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As the night draws in and the sand castles are fading away with the tides threatening presence becoming ever closer, it’s time for something a little different. The arrival of Gompa is quite extraordinary and they probably have the weirdest background ever. These guys are from everywhere. Jake is the lead singer from Scarborough and then the rest just confuses bystanders. One from Denmark, the other from Sweden, one born in Switzerland, let’s just say their music represents their geographical diversity.
They are unbelievably catchy and even with one member not turning up, put on a mind-bending display. Their music flirts between grunge, pop and metal which clearly represents their influences from Nirvana to the Beach Boys and why not throw Jeff Buckley in there too. On the evidence of current single ‘Planet Blue’, ‘Jack Knife’ and ‘Tranquil Mind’ they have a knack of mixing strong melodies with catchy hooks and a grunge edge.
Alex Jackson - North Yorkshire Post - The North Yorkshire Post
'Gompa' by Gompa (Album Review)
Gompa are an unsigned band based in Sweden who were founded when Englishman Jake Daniel and Swiss Maik Pehrsson met and realised they had three things in common: music, interest in esoteric philosophy (a gompa is a Tibetan meditation hut) and life as alien abductees.
These are pretty mixed up people and they create some pretty mixed up music. They describe their sound as 'The Beatles with 5 extra members from Slipknot' and 'Soundgarden cloned with Weezer, twisted with Muse and drowned in absinthe'. This is a strange album. It is also a really good one.
If there is a dominant style it is thrashing guitar-based rock, but even that is diluted by two tracks 'Planet Blue' and 'Nephi Crucified' that are pure jangly pop-rock. Typically for this album the subject matter of these tracks bring them into the strange category. 'Planet Blue' talks about how screwed up humans have made the Earth and is a despairing invite for alien invasion, 'Nephi Crucified' talks about the futility of any structured belief and has references to Mormonism & Buddhism. The pop theme is continued on the track 'Crush', which in lyrical content and even delivery would not seem out of place if released by a boy band. Thankfully the actual track has the throbbing riffage of the rest of the album and ends up being a great rock song.
On an album like this there are no typical tracks, but the two tracks that sum up the overall feel of the album are 'Jack Knife' and 'Tranquil Mind'. They both sound like the verses were recorded by Korn and the choruses were recorded by The Beach Boys. As bizarre as this sounds the tracks are a consistent whole and are enjoyable hard rock tracks. The constant switching of styles sometimes has a downside. The one true ballad on the album 'Friday Hit A Low' is not really successful, but this is a minor complaint on an album that is otherwise excellent.
The stand out track is 'Popsong'. It is a searing indictment of the current state of the music industry, which promotes manufactured pop over real music. The lyrics are perfect and the structure of the song is genius too. It starts out as an ironic homage to the very music it is rebelling against. The opening 3/4 of the song is a perfect slice of punk-pop, which could easily have been produced by Good Charlotte and has the fantastically biting chorus "'Cos this shit sells / It's such a hooky tune / It rings your bells / It's nothing new / It's nothing true". The final 1/4 consists of the repeated, despairing refrain 'Next... Can you play me another?' before a final cathartic 'Motherfucking next!' that sets off a Slipknot style thrash down. This song is at once melodious, humorous and deeply angry, a triumphant anthem that every Girls Aloud and Linkin Park fan should hear.
If you like putting labels on music then this is not the album for you. It's too pop for the thrash fans and too thrash for the pop fans. If however you just like good music then this is well worth the effort.
The album is available from www.cdbaby.com/cd/gompa
By Colin Gazeley - Ourobouros Podcast - Ourobouros Podcast Noize makes Enemies
Discography
SINGLES:
'Planet Blue' Radio single only. Streaming on various sites.
'JackKnife' Radio single only. Streaming on various sites.
EPs:
'Gompa- D.I.Y.' Demo EP, private sales. 2004
'The Washing Machine EP' Current 5 track EP. Private
sales.
LPs:
'Gompa: Editiøn Speziale' Released through cdbaby.
Several tracks available for
download purchase, all songs available to hear on various websites.
Photos
Bio
There is NOONE like Gompa! Of course this is true of all bands, but....
Gompa: A tibetan word for meditation room. Four completely insane guys, highly strung somewhere between the worlds of tender singer-songwriting and thrash metalling; Lots of catchy melodies, lots of screaming, lots of rhythm, lots of 7-string riffs, lots of dharma, lots of strange hooded dress styles. 8 feet in 5 different countries... Check this out!
Gompa was formed by the two lead vocalists, Jake Daniel (Scarborough England) and Maik Pehrsson (Zurich,Switzerland) in London 2001. Both met not through music, but through their mutual interest in the esoteric philosophy of the East- Buddhism, Hinduism, etc. ...
The two brought together a wide and eclectic variety of musical styles and influences. For several years they gigged in and around London, recorded demos and went through various constellations. Then in 2004 they were abducted by aliens and dropped in Stockholm, where they were put in touch with ex-Murlyn Music producer 'Svensson' and mix-master Stefan Glaumann. Together with their dutch bass player Jeroenji Bos, they completed their album-finally- in 2006, 'Editiøn Speziale'.
Gompa's music took some time for the A&R, radio and record company folk of Sweden to digest; A band with two singers, blending influences from The Beatles and The Beach Boys with Korn and Slipknot, lots of Grunge and lots of harmonies- and yet with strong, catchy popsongs at the core. Audiences in and around Stockholm have been less difficult to convince, and Gompa have developed a strong hold in the underground scene there.
Today, Gompa have had two radio singles out. The band are currently experiencing an overwhelming amount of feedback and fanmail due to their current single 'JackKnife', which continues to be played on P3 Rock/Rockster and a myriad student radiostations as well. Millions of young swedish girls in short skirts clammer at the car windows when Gompa drive by. Two members have recently even been hospitalized by hoarding crowds of fans.
The band have just finalised their own company and continue to promote their music on the interactive network. Gigs continue, but sadly two booked festival gigs (one at this years G! Festival in the Faroe Islands and one at this years Rock Am Ring in Germany) had to be cancelled due to conflicting plans this fine summer.
Gompa are in the process of swindeling for themselves a good booking-deal, with which they hope to play more gigs. Currently, the meditative psychobiatches are already in the process of piecing together their next album, which, rumour has it, will be darker, more 'artistically unified' and heavier, softer, louder, sweeter, nastier and cooler and hotter than the first; of course.
It has been hard to break into the radio or TV, their music being, apparently, too diverse to pigeonhole. However within the last two years, Gompa have been shown interest from Universal Records, EMI, Roadrunner Records and Bonniers Amigo; Both Universal and Bonniers even offered the band some loose deals which the G-boyz turned down. Gompa are now looking into licensing deals for their album.
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