#gu-ru

GU-RU's brand new E-learning refresher course …

If it's good enough for the BBC, it’s good enough for GU-RU… ahead of the scheduled Spring release of their new EP (and fingers crossed, all of us) the learned Leicester trio offer up Teach Me Acid Remix.

A ‘Keys Stage 5’ revision of their September single, trimmed down and beefed up to a bitesize banger crammer: beats and intergalactic synths cranked to the max, the original’s flute warped into a hypnotic looping hook, and the previously distant “Do it!” exhortation upfront and urgent… 

… it’s a more energetic workout than a Joe Wicks PE class that’s all E and no P, and a damn sight more fun.

Er… was it ’Big Box, Fishboard, Boxcard Little’?

… It’s been so long since people gathered (legally, at least) in a room to actually dance, actually together, that we might need an instruction manual when all this is finally over and the LEDs and lasers come on again.… GU-RU’s aptly titled Teach Me will fit the bill nicely.

In an A-B-C dancefloor primer, 80s house beats and sequencers shot through with 90s piano pulses and ornamented with 70s string textures and Moog lines, cook up an irresistible groove. an extra spicing of rainforest flute, subcontinental percussion, and Rio Carnival parade march lead via a brassy fanfare to a closing air-punching climax.

No matter how long you’ve been beached on the sofa, Teach Me’s masterclass in bangers will have you throwing eye-popping, teeth-grinding shapes like a PhD in rave in no time…

Jeeves, fetch Plunger’s body glitter and tank top …

While not a regular habitué of the rave scene, Plunger do still like ‘an bangin’ choon’ like Hey Now People (Gimme Asylum) every now and again.

The relaxed airy 70s vibe of Asylum (from Tales From The Ashram) comes bang up to date with this radical remix: it’s had a couple of disco biscuits and a Vicks rub down, plus modulated effects-laden vox, thumping programmed beats and trouser-flapping bass synth for a proper teeth-clenching eye-popping shape-throwing dancefloor workout. There’s still room for the ethereal flute in snatched samples and plenty of celestial sweeping synth (particularly in the pauses for breath), but it’s a wholly new mood and well worth a place on your playlist, m’Lud.

GU-RU turn back the clocks for some 70s glitz…

Longer nights… S.A.D. kicking in… and the long drag toward Christmas filling you with dread? There’s light at the end of the tunnel as GU-RU are set to release their latest single just in time to propel you into a new year… probably 1975 Plunger would guess.

GU-RU continue their run of bringing the stylish synth sounds of yesteryear to a new audience with Kingdom Within: Lee Spreadbury’s brassy Old Skool synth fanfare heralds a barrelling psychedelic joy ride through a Brutalist cityscape as sweaty funk collides with Hillage & Hawkwind trippiness and jazzy tinges, all on scintillating vintage tones driven by John Kenna’s burbling bass and Malcom D’Sa’s taut drums. Lush multi-layer vocals twine round Lee’s intense stoner drawl, while Naomi Perera’s flute adds eastern spice, and sophisticated changes lead to a trancey mid-break with unexpected progressions and harmonies.

Kingdom Within is released on 27th December… Plunger are already adding a full length houndstooth overcoat and a JPS Mk II Capri to our Christmas list in readiness…

Mark the darkness’ retreat with five golden things …

In a rite held since time immemorial (well, 2015) to celebrate the turn of the year, Plunger’s in-house druid sacrifices a vegan chicken kiev and looks for good auguries among its garlicky entrails…

GU-RU debut album

GU-RU have kept Plunger’s appetite whetted with various EPs over the last twelve months, showing a rare taste for stylish proggy-jazzy-inflected dance grooves so with luck there’ll be bags more of that on their first full length release.

Broadstairs Blues Bash

Probably the best ever BBB line-up: if Marcus Bonfanti, Jack Hutchinson and Northsyde weren’t enough there’s also the unholy trinity of separate appearances by Rosco Levee, Mike Ross Band, and Walrus which alone would make the trip worthwhile. And we’ve found a decent place to kip there so no scurrying for trains home. And Plunger will miss it... D’oh!

Du Bellows live album

This truly fantastic band long are overdue for a full-length outing, but there are rumours in the wind of the chance of at least perhaps a live recording maybe in the offing… possibly. Sorry we couldn’t be a bit more vague about that!

