Almost none of us are strangers to the weird and wonderful musical stylings of Brian Graupner from The Gothsicles. The first and 'last' band to play Resistanz. After Brian's incredible performance during 'Karkasaurus invites' we are even more desperate for the Resistanz reunion to happen.
He has said that Gasoline Invertebrate is the 'other side of the coin' of EBM and this being the third release under that name, I dare say he has made this dark side of the coin just as polished and worthy.
Interview:
Q. Now that you’re making the darker side of EBM, who are your inspirations and dare I say, industrial heroes as I can detect a God Module familiarity no doubt?
A. You’re totally on the mark with God Module. I mean, who doesn’t love God Module? In addition to some blisteringly hot tracks, Jasyn and Andrew have always been incredibly supportive of my whole thing, plus Andrew also boasts an impressive collection of Aquaman figures.
Influences on this album range from a lot of goofball eurohouse like Scooter, E-Type and Space Master to some bonkers circuit-bent noise stuff.
Seeing Suicide Commando at Dark Area Festival in Kassel, Germany in 2001 melted my brain.
Q. You crowd funded this album in a very short time is that right? Is a more aggrotech approach something fans of yours have been asking for or was Gasoline Invertebrate an impulsive decision which people decided they loved instantly?
A. This was the fifth Kickstarter in a row I’ve had get funded in under three hours and beams of pure gratitude are shooting out of my eyes like some sort of Thanksgiving Cyclops.
Absolutely no one was asking me to put down the Nintendo and suddenly start sounding like Sleetgrout did a step aerobics mixtape from the 90s, but the reception in the last few days has been astounding.
Q. Which two tracks are you most proud of and can you tell us the meaning and thought process behind them?
A. “Headschatten” comes the closest to the original mission statement of bridging eurohouse, aggrotech (or whatever) and noise, so I’ll put that at number one.
Maybe “Boston” for number two. That track was developed iteratively at my friend (and live performance partner) Deftly’s house for these open mic-ish “noise salons” he hosts (or used to before coronavirus). The track was originally named after his street address, but I figured I should shorten that to just “Boston” prior to its official release.
Check the music video for “Boston” on YouTube!
Q.
During ‘Karkasaurus invites’ you and Leighton hinted there was going to be a killer reunion song during The Gothsicles set, will that song change slightly for 2021 now and will we be treated to any Gasoline Invertebrate live in future?
A. Duuuuude, I went into overdrive at the beginning of the 2020 getting new, exclusive festival songs ready for all these big gigs we got and then they all got cancelled. So yeah, there’s definitely a new Resistanz track done and specific lengths of time are lyrically referenced therein, but I think it will be funnier if I leave it as is with all the old math.
Would loooove to do more Gasoline live! Working on the streaming show for Gas and making it a whole different thing from The Gothsicles.
Q.
Who has been your favourite industrial artist to share a stage with and who would you want to play alongside in future?
A.
Like, ever of all time? Man, I’m still a complete industrial fanboy at heart, so this is tricky. The Gothsicles have been around for 20 years and have been lucky to enough to play several gigs, tours and festivals with supersized allstar line-ups, so after a while, you really do pretty much play with an unbelievable amount of iconic people. Being asked for Contra advice from Portion Control or just quietly green room chilling with Suicide Commando a few times has been awesome. I get pretty massively pumped whenever I see we’re going to be on the same bill as Iszoloscope. Same for Assemblage 23 ‘cause then we can trade bad movie recommendations. Being hug-attacked by Leæther Strip is the best. Big Time Kill are champions. Caustic is family. Angelspit for life.
Dream stage partners for The Gothsicles...probably MC Lars, The Dead Milkmen or Pankow. For Gasoline Invertebrate, maybe Birmingham 6.
Q.
Damage over time seems to very much carry on the aquatic and computer game theme from The Gothsicles, is that an intentional link between the two?
That’s just kinda my thing.
Q.
What are you listening to most right now?
A.
The vinyl OST for the video game Life Force showed up the other day, so I’ve been listening to that a lot. Let’s see here, if I organize my Downloads folder by Last Modified, the most recent entries are the “Paper Empires” single from Unitcode:Machine, NightStop’s “Pursuer”, “drink.” from the illustrious Mari Kattman, and “Energy” from Snowbeasts. That’s a little bit of a lie because I took out all the entries from Tigersquawk Records, which is a record label that I run, because I did not want to seem biased. Please forget that I mentioned Tigersquawk Records. Absolutely no one should go to tigersquawkrecords.bandcamp.com and check out all the amazing releases therein.
Q.
Anything you’d like to say to your fans?
A.
See you at Resistanz 2021!
Thank you Brian!
Review:
The opening track is a real head-rush of styles. At first it starts as an EDM euro dance track similar to The Prodigy song 'No good (start the dance)' and then bam!.. Aggrotech vocals layered on top of this dance party.. That may be the reason the track is called 'Headschatten'.
The vocal aggrotech style throughout the album is very reminiscent of God Module, Suicide Commando, and several other classic artists. The third track Boston throws beats at you in a similar way to Electronic Substance Abuse with a yet tongue in cheek approach.
There is a real array of differences between each track as Brian clearly challenges himself to see what he is capable of producing. 'Magic, Do as you will' pulls it back a level in to the territory of old school EBM and 'Dead end Cul-de-sac' blends retrowave, arcade, and harsh modern synthetic vocals in to a bizarre yet beautiful offering.
Conclusion:
I absolutely love this album and although there are a few things that aren't quite to my taste such as 'Scarlet slip', I can still appreciate the multiple directions this album attempts to pull off and it does so very well.
If Brian pulls away a little further from the safety of The Gothsicles' tell tale sounds in (hopefully) the next instalment of this project, we could be seeing a serious future Industrial act that would be played in many an 'industrial room' or club that calls for the heavier, grittier side of EBM. This is definitely 'One to watch' and I feel that Brian should be damn proud of himself for what he has created in Gasoline Invertebrate.
Top 3 tracks:
Feast
Headschatten
Rejected organ transplant
Scores:
Technicality: 7
Dance factor: 9
Energy: 8
Vocals: 7
Re-playability: 8
Overall score: 7.8
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