GAZPACHO - WHEN EARTH LETS GO - 2004

Gazpacho are a band from Norway, who have recently just come back from a supporting tour with old 80's prog rockers "Marillion", they are unsigned and have released "When Earth Lets Go" themselves. Some of you out there may have instantly switched off your brains, and started to look elsewhere on this site, well listen up fuckwits, this is some album i can tell you. In a Music Industry thats up to its neck in shit, uninventive, corporate, crap, with the NME kissin the arse of the latest"franz ferdinand/strokes", clone band, Gazpacho are a breath of fresh air with this surprisingly original, inventive record.

Its hard to categorise "Gazpacho", but take a pinch of radiohead, mix with Kate Bush, add 2 tablespoons of Sigur Ros, and....oh fuck it, they don't really sound like anybody but themselves, put it this way if there was a genre for Alternative Lounge Prog Rock, this would be in it.

"When Earth Lets Go" starts with a wound up scratchy gramophone playing some marching band music, which leads into "Snowman" an eerie opening track, with delightful ice cold tinkling piano, and a very "Kate Bush" like melody in the chorus. This moves on to "Put it on the air", for me a particular stand out track, a complicated song with many twists and turns which stands up to many repeated listens. "Steal Yourself" rocks out on the chorus, to give some light relief, from the more dark and gloomier tracks like "souvenir" and "117", the whole album is well thought out with the placement/order of the tracks, another standout track is "Substitute for murder" which is a great way of checking out if "Gazpacho" is your bag or not (see below).

Make no mistake, "Gazpacho" are an acquired taste, Jan H's vocals may not be to everyones liking, and there style of production may seem overly dramatic to others, but if you can't appreciate this music then you have no soul. "Gazpacho" also seem to drape there music and lyrics in mystery, which gets you looking up the lyrics in the CD booklet and trying to work out if its all nonsense or has some deeper, serious meaning, which allways floats my boat anyway.

The quality of songwriting is really the most important aspect for the success or failure of a band, and Gazpacho have this pretty much sussed, and in turn make a lot of recently signed bands look 2nd rate. Check out the "weed" file (windows media audio) below to get an idea of "Gazpacho".
http://www.stereohead.co.uk