You could compare GusGus´s (Daníel Ágúst, Veiran and President Bongo) 6th studio album with a whale. An animal that spends most of it´s time under the surface, but when it comes up above sea-level, it usually surfaces with a magnificent speciality – much like the latest GusGus creation. Therefore, you should not glean over this work; every moment of it is laid out with painstaking and elaborate candour. 24/7 is a wet dream…

The spine of the music is original, created in the “intestines” of GusGus. “On the Job” is the working man´s phrenetic song to the unbroken animal called love. The opus “Thin Ice´” describes the bloated donkey dancing on ice. And in “Add This Song” the listener is encouraged to add that particular song to his collection.
The GusGus analogue sound environment has never been better, and Daniel Agust´s vocals take the reigns again and thus opens the group’s variability to new heights. As on previous occasions GusGus performs a song written by Jimi Tenor, the fantastic “Take me Baby” where Jimi Tenor is a guest singer. “Hateful” is a pretty family-type song that GusGus and Aaron-Carl composed together while being on different sides of the Atlantic.

GUSGUS are easily one of the most well known acts in electronic music today with over 5 million albums sold in their illustrious career. Don’t call it a comeback but their signing to KOMPAKT marks a crucial step forward for the band and dare we say their most impressive recordings to date. It also marks the return of Daníel Ágúst as a full member for the first time since the 4AD years. 24/7 is a overwhelming, multifarious, interwoven and braided musical atmosphere where the listener has to surrender to the music and adhere to the conditions that the music demands. For fifty-six minutes.

We’ve interviewed one of the producers – Veiran – to get to know more about them and the upcoming release:

Mnmland: First up, let us congratulate you for the magnificent album you’ve produced. Minimaland listened it and it sounds very good. Kompakt said it sounded like a “wet dream”… How would you describe it to our readers?

Veiran: “Well, the new album might be described as some mixture of Gusgus from the past, the doepfer modularsynth, minimal techno, oldstyle Reggie dub and live performance. But that mixture did not come intentionally. Last two albums, Attention and Forever where girlfull preparties featuring Earth as our main singer and lyric writer. When she left for other projects in late 2007 it was time to go to some new party, take swift turn that is. Daniel Ágúst, our former main singer from the nineties, had sung one track on each of these albums, Desire on Attention and Moss on Forever. We approached him to do the next album with us and he agreed. I also had updated my small Doepfer collection (www.doepfer.com) by almost purcasing all the modules thay have avaliable, and also creating one doepfer live unit that included some secred unheard tricks. With those two elements it we where destined to go deeper than on the two prior albums. After feew turns in the studio we had drafted couple of tracks but stranded on the arrangement. It was getting close to the gigs off the summer 2008, so I had no option but to add the unfinished tracks in the live set and just “figure it out” on the road. In that process I added the Boss chorus echo pedal and small kaoss pad, hence the dub style. The first gig at UAF worked great with all the tracks just brilliant. That summer we played with the tracks live at numerous gigs. In the fall it was obvious that this album had to be recorded live. This was not a studio project. We went with the live rig deep north west into Iceland, to Flateyri, and recorded the album live at Tankurinn.”

Mnmland: Are you totally satisfied with the album?

“Yes, I am satisfied with the album. It captures the vibes off gusgus as it is now and also reflects the direction i wanted to take down to dubland.”

Mnmland: What were your thoughts when recording this cd!?

“There was strict dress code in the studio and the hairdo had to be perfect. So preparing the day the focus was on looking slick. During the day we spent more time cooking than recording. The plot was to create special vibe and togetherness as the recording was basically running the liveset couple of times.”

Mnmland: So can we expect this to be something played by Gus Gus around gigs, or is it something to be appreciated with some kind of different mood?

“We have been playing all the songs on the album from the spring of 2008, and i’ll guess we’ll will play them a couple of times more until we figure out what to do on our next album after 24/7. There are not a lot of old tracks in the set. We have Lust and Moss from Forever, and that is about it, but with all these tracks thrown in the gig is almost two hours.”

Mnmland: We must confess that we follow you from the beginning and it really is a surprise to see such many changes on your productions… can you explain to our readers the main differences between your typical music ten years ago and the nowadays productions?

