Name: Most Normal
Brand: Gilla Band

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

RT-0358-LP

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Colour

Black

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Format Music US

Limited edition

Release date

2022-10-07

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier US

Beggars Group

Tax rate US

Sales:8.875

UPC / Barcode

191402035810

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Total Cap

1 / Extended format: No / LP / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No / black

RT-0358-CD

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191402035827

{"blocks": [{"data": {"text": "191402035827"}, "type": "paragraph"}]}

1 / CD / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

Artist

Gilla Band

Genre US

Rock-Pop

Label US

Rough Trade

Ian Gillan formed the Gilla Band in December 1975, inspired by his appearance at The Butterfly Ball And The Grasshopper's Feast. Originally called Shand Grenade, they changed their name to The Ian Gillan Band for commercial reasons. The original line-up included Ian Gillan on vocals, Ray Fenwick on guitar, John Gustafson on bass, Mark Nauseef on drums, and Mike Moran on keyboards.

In February 1976, Mike Moran left the band and was replaced by Mickey Lee Soule, who was later replaced by Colin Towns in May of that year. This line-up remained for the next two years. However, in June 1978, Ian disbanded the band as he wanted to produce a much harder sound. He and Towns went on to form [a374018] in July 1978.

For their first album as Gilla Band, (formerly Girl Band) the foursome has redrawn their own paradigm. Most Normal is like little you’ve heard before, a kaleidoscopic spectrum of noise put in service of broken pop songs, FX-strafed Avant-punk rollercoaster rides and passages of futurist dancefloor nihilism.

Covid lockdown robbed Gilla Band of any opportunity to try the new material out live, but the pandemic also incinerated any idea of a deadline for the new album. They were free to tinker at leisure, to rewrite and restructure and reinvent tracks they’d cut – to, as drummer Adam Faulkner puts it, “pull things apart and be like, ‘Let’s try this. We could try out every wild idea.”

The group also fell under the spell of modern hip-hop, “where there’s really heavy-handed production and they’re messing with the track the whole time,” says Fox. “That felt like a fun route to go down, it was a definite influence.”

Most Normal opens with an absolute industrial-noise banger that sounds like a manic house-party throbbing through the walls of the next room as a downed jetliner brings death from above. What follows is unpredictable, leading the listener through a sonic house of mirrors, where the unexpected awaits around every corner. The common thread holding Most Normal’s ambitious Avantpop shapes together is frontman Dara Kiely. Throughout, he’s an antic, antagonistic presence, barking wild, hilarious, unsettling spiels, babbling about smearing fish with lubricant or dressing up in bin-liners or having to wear hand-me-down boot-cut jeans (“It was a big, shameful thing, growing up, not being able to afford the look I wanted and having to wear all my brother’s old clothes”, says Kiely).

Most Normal, then, is a triumph, the bold work of a group who’ve taken the time to evolve their ideas, to deconstruct and reconstruct their music and rebuild it into something new, something challenging and infinitely rewarding. It’s a headphone masterpiece. It’s a majestic exploration of the infinite possibilities of noise. It’s a bold riposte to your parochial beliefs on whatever a pop song can or should be. It’s the best work these musicians have put to (mangled) tape.

Most Normal

Music US

Buy Gilla Band - Most Normal (Vinyl, CD) now from Rough Trade - independent purveyors of great music, since 1976.