In a discussion earlier this week elsewhere about an Andrew Weatherall radio show from October 2009, I saw the name of the band Ganglians among the tracklist- a list that also contained Science Fiction Dance Party, Magical Ring, Bongos Ikwue And The Groovies, The Britannia Coconut Dancers, Oscar The Punk and Turbo Fruits among more recognisable names such as Moon Duo, Lark, Fever Ray, Lindstrom, The Xx and Patrick Cowley. At the time the show went out on BBC 6 Mix I tried to recreate it by scouring the internet for mp3s. This was no easy feat as Andrew often had songs by artists more obscure than even the furthest corners of the internet but there were times when I could find up to 50% of one of his setlists, download and then burn to CD.
On this occasion one of the bands he played was Ganglians, a post- punk three piece from Sacramento. Looking at Discogs they released three albums between 2009- and 2011 and nothing since so I'm guessing they've spilt up. Back in the 2009 I found a few mp3s on the net which I downloaded and have largely forgotten about ever since- rediscovering them yesterday was a real blast of the good stuff. The song Andrew played was Blood On The Sand, a vibrant slice of pulsing, garage- surf from California with 60s organ and guitar parts reminiscent of Will Sergeant in the Bunnymen's glory days.
Blood On The Sand was a 7" single released in October 2009 so I suspect Andrew picked it up on a record shopping foray and put it straight into his bag before heading over to the 6 Mix studios. Ganglians debut album also came out in 2009, an album called Monster Head Room on Weird Forest Records. This one, 100 Years from Monster Head Room, has twangy guitars, buckets of reverb and ghostly vox before the band crank it up into grimy, solid gold garage rock.
Blimey these tunes are good. I'm familiar with the name Ganglians, but I'm not sure if I've actually clapped ears on their music before today. Splendid stuff.
ReplyDeleteYes, yes, yes! The Ganglians definitely have some Liverpool Post Punk influence going on! Only song I have in my iTunes (am I supposed to call it Apple Music these days?) is the wonderful My House from Still Living. It's a bit like they preferred the Bunnymen's b'sides for their influence...Blood On The Sand is kinda perfect!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much. Never heard of this excellent band. Obvs, I'm not so up on the po-pu as I thought. Further investigations will be held.
ReplyDeleteI only had one Ganglians song, Valient Brave. These are both really good and a welcome nudge to check out more.
ReplyDelete