All of the money is being flushed, sucked right into a vortex never to be seen again. Perhaps the album artwork for the Huracanado EP by Gumbel is allegorical imagery, of the useless expenditure of States, capitalists or other tyrants? Perhaps it symbolizes waste, generally? Or, maybe the pipes this cash is being pulled through lead to an underground vault that Gumbel owns, and this image is the key to cracking it's secret location?
Artist: Gumbel
Title: Huracanado EP
Label: None
Cat#: None
Keywords: 8-bit, Experimental, IDM, Electrofunk, Glitch, Plunderphonics
Reviewer: Alex Spalding
We at Yeah I Know It Sucks received another request submission for a review, and this time it’s Gumbel’s Huracanado EP, which is just absolutely wonderful! Gumbel’s Cavan EP, released on the net label Petroglyph Music, was also reviewed here by KN awhile back… hopefully, someone will pick up Huracanado (nudge / wink)! In the meantime, it’s available on Bandcamp along with other works by this awesome artist. Let us proceed to the review…
… ‘Porvenir’ comes in with a bassy synth rumble, then some furious drum work! There’s some really nice, mellow sequencing over it for awhile, then a wah-synth type thing comes in! Several chaotic sounds are just flying around, from trumpet / horn sections to synths and screams, and it makes you want to dance like a fool. The drums keep going into a more silent section, with bells. Very cool!
The next track, ‘Serotonina’, begins with a trip hop break that gets into heavily cut-up programmed IDM territory, acoustic guitar, chill bell organ type sounds. The track features artists Miguel Rovira (alias Boer Polar) playing synths and guitar and Álvaro Rubalcaba (alias Stolenmeltdown) also on guitar. I love this track, in particular the sections with choir and lovely little synth toms weaved into the percussion programming. It’s got a lovely energy, partly frenetic and partly chillout; an in-between state of mind for life’s strange moments, like running and screaming down a calm beach at sunrise, or curling up with a novel just before being launched out of a cannon. The guitar work toward the end is great, with a sort of soundtrack feel that works wonderfully with the synth lead. From here, it fades.
On the subject of soundtrack feels, ‘Falsificación Dermoestética’ (featuring Joey Zeke Stolen, aka Bit Laden using Guitar Pro 5), begins like an experimental Spaghetti Western. Warm, fuzzy guitars that I’m assuming are electronically derived with the Guitar Pro 5, some harp type sounds, choirs, strange noises… it gets really funky and IDM-esque after a bit, particularly with the rhythms and sound effects! It has several different parts to it… one later on comes across as kind of midipunk, and it’s totally awesome, lots of interesting lofi sounds, and then that breaks into a sort of lofi orchestral thing into which the guitars enter. It’s really surprising!
‘Bit War’ features James “Perturbator” Kent on synths, though which ones I am not sure… it begins with bell tone feedback ringing, and then some low polyphonic synthesizers come in. The harmonic compositions have that ‘epic’ vibe, like we are about to begin a quest. A slow, 4/4 high-shelf kick starts up, I love it. The groove gets really electro in not too long, then the synths just start to float in this beautiful way, evoking something from out of the 1980s! It’s very experimental though, a lot of the sounds sliding around, changing. Getting just past the middle of the track it starts to develop a lot… programming almost reminding me of some IDM / acid work. It keeps up that 1980s flavour though, that I love. Suddenly, some orchestral slamdowns followed soon by bright synthstring pads! This would be my favourite track on the album for sure, but…
… my favourite turns out to be ‘Rescátame’, actually… we hear a low bit of phasery guitar amp feedback growling in the background and I worry I might hear Van Halen start playing ‘Eruption’ at any moment but instead we are treated to a deep, hollowed out square wave and some very beautiful synth pads as a triangle keeps a steady pace. The synths here are the best on the EP, but it’s sadly a very short piece of music.
Despite the fact that the page for this album on Bandcamp tells us it is a work in progress, you can’t really tell that it needs any more… it delivers plenty for you to be impressed with. Naturally, however, if I were to have any say about it I would wish for an extension of ‘Rescátame’, but only if that were a prerogative of Gumbel’s. You should definitely swing by his page and check this one out. Here’s a link for ya:
Yeah I Know It Sucks 