German blues/psychedelic rock quartet GAVIAL will release their new LP, VOR, through Exile On Mainstream tomorrow. On the eve of its unveiling, New Noise Magazine is hosting a stream of the entire album.
Formerly known as Tourette Boys, GAVIAL weaves musical inspiration from ambient, soul, gospel, and country into different threads from a carpet of sound that simply ignores the sharp cliffs of redundant categories such as retro or stoner. VOR is characterized by the search for a contemporary expression of the blues without questioning its authenticity. The music doesn’t need name-dropping, but if you still want to make room in your thematically sorted record shelf, you’re welcome to make some room in the compartments in which you put your Screaming Trees, Flying Eyes, Black Crowes, or Woodcocks, so that GAVIAL can find space in them.
Lyrically, GAVIAL is cautiously concrete, exploring the ambivalent depths of the soul where there are more questions than answers. Singer Benjamin Butter intones lyrical sketches of emotional states between melancholy, quiet anger, and hope, reminiscent of Charles Baudelaire, and turns the voice into another instrument. The interplay with driving bass lines and Americana-esque guitars results in music as it should be: melodic but not profane, accessible but with a fragile base.
VOR was recorded in the band’s rehearsal room and mixed by Benjamin Butter and Bernard Camilleri, who has become their go-to sound engineer. Bernard Camilleri did the mastering at his Xekillton Studio in Malta. The artwork is from the Flowers Of Terrible series by Berlin-based artist Hamid Yaraghchi.
Stream GAVIAL’s entire VOR album now at New Noise Magazine RIGHT HERE.
Exile On Mainstream will release VOR on Black Vinyl LP and digitally this Friday, May 19th, and a limited CD is available at the band’s concerts. Find preorders for the LP HERE and digital HERE, and watch the previously issued video for “Circles, Part 1” HERE.
Watch for additional videos for the album to be issued following its release.
GAVIAL Live:
9/29/2023 Archiv – Potsdam, DE
9/30/2023 Blechschloss (Scheune) – Dresden, DE
10/02/2023 Urban Spree –Berlin, DE
“…more than a trace of peak Pink Floyd in its haunting melody and Mark Lanegan in its bluesy mysticism.” – Treble
“When psychedelic blues rock is played right, it gets a ghostly quality that sends you straight to that astral desert plain where Jim Morrison meets his Native American spirit guide. GAVIAL sends us there every song, imbuing a shamanic wisdom upon us with deep blue puffs of smoke and reverberations that shake our ancient bones. As far as psychedelic blues rock goes, this is where the summit lies this year. Take your 5 grams of dried GAVIAL and wander the astral plains for days on end with VOR.” – Weirdo Shrine
“…VOR is an album that you either listen to in one go and completely sink into, or not at all. 9/10” [translated] – Hellfire Magazin
“GAVIAL start acoustically instrumented and sound more like the vast landscape of the south of the USA than like the Saxon homeland. The associations are desert or gloomy motels, where the madness of boredom has to be confronted. ‘Modern Times’ reminds me of Madrugada. ‘Bridges’ shows a certain ambivalence between softness and gloom. The songs take their time, the bass drives the band forward, the guitars are classically equipped with a lot of reverb. Singer Benjamin Butter has an interesting, dark voice that reinforces the melancholy and restlessness in the songs.” [translated] – Saitenkult
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The post GAVIAL: New Noise Magazine Streams VOR LP By German Blues/Psychedelic Rock Band; Album Sees Release Tomorrow Through Exile On Mainstream first appeared on Earsplit Compound.