Get Back Guinozzi! - Carpet Madness

Album Review by Duncan Forgan | 30 Sep 2009
Album title: Carpet Madness
Artist: Get Back Guinozzi!
Label: Fatcat
Release date: 26 Oct

The relationship between the French and the English has not always been smooth, but this debut album by the joyously unhinged Get Back Guinozzi! is an engaging example of cross-channel détente. The London-based band harvest a host of fashionable new wave influences, but the distinctive tones of Toulon-born singer Eglantine Gouzy adds an alien ingredient that steers proceedings away from predictability. Gouzy’s vocal style channels the stridency of Yoko Ono with the impenetrability of The Cocteau Twins’ Liz Frazer, while the ramshackle lo-fi backdrop is resolutely amateurish. Yet when they click, GBG are as effective a pick-me-up as a chink of sunshine on a grimy day. Opener Where Are You starts slowly before emerging into glorious technicolor at its soaring chorus, while a sprightly cover of Junior Murvin’s Police and Thieves wears its Slits clothing proudly. Best of all is the title track – an irresistible African-influenced rave-up seemingly designed to prolong the summer for as long as it can.



http://www.myspace.com/getbackguinozzi