“Gusgus started out as a collaboration of people with totally different background in music. Me and Buckmaster where in a band called T-World that did kind of ambient driven house music. We we where mixed into the Gusgus project different people had different songs in different genres that needed to be produced as a whole for the Album later called “Polydistortion”. Buckmaster was all about loops at that time so the production was more or less loop based at that time. I think that we were even liked with triphop by some critics. The second album, “This is Normal”, was more the same but further down the pop song road. After the album the band was getting tired as people wanted to go different ways with the project. I was getting tired of this loop based pop stuff and as me, Buckmaster and President Bongo ended with the brand it was time to to something new. While in the makover we released “Gusgus vs Tworld” in 2000 that included some of the Tworlds production from 93 to 95. My love of music started with synth and drum machine driven disco, like Hi-Nrg and Italo disco. Lime and Bobby Orlando were my heros so when reinventing the Gusgus sound in 2002 that was the basics and drum loops were banned. Earth was the new singer and Attention was the album. “Forever” in 2006 was then further down that path but now changes are on the agenda once again.”

Mnmland: Which album/event do you consider to be your biggest achievement up to date?

“24/7″ “is the best album so far but “Forever” will always be close to my heart. All albums contain great tracks though. Purple, Believe, Starlovers, David, Call of the wild, Don’t hide what you feel, Hold you, Need in me and Moss to name a few. As the live set is really fluent all gigs have there charm. Few gigs stand out though. Köln in 1999 at the Palladium and the live set at Viva same year i thing stand out from the past. Melt in 2006 and 2008, the gigs and Benicassim 2001 and 2008 and many more from the first makeover and from the new setup many have been great, Pragh at Roxy for example and last weekend in Köln.”

Mnmland: It’s hard to talk about great influences to some guys that have been producing for 15 years but do you have them? Who are/were they?

“Like i said, Lime, Bobby Orlando, Sylvester, Patrick Cowley and then Soft Cell, Depeche Mode, Ultravox. From the dance scene abstract grooves and deep melodies does the trick for me independent of genres. Carl Craig and Stephan Bodzin i can name for example but many more have done great things”

Mnmland: The fact that you are a trio makes it easier to produce? What are the strongest points of each one of you?

“Me the mind, Daniel the heart and Bongo the will.”

Mnmland: After 15 years, what keeps you going? Do you still get excited when you are producing a new album?

“Making music is always exciting, especially when you don’t have a deadline and none to please but yourself.”

Mnmland: Where do you find all the inspiration? Is it the beautiful landscapes of Iceland?

“Silence, the Doepfer and love of life.”

Mnmland: How would you characterize your sets/live acts? What kind of party vibe do you usually create while spinning?

“The President takes care of the spinning, but drive the arrangements in the live set. The live set is all about luring the listener in with patience and then tearing his soul apart.”

Mnmland: Analog or Digital Technology?

“I have once used softsynth in a track. My Doepfer did not like that. I stick to analog.”

Minimaland: Analog it is! The electronic scene has been in a huge development over the last few years, therefore more demanding in terms of music know-how and software/hardware! How do you stand yourself in this process? How have you been adapting?

“I cant say that i have adapted. Got my Juno 2 in 1986 and it was my only polyphonic synth on all the prior albums. It is responsible for the strings in Purple, Anthem and Call of The wild, Organ in Ladyshave, Piano in Call of the wild and Moss, and synth in Need in Me and David to name some examples. I got my Juno 106 few years back but i’m first using it on the new album. The Monophonic synths i all got in the years 1992 and 1993, the SH-101, CS-30 and the ARP-2600. The Doepfer i first got 1999 and that started me doing most of me drum sounds. I have been adding more Doepver modules to the rig every year. Knowing your gear and getting deep into it is the key to making music, not buying all the latest stuff and patches, that is for producers and i don’t consider me as such.”

Mnmland: Some short questions: Favorite record of all time? Favorite tracks of the moment? Favorite festival?

“Non-stop Erotic Cabaret by Soft Cell. Track at the moment is October – Invitation, Favorite festival are Melt and Benecassim.”

Mnmland: To end this, where do you see yourselves in 15 years?

“Hopefully having a relaxed time enjoying live and teaching my kids on the Doepfer.”

Mnmland: Thanks Veiran for the Interview, we wish you all the best for this and further albums.

———24/7———
Artist: Gus Gus
Release Date: 14.09.2009
Label: Kompakt
Catalog: Kompakt CD #073

- – - Tracklist – - – -
01. Thin Ice
02. Hateful
03. On the job
04. Take me baby (feat. Jimi Tenor)
05. Bremen Cowboy
06. Add this song

buy it here