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Jazz Articles about GoGo Penguin
About GoGo Penguin
Instrument: Band / ensemble / orchestra
GoGo Penguin: Necessary Fictions
by Geno Thackara
What exactly is the entity known as GoGo Penguin? After several recordings developing a niche they call “acoustic electronica"--an amorphous recipe of rock-and techno-oriented hooks played on jazz instruments in real time--one might have thought we had the answer to that question with the eponymous GoGo Penguin (Blue Note, 2020). Like many self-titled albums, it made a clear statement of identity with a defining sound. Then again, it was soon followed by a companion remix album (Blue Note, 2021) of ...
Continue ReadingNew music from Bob Holz, Evan Marien, Go Go Penguin and Jaak Sooaar
by Len Davis
Featuring new releases from Bob Holz, Wojtek Pillichoiwski, Evan Marien, Dana Hawkins, Go Go Penguin and Jaak Sooaar. Plus music from Italian guitarist Rugerro Robin, Wasafiri and Japanese band Casiopea.Playlist Bob Holz “World Turned Upside Down" from Holz-Stathis Collaborative (MVD) 00:00 Wojtek Pilichowski “Vihoora" from Conjunction (Self Produced) 06:16 Evan Marien-Dana Hawkins “Water On The Brain" from Live-2023 (EMAR)12:21 Go Go Penguin “Everything Is Going To Be OK Everything Is Going To Be OK (XXIM Records) 18:31 Jaak ...
Continue ReadingGoGo Penguin: Everything Is Going to Be OK
by Geno Thackara
There is clearly something different about GoGo Penguin on their sixth full-length: where they've previously had a pattern of evocative titles and vaguely futuristic abstract covers, this one (at first glance) looks and reads almost like a greeting card. This also comes after one-third of the trio changed with 2022's interim EP, Between Two Waves (Sony/XXIM). Underneath the wrapping, though, it's recognizably the same evolving not-jazz-not-techno mix that they've made into their own niche, even when taking time to touch ...
Continue ReadingGoGo Penguin: GGP/RMX
by Geno Thackara
It was really just a matter of time. With the spirit of techno and trance being such an essential part of GoGo Penguin's musical makeup, the seeds of a remix project have been there all along; they often compose their songs with beat programs before deciding how to arrange them for an acoustic trio, and adding little sonic tweaks to their instruments is just as much a part of the process afterwards. It's perfectly apt that a range of clever ...
Continue ReadingGeno Thackara's Best Releases of 2020
by Geno Thackara
However strange the year has gotten, the urge to create clearly hasn't lessened at all--either that or the circumstances have left us more appreciative of art where we find it. Most likely it's some of both. Whatever the case may be, 2020 has still seen no shortage of musical treats good for the soul. Jazzrausch Bigband Beethoven's Breakdown ACT Music Jazzrausch pulls off something wonderful here, adapting revered material with house-shaking ...
Continue ReadingGoGo Penguin: GoGo Penguin
by Geno Thackara
Calling GoGo Penguin a jazz group is sort of like calling Canada a big snowy place. Nobody would consider such a simple term adequate to describe the trio today, least of all the members themselves--bassist Nick Blacka explains that with album number five, GGP has “finally come to accept that we really just aren't a jazz band ... That has been really liberating and freeing for all of us." If anything, it's surprising that these three might have ever felt ...
Continue ReadingGoGo Penguin: Ocean in a Drop
by Geno Thackara
While William Blake saw the world in a grain of sand, and the poet Rumi wrote that each person is not a drop in an ocean but rather the opposite, GoGo Penguin's ever-expanding sonic world hints at similar multitudes yet to be experienced. It rarely sounds like “just" piano, bass and drums in these hands, and the scope of Ocean in a Drop doesn't feel limited by the brevity of its EP length. They hit the ground running and pack ...
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