Gentle Stranger - Upon Return (2022) [Hi-Res]

Staging an attempt to gloss their music, Gentle Stranger say it recalls “throwing a bouncy ball into a hall of mirrors”. It’s telling that normal routes of describing music - your typical band boilerplate of “such and such meets such and such” or “we just play guitar, us, and leave the writing up to you” - doesn’t suffice for the London collective; instead a more arcane, more potent image is fired back, a wonky and poetic idea that’s instantly more arresting, more substantial.

For the newly-initiated, Gentle Stranger are a self-described “post-clown” outfit that oscillate between musical forms, achieving a bewildering, almost Joycean experimental sweep; pastiche, parody, burlesque, earnest composition, genre interrogation and progression - they cover it all. Their renowned live performances see the trio cycle through an arsenal of musical instruments, apparatus, tackle, and stuff. The set (part of the reason for their now cult-like following) hangs together intricately, a fractal clockwork machine that relies on movement and spatial-awareness as much as it does timing and musicality.

Tracklist:
1.01 - Gentle Stranger - Life Without Natural Snow (1:53)
1.02 - Gentle Stranger - Order Up (1:21)
1.03 - Gentle Stranger - Dunce Disco (2:20)
1.04 - Gentle Stranger - Spider (1:41)
1.05 - Gentle Stranger - Since The Plough / Kinclaven Brig / Morpeth Rant (2:33)
1.06 - Gentle Stranger - Flutterby (0:18)
1.07 - Gentle Stranger - Butterfly (1:24)
1.08 - Gentle Stranger - Do You Wanna Go (6:59)
1.09 - Gentle Stranger - Two to Carry Two (1:12)
1.10 - Gentle Stranger - Insects Dressed as Birds Have Learnt Not to Dwell on Their Achievements (0:04)
1.11 - Gentle Stranger - Post Clown (0:22)
1.12 - Gentle Stranger - Where Did My Dunce Disco Go? (Dead!) (0:12)
1.13 - Gentle Stranger - Dragonfly (2:23)
1.14 - Gentle Stranger - N.I.L (2:17)
1.15 - Gentle Stranger - Lime Leaf (0:39)
1.16 - Gentle Stranger - In the Name of Love (3:12)
1.17 - Gentle Stranger - Crow (2:41)
1.18 - Gentle Stranger - Since the Hares (2:33)
1.19 - Gentle Stranger - Imagine Roses (4:43)
1.20 - Gentle Stranger - Last Row Sown (2:35)