor and Nope. Plus a writer of TV music including the theme tune to Deal or No Deal.
This the first single to be released from the forthcoming album, ‘Sogs and Songs’ which is slated for release on 27th April 2024.
