Growing | Green Flag

I’ve been listening to the new I.U.D. album this week, led in by the hand of Lizzi Bougatsos of Gang Gang Dance. On ‘The Proper Sex’ she teams with Growing‘s Sadie Laska for a six tracker that scored a mighty 3.5 over at Pitchfork. Whilst I agree that it’s undoubtedly a difficult album to love, the cacophonous junkyard of sounds is also bloody hard to ignore. Although, the reviewer notes: “it doesn’t share a lot of common ground with either Gang Gang Dance or Growing… Just because I own leather boots does not mean I want a hamburger. But if I give the hamburger a try and don’t like it, my waiter will remind me that I ordered a hamburger not leather boots. Admittedly, that’s not the cow’s fault”. Quite. Those loveable Pitchfork lads in their odd little ivory tower, bless ’em.

Nonetheless, I.U.D. led me to Gang Gang’s label mates, Growing, and to the album ‘All The Way’. Following a back catalogue peppered by nearly two dozen releases – most self-released, many on cassette – this is a clear and timely example of experimental music as its most considered. Pulse and rhythm is key, run through hands-on effects pedals and Ebow boxes rather than laptops, and there’s a central aesthetic current that’s carried through each of the half dozen tracks. There’s not a great deal of variety here, but searching for change would be missing the point. It’s an album continuously built on layers and loops, flowing from ambience and drone on ‘Wrong Wide’ to thudding Fuck Buttons-esque reversed loops on ‘Rave Pie Only’.

Over at The Social Registry label site, it’s worth spending some of your meandering web hours getting to know stable buddies such as Psychic Ills and Sian Alice Group. Hit the ‘Free Music’ page for The Recap & Leaked Tapes, offering two compilations of album cuts and rarities.

Growing – Green Flag | m4a

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