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| Tuesday, September 15th, 2015

 

WIIT New Music Review. G‘eist' by Gang Signs

Soren Spicknall
TECHNEWS WRITER

I have a creeping feeling that the
term “chillwave” will lose all specific meaning
within the next five years. As acts like Small
Black and Toro Y Moi continue to gain in
stature and blend the line between low-key
electronica and synthpop, critics will continue
to misappropriate labels that have been lovingly
crafted by individual communities to suit their
sound. The chillwave genre label has already
been used by the music press to describe groups
as disparate as Sylvan 8: E550 and Tame Impala,
both of which take a more maximalist approach
to music creation than the artists who shaped
the scene. For now, though, chillwave mostly
maintains its integrity as a subgenre, a word
characterizing tunes put out by electronic-
leaning artists who prefer to keep their hooks
subtle and rely on taut, understated vocals for
melody.

Enter Vancouver—based Peter Ricq,
who makes up one half of the experimental
electropop duo HUMANS and has recently
gone solo under the new moniker Gang Signs.
The accomplished producer and his original
group are a hot commodity in Vancouver right
now, and Gang Signs’ first full—length album,
“Geist,” is ready to stake out a name for Ricq as
an individual. That’s not to say that he’s going
it alone, though, with Matea Sarenac providing
much-needed female vocal harmonies and
Adam Fink bringing his drumming skills to the
LP, which drops on October 9th on Vancouver’s
own File Under: Music record label. While it
may not be quite as accessible or upbeat as the
tunes put out over the years by HUMANS, the
tracks on this LP form a cohesive work that
reflect’s Ricq’s capacity to expertly layer beats
and harmonic elements while straddling the
line between club songs and café music.

In general, Gang Signs’ signature

sound could be said to have the dark,
atmospheric compositional tone of The xx, the
danceable, surf-influenced rhythmic foundation
of l!!, and the vocal stylings of early Twin
Shadow or The National’s Matt Berninger. On
songs like “Antidote” and “LA on Monday” (a

 

easily memorable or catchy. In context, that’s a
net positive for the album, since adding a few
major keys and giving in to the urge to break
out into a chorus could potentially ruin the
intelligent, measured production style that Gang
Signs showcases at this point in their career. The

 

 

SIGNS

reworked version of a track from the project’s
2012 debut EP), Ricq's preference for restraint
comes into play, with synth lines drum patterns
that rise steadily, threatening to break into a full
chorus, but don’t quite get there. “Geist” is an
album built on patterns, but not those which are

Image courtesy ofgangxsigns.bandcamp.com

album works best as passive listening, letting
the sweeping ebbs and flows of Ricq’s craft
wash over you. That’s what makes it chillwave,
resisting the temptation to use atmosphere as a
blunt instrument.

While Peter Ricq’s compositional

and production skills are unquestionably well
developed, that’s not to say that “Geist” is
without its flaws. At times it seems that the sonic
palette being drawn from is rather small, with
certain basslines and verse structures seemingly
resurfacing throughout. Mid-album tracks
“Back Up” and “So Long” are rather forgettable,
and when taken as a whole, the album seems
like it could benefit from some expansion of
ideas to avoid tracks blending too heavily.
Additionally, while Sarenac’s guest vocals lend
a wonderful element to Gang Signs as a whole,
Ricq’s own baritone is at times uninspiring,
and some of the most memorable songs of the
release, such as “Tonight,” give Sarenac the lead
part for good reason. One might wonder how
this project will progress if she is not intended
as a permanent member of the group, since the
removal of the female vocal part would only
lend further monotony to each song. Perhaps
an acknowledgement of this possibility comes
in the release’s penultimate song, “Heist,”
during which Ricq raises his voice an octave
above its usual comfortable tones, adding some
excitement to a track that might otherwise be
unmemorable.

Finally, though “Geist” is a great
indicator of the current state of the chillwave
genre, it doesn’t do anything particularly novel
or exiting with its premise. While comparisons
to other artists are all perfectly acceptable for
the sake of introducing an act, it shouldn’t be
so easy to describe Gang Signs as a specific
combination of three different groups. “Geist”
itself has nothing inherently wrong with it, but
if no boundaries are pushed on Gang Signs’
next release, they may fade from relevance
as quicker innovators ready their own take
on the expanding realm of “electro-"prefixed
independent music. 6.4/10

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