Now this is some fun with guitars and drums!
For the uninitiated …listening to Ground Patrol is like being early to a gig and watching the band sound check. Except the band is a bunch of super talented virtuoso prog-heads meandering around an idea and riffing over each other.
The songs are as intentional as they are accidental. Meaning: they record live, jam some random things and call it an EP. Sounds like a train wreck right? It’s NOT!
It’s utterly mesmerizing and fantastic! Queue interest… watch this:
To be fair, a moderate amount of time is spent tapping, clicking and generally just fucking about..and then like a sudden gear change…a melody or recurring theme rushes forward out of the nonsense and you begin to wonder if that wasn’t the whole point?
Originally touted as a loop-act, and for all intents and purposes that was probably quite an accurate pigeon hole when regarding their earlier work, this version of Ground Patrol feels to me like a much more refined act. Not only do they 100% know their craft but they actively choose to avoid showing it until it’s absolutely unavoidable.
Start with the track ‘Landslide’.
Things to look out for whilst enjoying this audio safari into the unknown:
Glorious drones, shimmer-reverb, slightly out of sync-loops, drum clicks, tuned drum heads (bet ya’ll didn’t think anyone would notice, but I noticed), fuzzy stoner riffs and an un-resolved guitar line at the end. If you’re a little OCD, avoid this like a broken pattern on a tiled floor. For the rest, it’s unreal!
6 tracks…50 minutes.. endless replay value. Study to it..or study IT? Take inspiration and try looping something yourself? Take offense at the unashamed disregard for form, composition and accuracy…and..like..go practice to a metronome to make everything better? Orrrr..just enjoy it and take a moment out of your day to just listen to some sounds.
Whichever way you respond, only good can come of it. I’m glad I live in a world at the exact same time as Ground Patrol happen to exist.
Go give your ears some enrichment!
**update** My apologies to the band for misspelling the name, article has been fixed and I am an idiot.
https://groundpatrol.bandcamp.com/album/geophone
https://www.facebook.com/groundpatrolband
https://www.facebook.com/artascatharsis/
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