- We're used to Guillaume Coutu-Dumont twisting everything from jazz drum battles to Hindu spiritual music into house tracks. But his latest offering for his long-time home Circus Company largely forgoes the magpie habits in favour of rolling loops. Both "Keys For Hanuman" and "Winning All Battles (But Still Losing The War)" swap the mildly manic air of GDC's sample-heavy creations for something more restrained. The former especially is nothing more than a four-note piano riff over scratchy percussion, and it evokes a meditative air best-suited to a post-party cool off.
"Winning All Battles" starts as softly as the A-side finishes, but over its nine minutes morphs into a Dyed Soundorom-style groover led by hi-hats that chatter like warring sparrows. GDC says it's designed for a "stuffy, obscure, low-ceiling groove box," and its hard to think of anywhere more appropriate to get lost in its undulating bass. Compared to these more hypnotic moments, highlight "A Single String" is vintage GCD. Riddled with bongos, call-and-response percussion and oddly disembodied vocals, it's a sunlit terrace jam that gives way to a wobbling bassline that wouldn't sound out of place in a Slam set. This is weirdo dance music at its best.
TracklistA1 A Single String
A2 Keys For Hanuman
B1 Winning All Battles (But Still Losing The War)