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05/17/08 Melos Pestoia
Discography
05/18/08 Traffic Roma 05/20/08 Casa de Cultura San Sebastian 05/22/08 BeCool Barcelona 05/23/08 La Marquise Lyon 05/25/08 Cactus Brugge 05/26/08 Mains d’Ouevres Paris 05/27/08 Le Grand Wazoo Amiens 05/28/08 Treibhaus Lucern 05/29/08 Elfer Frankfurt 05/30/08 d:qliq Luxembourg 05/31/08 Gleis 22 Munster 06/01/08 Steinbruch Duisburg
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Taking their name from Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa is a band with members from New York, Chicago, Boston, DC, and Richmond. Their latest album is called Rest and it was released last Tuesday, May 13th. This album was composed primarily through e-mail, because of the various band member's living location!
The band is headed by frontsman, Champ Bennett, but you can tell this isn't a dictatorship, but a collaboration, with each band members adding in their own color to the music. Sometime these addition seems to make their songs unconventionally long. Take, for instance, their most accessible song "Jeroen Van Aken" is over eight minutes long - definitely not radio material.
What makes "Jeroen Van Aken" good is you get to hear the melodic vocals between Champ Bennett and Nikki King and the chorus seems to be "it seems the devil's got a grip on me" while the music build in the background. But instead of ending at the four minute mark, the song continues on with a great bass line played by (and I'm guessing because there are several bassists listed in the liner notes) Billy Bennett.
The other songs that I was drawn to all features sweet lush vocals, including "Pseudonyms", which has some nice pianos and some haunting noises that sounds like a musical saw. Be sure to check out "Abutting, Dismantling", another whispery vocal song - with some great rhythmic percussions.
I am unfamiliar with their earlier works, but judging from Rest, I would recommend Gregor Samsa to any fans of slowcore bands like Minnesota's own Low.
Rest is out now, can be purchased directly from their record label, Kora Records. There is a limited edition of this record for only $7 more (with less than 200 left) that I suggest you get instead of the standard version. I've taken a look at the pictures of the limited version and I'm very tempted to place an order very soon. They are also on tour to support the new record.
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