Gorge Trio - Open Mouth O' Wisp
by Daniel Cressey
published: 12 / 6 / 2004

Label:
Skin Graft
Format: CD
intro
Abstract, but ultimately rewarding avant-garde rock from Gorge trio, which features members of Deerhoof and the Natural Dreamers
Quite an intriguing album from Gorge Trio this one. On first listen it just sounds like a bunch of people tuning up their instruments and you wonder if just they’ve just recorded the bits before and after the actual songs. But on repeat listening it shows a greater depth than you’d first expect with moments of quite delicate beauty. A purely instrumental release and the third album from the self proclaimed "self-organising future intelligence" which includes members of Deerhoof and the Natural Dreamers. There are 22 tracks here but only one of them is longer than three minutes and ten are sub-60 seconds. Like a sound track to a movie you’ll never quite understand, 'Open Mouth, O Wisp' screeches and strums along rapidly, changing direction, pace and volume just when you think you might have it figured out. Eventually the listener is just forced to sit there and accept it on its own terms which do then prove rewarding. Frustratingly however, it never quite breaks out into the full-blown songs you can’t help but feel are somewhere just below the surface.
Track Listing:-
1 A Comedy In Sun2 Memo To an Apparition
3 Plum Sign
4 Words
5 The Invisible Student
6 Intimate Addition
7 Dawn of a Piccolo
8 Roof Halves and Dewdrop Gems
9 The Lurker
10 Triangles
11 Youth Island
12 Divining a Hot Spot
13 Living With Tigers
14 The Spa Bird
15 Paris Trap
16 That Pilot Set
17 Bitter Drum
18 Masks for Quilts
19 Health Seekers
20 The Age of Almost Living
21 Open Mouth, O Wisp
22 Treasure House In Amber
most viewed articles
current edition
Carl Ewens - David Bowie 1964 to 1982 On Track: Every Album, Every SongArmory Show - Interview with Richard Jobson
Colin Blunstone - Thalia Hall, Chicago, 16/7/2025
Bathers - Photoscapes 1
Visor Fest - Valencia, Spain, 26/9/2025...27/9/2025
John McKay - Interview
Billie Eilish - O2 Arena, London, 10/7/2025
Robert Forster - Interview
Loft - Interview
Sir Tim Rice - Interview
most viewed reviews
current edition
Phew, Erika Kobayashi,, Dieter Moebius - Radium GirlsAmy Macdonald - Is This What You've Been Waiting For?
Sick Man of Europe - The Sick Man of Europe
Davey Woodward - Mumbo in the Jumbo
Cynthia Erivo - I Forgive You
Lucy Spraggan - Other Sides of the Moon
Bush - I Beat Loneliness
Alice Cooper - The Revenge of Alice Cooper
Blueboy - 2
Suzanne Vega - Flying With Angels
Pennyblackmusic Regular Contributors
Adrian Janes
Amanda J. Window
Andrew Twambley
Anthony Dhanendran
Benjamin Howarth
Cila Warncke
Daniel Cressey
Darren Aston
Dastardly
Dave Goodwin
Denzil Watson
Dominic B. Simpson
Eoghan Lyng
Fiona Hutchings
Harry Sherriff
Helen Tipping
Jamie Rowland
John Clarkson
Julie Cruickshank
Kimberly Bright
Lisa Torem
Maarten Schiethart