Described by one of their labels, Angular Recording Corporation, as a “utilitarian instrumental marching band”, UK collective Gyratory Systems are born from the cremains of London’s One More Grain – themselves an avant employer of the brass section, albeit in a post-punk vein.
Certainly the description has some merit – picking out individual instruments on this track, ‘Utility Music’, proves almost entirely fruitless. A melee of percussion, wind instruments, 4-4 bass and dissonant keyboard stabs – all of which offers little in the way of solace. It’s a futurist krautrock tribute, giving their all at an avant-jazz picnic on an interstate freeway, while the boys at the back systematically destroy the entire DFA record back catalogue with a pair of knitting needles.
Whatever particular touchstones Gyratory System stumble across, they’re certainly of generous spirit. They are currently in the midst of a reformist release cycle, promising that their music “will appear in fragments, in various formats, at different times”. This month, four of these fragments come bundled in a Mini CD release (in handmade origami sleeve) titled “Utility Music I” – and if the thought a plugging a 3″ CD into your laptop fills you with fear, the band are also releasing the EP for the princely sum of zero dollars at their web site, gyratorysystem.com.
Gyratory System – Utility Music | mp3
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