TRACK PREMIERE: Gekkoh – ‘Divided Image’

TRACK PREMIERE: Gekkoh - 'Divided Image'

Divided Image is taken from the forthcoming DOT E.P. by Gekkoh. London based musician and producer Gekkoh is interested in capturing the hypnotic and sublime through adventurous and spectral explorations of sound. Following the release of his debut album Ellipse on his 3rd Frequency label in 2017, Gekkoh is releasing an E.P. of more uptempo and ambient tracks, ahead of the release of his second album later in 2020.

Divided Image is Neu’s motorik blueprint updated for the digital age – granulated guitars, glitching synths and vocoded vocals short-circuiting over a beatific A.I. horizon. Ripple provides three minutes of deep underwater rest before ending with a blissed-out 20-minute remix of Dot from his debut album, taking the listener into a warm, immersive, utopian future. Kevin Shields, Fennesz, Oval, Susumu Yokota, motorik, and minimalism are all touchpoints here, with an emphasis on creating something genuinely original.

Across the last fifteen years, Gekkoh has recorded a substantial volume of music, more than ten albums, but has only taken the step to release any of it in the past few years –

‘It was impossible to do it justice live so it stayed in the studio – but technology has caught up in the last few years and even on quite complex tracks you can be producing a lot of music live, without having to rely on other musicians or a huge backing track’.

Using a combination of electric, electronic and digital instruments Gekkoh creates these often ecstatic spaces, alternating between uptempo electronics and warm weightless drift. A multi-instrumentalist and accomplished sound engineer, the guitar is often the focal point of his compositions, but made unrecognisable through heavy processing –

‘With a bit of imagination you can do nearly as much with it as any synthesizer – with all the new digital innovations it’s a very exciting time to be experimenting with sound’. 

‘The key moment was listening to Loveless by My Bloody Valentine for the first time on my seventeenth birthday – a whole world opened up in front of me – It was fertile ground then and it still is now – the dream’s always been to do what they did – create a unique and original sound world’. – Gekkho

Listen to ‘Divided Image’ – BELOW:

His previous album Ellipse was recorded in Kiev, where he spent the summer of 2015, taking with him a suitcase of recording equipment and renting an apartment in the centre. In a country still recovering from the recent revolution, he recalls being woken by a grenade blast that claimed several lives as a riot swarmed outside. Nonetheless, it’s still a place he returns to regularly, finding inspiration in the city’s DIY music scene.

He’ll be promoting the Dot E.P. with his live show from the start of 2020. Dot E.P. IS released by 3rd Frequency Records, release date January 24th 2020

Xsnoize Author
Mark Millar is the founder of XS Noize and looks after the daily running of the website as well as hosting interviews for the weekly XS Noize Podcast. Mark's favourite album is Achtung Baby by U2.

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