Gyratory System – 'Utility Music' review
Calling your album Utility Music suggests loftier ambitions that just the aesthetic: this is music that should serve a specific purpose, it implies; it sets out to accomplish something. How disappointing, then, that Gyratory System’s third LP is so circular, self-consuming and simplistic as to be devoid of purpose – and not particularly likeable either.
Taking its cue from 1960s synth experimentalism (if you’re being charitable) and happy hardcore (if you’re not), “Utility Music” is a dumber, more self-satisfied Dan Deacon, lacking his excitement or human warmth and in love with its own loops. Central tracks Lackland and Thorney Island, with their textured drones and playful woodwind, hint at what Gyratory System could do with broader horizons, and Mr Portsmouth’s swooshing interlude of bass throb is quite mesmerising. But the vast majority of Utility Music is hard-going, single-tempo crud and, perhaps most damningly, useless.
3/10
