Gus Gus Album: “Attention”

This is a disc that appeals on many levels. Grooves, beats and lyric hooks get you right away, but nice synthesis, interesting engineering choices and odd beats keep the attention after repeated listens. Keeping attention isn't usually accomplished by dance albums, and this is most definitely a dance album. Lyrics are minimal and repeated, with no real attempt at song structure except for "Call of the Wild", which they didn't pen. Gus Gus chicken-steps their funky way acrss many genres, never failing through mere audacity and peculiarity. There are many shameless throwbacks to synthesis and dance music of the 70's and 80's, while going farther into the future with some sound treatments that are more edgy and noisy than most of their contemporaries. Yes, hi-hats are clipping, and that's a good thing. Gus Gus isn't out to be your typical dance band. You need to listen to catch the subtlety and the campy tongue-in-cheek dance audacity. That necessary attention is what makes them so valuable.

It's not easy to describe a group comprised of nine members in one record and three in the next, who are alternately jazzy and raucous, whose vocalists range from the sealskin smooth tenor of Daniel August to the puffin blubber mezzo of Earth and who dish out EVERYTHING with no holds barred electronic orchestration. But such is Gus Gus, based on their albums a work in progress from day one. They have been around for about a decade now but I just discovered them in 2004 and I count them my favorite new group. Hands down. Their music is all over the place - smooth jazzy ballads (Desire) to wild falsetto romps (Barry) to contrapuntally complex bleep and pop etudes (I.I.E.) and Matthew Herbert-style eJazz (Cold Breath). But they have produced some absolute killer tracks: Call of the Wild, David, Gun and Barry to name my favorites. Whatever has changed over time with this group, some demonic core remains in full control producing great music. Their website promises a new disk in early 2005 and I can't wait.

Don't miss this one, folks. Soooo listenable, over and over. Earth (purrrrr!!!), Biggi, Buckmaster, and President Bongo lay down trippy, frozen beats from trippy, frozen Iceland. Unique, smart, and icy.

I was excited when I learned of news about the forthcoming release of the new Gus Gus recording ATTENTION, having been very pleased with POLYDISTORTION and blown away by THIS IS NORMAL. That excitement turned into concern when I also found out that the Gus Gus personnel had dwindled from 10+ members down to 4, and new members were being added to the creative force. The most notable depatures were of the band's primary vocalists (Daniel Agust, Hafdis Huld, and Magnus Jonnson).

It turns out the revolving door membership in Gus Gus's ranks didn't necessarily affect the music negatively, rather, it produced the band's most focused, if least adventurous, album yet. The new Gus Gus wants you to shake yer booty, but the result is more like a pop album to tap your feet to than something that will provoke full body movement. The overlapping synths and drum programing on many tracks are too quirky to take to the dancefloor. (In a comical turn the album's only beat-less track is named "Detention".)

New vocalist Earth is well suited to the new direction Gus Gus is taking. Her voice oftentimes evoking that of Deee-Lite's Lady Kier, whose music ATTENTION most closely resembles (particularly on the title track). Daniel Agust makes a guest appearence as vocalist on the slinky groove of "Desire". The tracks that have little or no vocal accompaniment at times feel cold and mechanical. One of Gus Gus's stregnths, particulary on THIS IS NORMAL, was their ability to richly humanize their electronic music through their vocalists, but on the new record this warmth is sorely needed. "Don't Hide What You Feel" best captures the warm quality found in the previous recordings.

Despite these flaws ATTENTION is still a worthy listen for Gus Gus fans and for synth-pop lovers everywhere. If the membership continues to shuffle who knows what music the next album will bring? FINAL RATING: 3 and 1/2 stars.

gusgus are among the seemingly endless array of talent that keeps streaming out of Iceland. For years, they were trendsetters on the dancefloor, mixing funk, electronica, trance and house in ways that appealed to club kids and discriminating musicians alike. "Polyesterday" and "This Is Normal" are both brilliant records, as are their various singles and remix compilations. "Attention," sadly, signals their demise. Not surprising, since most of the original band members have left (there were about 10 or 11 in 1996). Although gusgus never described themselves as a proper "band" but more as a fluid "art collective," an ever-changing lineup seems to be consistent with their original vision, but the four or five members that comprise the lineup on "Attention" (only one or two of whom are original members) are stuck in tired dance grooves and the white-trash-glam club kid gimmick. Gone also are the vocal stylings of Hafdis Huld and Daniel Águst (with no Emiliana Torrini in sight!). The vocalists here (one male, one female) are not terrible, but their style is more often than not monotonous. Not that there aren't songs on here that are as good as any gusgus single ("Dance You Down" and "David" are notable), but overall I'm left cold...