GYRATORY SYSTEM

Tape loops, brass and wind, electronic beats, synths, tribal drums, jazziness, banks of pedals… it’s all fairly standard stuff really. But the thing about Gyratory System’s sound isn’t that any one part of it is overly peculiar, it’s that all the familiar components are taken and layered up into a strange otherworldly oddity which makes it all sound new again. This is, of course, a very fine thing indeed.

This satisfyingly strange juxtaposition of sounds is played by four blokes standing deadpan still. The contrast between their businesslike distance and the soaring space of the sound makes it seem like the noise isn’t actually coming from them at all. Instead, it feels rather as though it just happens to have broken through from its native dimension in this band’s vicinity. This effect is aided by the use of tape loops on the saxophone and trumpet (also going through effects pedals) which build up behind the band as they play and give the impression of a phantom orchestra hovering just outside reality’s line of sight.

The variety in the different instruments adds massive amounts of texture and depth to the sound, giving it an almost graspable atmosphere which spreads out and fills the room but always remains somehow separate from its surroundings just because it’s so marvellously different. Really something quite special.

By Holly Davies - http://www.localsecrets.com/ezine.cfm?ezineid=1487