NEW MUSIC: Gustaf – Book – Doubtful Sounds

Here’s some super-impressive skronking, jerky, No Wave-indebted funk and art-punk from this quintet out of New York. Gustaf‘s debut album Audio Drag For Ego Slobs was released on October 1st through Royal Mountain Records (Wild Pink, Alvvays, Mac DeMarco).

Like Talking Heads collaborating with James Chance and ESG, the group have distilled their sound to taut and nervy rhythms with the bass leading the way. The vocals are a standout too – the solo verses, gang vocal choruses and call and response elements all add an infectious energy draped in Big Apple cool.

Of the track Gustaf’s Lydia Gammil says: “Book is a song about the fallacy and fight of getting ahead vs being a head. It is seeking validation in the wrong places and from the wrong people. The hook, “I got ahead, I got a head” is a fun little taunt that we find either being thrown in our face or coming out our mouth. Everyone gets their moment up on the pedestal and everyone gets their turn falling off of it. Whether it’s up or down, ‘Book’ is about accepting whatever level you’re on.”