DORONCO GUMO

Doronco is a bass player who is most well known for his stints in Les Rallizes Dénudés, Suishou no Fune and with Keiji Haino. Here he is joined by members of Maher Shalal Hash Baz, a Frenchman and an additional female vocalist who have made an album of sophisticated 70s style downer pop. The band uses vocals, bassoon and trumpet over a see-sawing battle of piano / guitar shrill balanced against warm rhythms that sound suspiciously close to how you want them to. Translated as "Mud Cloud," the name is actually poetic in a Zen beggar wandering monk kind of way. Their avant bar-rock style is not unlike Cinderella's Revenge recorded in the same studio as "Vintage Violence" with the conscious heartbreak of something like "Even Serpents Shine." A bright to bummer, and back to bright narrative flows throughout the album's nine songs. Resequenced to include an additional track not on the Japanese CD, "Old Punks" will nail down something for you that you didn't know needed to be nailed down. LP includes free download.