dyed (lIVe aT tHe CoRnIsh bAnk) by Gossen
Reviewed by Robert Pratt (Rat Run Records)
The warmth of old quarter inch tape on a reel to reel head begins proceedings. It’s already a serious business. Metallic scraps of hiss and fizz welded together to form rhythmic slaps, a hi-hat groove emerging before being pummeled by ball pein bass blows. Thick wedges of sub frequency accented by the ever present whips of arcing electricity.
This composition is being fabricated, purposefully galvanized into a seamless live piece with the deft touch of a seasoned metal worker. The sweat and the grime, the greasy soiled brow wiped clean with an overall sleeve as the groove breaks down into skittish angle grinder swarf, sparking and slithering into the next movement.
Gossen are in control. Tone and frequency poised, the balance between layers and levels provides a beautiful sense of space. A front and back. It’s a slightly strange sensation though as the floor and ceiling don’t appear to be there. Or at least not where you’d expect them.
Industrial plates grind as one drawn out key tone drones, cutting through with the surgical precision of a plasma cutter. This brings with it a sense of redemption, a familiar hand to guide you through the matrix of trap beats and bass shots. The drone begins to pulse as it gets ever heavier before we disembark into new industrial territory. The beats in this piece seem to me to be a tool, a key to unlock the sound world beyond them.
We’ve left the workshop. Maybe the verdigris hue of copper sweat got too much, the foundry worker oppressed by the iron filings blown from each nostril. Fresh air required. At this point it’s easy to stare blankly dreaming about a future lost, a science fiction read about once, well it’s here, it’s self- check outs, face ID, biometrics, chat bots, social media to name but a few maddening aspects of the contemporary human condition…
Nah, fuck it, this one’s for the dreamers, for the triers and the willing to failers… I love this work, it’s not music, it’s a concept. It’s not a hobby, it’s a life style choice and it sure as shit has nothing to do with money.
It's not often you come across something that makes you feel like going out and making something. There’s deep joy in that feeling. The impulse to create driven by one who has already created, that’s truly inspiring, that’s awesome.
A single insect buzzes in squares, illuminated by the industrial warehouse lighting, before plastic safety curtains, with slithers of light glowing between them loll about. They part around a pump truck that presents a dark blue stained euro-pallet from the workshop, a gleaming chrome object sits there on the slats, precarious and perfect with no apparent edges or corners. Just a pristine chrome monolithic form, smooth and heavily worked.
With little to no warning the foundry klaxon sounds and the workers return. Before too long production has resumed. As the hammers begin to fall again and the power tools warm up we once more find ourselves drawn into the promising sense that ‘anything is possible’ if you work on it and learn to fail, well then it’s there for you in the scrap, it’s there.
Suddenly a conveyor belt whirs and glitches as it’s cogs begin to seize and struggle, the LCD display reads _ ADD GREASE _ before the work ends fittingly as it begun in the rust and the loop goes on.
DYED (Live at the Cornish Bank) is as yet unreleased. Follow Gossen on Instagram to be the first to listen!
@ratrunrecords / ratrunrecords.bandcamp.com
@sounds.gossen