Spot Land/Purple Vinyl

Description

GNOD, the ever-evolving psychedelic band from northern England with over 15 years and dozens of releases to its name, returns in 2024 with a recalibrated sound and a new sense of freedom. The five songs on Spot Land are tender and detailed, unfolding slowly with melancholic guitar textures, brushed drums, and interjections of lap steel, piano, and kalimba. As founding member Paddy Shine puts it, the results sound like both old GNOD and new GNOD at the same time. At first glance, Spot Land is a significant departure from the intense, noisy, and murky offerings found on the band's more recent studio albums, such as 2022's Hexen Valley — yet, these are also intoxicating fogs to get lost in, with the personnel on record starting at different moments and meeting on the same wavelength. Its exploratory nature may remind seasoned GNOD heads of Infinity Machines from 2014, or very old oddities like The Somnambulist's Tale from 2008, but you can also dive in here if needed, as Spot Land has its own unique vibe. The album was recorded in a factory in Rochdale over four days in August 2023, with Paddy handling all production and mixing — the first time he was fully in the spotlight for a GNOD release. He is also the only member featured on all five tracks, with others coming and going informally. Everyone — Paddy, Chris Haslam, GNOD founder, Alex Macarte, Raikes Parade, and Al Wilson — plays at least two instruments over these 40 minutes. There are no vocal credits among them, but Spot Land is beautifully enhanced by sampled voices, particularly on the album's opening and closing tracks. Benedictine monks hymn on "Peace At Home," gliding over jazzy and graceful desert music, while during the fifteen-minute ambient rock "Pilgrim's Progress," we hear — yes — Christian pilgrims singing in a church in the Azores. But don't imagine it's complacent or inflated, thanks in part to Paddy's judicious editing process. 'Luz Natural' is a beatific wonder devoid of rhythm, crafted from synth, piano, and lap steel, a soundtrack for a rainforest located somewhere along the Pennines. 'Dream On' is the most rhythmic moment of Spot Land, with extraterrestrial-sounding synths winding through a bass and drums that abruptly drag, while 'Kapal Bhati' is its peak of abstraction: thumb piano, bizarre dub treatment, and distant voices that could be anyone, from anywhere. Although GNOD's sound change from album to album is rarely planned too far in advance, there has been a quiet desire within the band to do something of this nature for some time. The results may confuse some listeners' expectations, but in the long run, Spot Land is a liquid GNOD. The striking cover art is a showcase of Chris Haslam's illustration talents; his process here, he says, was to "start something, never knowing when it's finished, just when it's done. Like the music, really."