MANCHESTER instrumental trio GoGo Penguin have released an absolutely superb, eclectic remix album, GGP/RMX on Blue Note today, bringing together talents such as Squarepusher, Clark, 808 State, James Holden, Machinedrum and so many more to spiral their most recent, eponymous album out into delicious fractal directions.
It really looks likely to be remixes set of the year, given its free-thinking scope and quality; and they’re heralding its arrival in the world in a twofold fashion, first by dropping a video for the album opener, the Cornelius remix of “Kora”.
The cult Japanese icon cuts the tape on GGP/RMX with aplomb on the bright and clean, shimmering skyscraper futurism of his remix. There’s a real home-territory feel to the central motif which, despite being synth, has the taut, plucked grace of a koto; stir in some warm electronic wash and loping, live drums and it’s music to have on the cans while being wowed on some metro system perigrination of a central cityscape. Maybe the DLR through Canada Wharf, for example. Bright, optimistic and clever, it sets the tone for what’s to follow.
GoGo Penguin’s Chris Illingworth says: “Cornelius’s mix is a great way to start the record; it’s both intelligent and beautiful.
“The way he’s sliced up and repositioned the piano melodies and combined them with synth lines makes it familiar but also gives it a new and individual character that sets up the remix album perfectly.”
Responding in kind, Cornelius says: ‘’I felt the band’s Manchester bloodline. I wanted to preserve their performance as much as possible, because GoGo Penguin is a hypnotic live band.”
In addition to the release of the video and GGP/RMX, the band has gt together Manchester brewers Cloudwater to make a beer – or to be precise a remix of two of Cloudwater’s most iconic IPAs, called IPA/RMX. All profits from the beer will go to the world-renowned Mancunian cancer charity, the NHS Christie Charity, based at that hospital in Withington.
Chris continues: “We have been friends with Paul Jones, co-founder and managing director of Cloudwater, for a long time and have enjoyed a fair few sessions tasting his beers and chatting about music.
“We’ve been talking about doing a beer together for a while, but the remix album felt like a great connection and as we are all based in Manchester we wanted to give all the profits to a local charity.
“We choose The NHS Christie Charity, a specialist in cancer treatment centre based in Manchester, as it is something close to our hearts.” Good shout, lads.
As for that album? We said of it: “Good things come to he (and she) who waits; and that GoGo Penguin have bided their time before taking the plunge [for a remix album] has proved its own reward.
“They’ve assembled a really well-chosen cast of remixers who in turn have fashioned a brilliantly intelligent album; 11 tracks ranging from stellar dancefloor bangers through to neo-classical and old-skool ambient chillout – and especially points in between, where musical tectonic plates shift and abrade and subduct with delightful and beguiling results.
“If you love the places where modern dance and electronica begins to take on other colours and ripple into something quite otherly, you really should invest in this album. It’s a brilliant state-of-the-art showcase.”
Read our full review here.
GoGo Penguin’s GGP/RMX is out today on Blue Note digitally, on CD and on vinyl; order your copy here.
Connect with GoGo Penguin at their website and on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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