Scrambled eggs, spinach, tomato, Lusty Monk honey mustard, basil, swiss cheese on toasted wheatbread

The reason Plunger will miss BBB: while all that music goes down by the coast we’ll be stuffing our faces in an Asheville diner, getting ready for two Umphrey’s McGee shows. [Other breakfast specials are available.]

Walrus album

Break out the glo-stix, GU-RU are ready to party…

… opening with burbling sequencer and a rising tide of drums, GU-RU’s new single Flex can only be dance! But this is no 90s sample-the-last-dancefloor-hit-and-add-Richard-Nixon-to-make-it-edgy, computerised consumer product: the (now four-piece) Leicester psych-outfit bring their skills to add a human touch.

Malcolm D’Sa’s drums and John Kenna’s bass maintain the crisp tight discotastic backing, peppered with rhythmic variations to add extra layers of interest to, but never break, the irresistible groove. Over this the trademark Lee Spreadbury old Old Skool synth tones (think Greenslade-cover-Machine Gun) weave and intertwine with Naomi Perera’s crystal flute lines in a Studio 54-meets-Ministry-of-Sound dazzling glitterball-and-laser workout.

Perennial wallflowers, Plunger are more likely to be found projecting solids than throwing shapes, but even we found ourselves dusting off our cardboard box and wondering where we left our roller-skates...

Go over mono (anagram: 1 word) …

… fans of Gu-Ru and crosswords rejoice! Keyboard maestro Lee Spreadbury has been busy in the studio as well as on stage recently and the first fruits of his labours is this: Moongroove (Dr Gu-Ru Remix).

Lee has deconstructed the vintage sounds of the second track from Gu-Ru’s debut EP and rearranged the bits into a bit of a psych-hop-chill-out groove (that’s a thing, right?), splicing the jazzier The Section-style elements of the original with new spacious, airy keys passages, and give the kaleidoscope another twist to swirl them round in a trippy haze. Bringing the drums to the fore and adding extra flurries of rolls fills and splashes gives a more modern dancefloor vibe caped with a hypnotic multi-layered loop of the original’s basic piano theme to close.

As a bit of an old fart Plunger was rather fond of the original: the jerky, quirky mixing of West Coast jazzy sounds with a funky groove evoked soundtracks like Comfort And Joy or the horizontal dancing bit in Gregory’s Girl.

Sad old git nostalgia aside, this is a stylish rework that takes the song in to a whole other sonic world. Just like a good anagram makes you see words in a totally new light…

If the Plunger will not come to the GU-RU…

… the GU-RU must go to the Plunger.

Plunger were very impressed by both of GU-RU’s stunning EP releases last year [here: https://tmblr.co/Zc96bk2DTwFhO and here: https://tmblr.co/Zc96bk21Dlb3e ] but being Leicester based we reckoned Richard III had more chance seeing them live than us…

Lucky for us then that the Phantom of Soho brought GU-RU to London for a half hour of psychedelic sophistication.

GU-RU live are every bit as good as on record: from the rhythmically clever stop/start instrumental Full-Tilt-Motor-Groove through the crocheted-mini-skirt go-go soul of When I’m With You to the fast moving fusiony pursuit theme Flo, all the elements were present: killer electric piano grooves, old school Moog tracery, complex-yet-understated bass and excellent drums from John Kenna and Malcolm D’Sa, as well as the newer element of Lee’s vocals in When I’m With You, showing a Morrisonesque louche truculence.

Not ones to let the grass grow under their feet GU-RU have a new album in the pipeline, and two new tracks featured: a loose-limbed prog-jazz canter Kingdom Within with touches of Supertramp and Greenslade; and a Coliseum-meets-Donna Summer hybrid Plunger is almost sure was called Flex, metronomic dancey beats, liquid bass and meaty piano chords with a mesmeric repeated five-note sequencer-style phrase running like a hypnotic thread throughout.

That last track segued cleverly into the title track of their last EP Into The Light: Lee’s lazy, spacey vocal and floaty Fender Rhodes tones leading the crisp insistent snare driven groove, before a noodling false ending heralded a final fast and fluid drum and bass coda topped with sinuous synth lines.

Slick and stylish, full of vintage values like inventive compositions and consummate musicianship, this was the perfect antidote to all the slapdash, dull, unimaginative plodding that often passes for music in the capital.