Gabe Gurnsey's second solo album Diablo came out last week, a ten track audio pleasure as brightly coloured as the pink vinyl it's pressed onto. Gabe has taken house music/ dance music's physicality and pushed it into autumn 2022. It's a full on, immersive record, that pulsates and throbs and draws you in. 808 rhythms, distorted synths, wobbly basslines, intense production where every element is perfectly clear and present, it's quite a ride. On top of these slices of late 80s/ early 90s house, Tilly Morris' voice, sometimes sounding like she's just been woken up and forced to the microphone, sometimes chopped up and stuttering, as the strobe- lit tracks bounce around her. My favourite currently is You Remind Me.
You Remind Me is six and half minutes of dark, basement synths, squelching bass, thumping drums and sounds ricocheting at the edge of the mix and Tilly intoning, half awake, half breathily blissed out, 'You remind me/ Of a sunrise/ You remind me/ You remind me of a good time... I'll take you by surprise'. The breakdown and ghostly noises at around five minutes followed by the 808's riding back in is exhilarating stuff, a reductionist version of New Order in '89 when they were fully seduced by the dance floor.
The New Order reference isn't that wide of the mark. Tilly Morris is the daughter of Stephen and Gillian, the apple not falling far from the tree in Macclesfield. Gabe Gurnsey is also the drummer in industrial noise/ analogue synth duo Factory Floor. His first solo album, Physical from 2017, was an equally intense and rhythmic ride, slightly less fully realised than much of Diablo maybe, but well worth seeking out. This version of the single Eyes Over, the Extended Dub, is a blast.
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