Britain has been an essential part in the formation of my cultural identity, I even lived there for years, unfortunately since the 90’s is on the path toward a wild neo-liberism. This took a bit of mystique out of my view, but luckily still exist ‘free zones’ of authentic and uncontaminated good old charming English eccentricity and humor.
In the West Yorkshire‘s, maybe foursome, experimental post-punk band Gad Whip fronted by visual artist, former OneC Records label owner, ‘ranter in chief’ and occasional drummer Pete F. Davies, these distinctive characteristics are alive and kicking.
Since 2014 the group have notched a few records under their belt, most of them on tapes, the last one at the end of 2017, “Trapped In A Pin Hole Camera”, on Toronto’s Arachnidiscs Recordings, ten slivers of deranged, passionate and refreshingly authentic DIY sound, that it would have certainly been championed by John Peel.
The support of classic instrumentations with the addition of synths and occasional drum machines is enhanced by slow-paced ranting vocals breathed from the soul in a wonderful mix of angst, wry and black humour. Apart for the obvious similarities, I’ll avoid mentioning, their imaginative and cockeyed sound has clear hints of iconoclastic and dissident charge of Mark E Smith, a touch of SST label punk minimalism, the dub elements of the Pop Group, and the avant weirdness of some, still sadly ignored, bands around mid 80’s Nottingham’s Ron Johnson Records.
