I Put A Record On

An innovator in Berlin since well before the Wall fell – do a google if you want to know more – Gut’s tracks are built out of hypnotic loops, and layered up with samples, found sounds and instrumentation, gently shifting, pulsing and moving, working their way into the subconscious. You can hear the hypnotic thud of the likes of Villalobos at the root of it, but she is absolutely not just a minimal copyist – this is, variously, a warm, dark, gentle and intriguing debut (some 25 years after she first started making music). Opener (and former single on Jay Ahern’s Earsugar Beatbox label) ‘Move Me’ marries a tango rhythm with polka instrumentation, a healthy dose of glitchy reverb and Gut’s enticing vocal; ‘Cry Easy’ is a downright sexy paean to an unknown, the gently bumping rhythm and too-and-fro-ing stabs recalling you know what; the woozy string samples make ‘The Land’ sound like a drunken minimal Charleston number while Smog cover ‘Rock Bottom Riser’ is fantastically discordant, thanks to the abstract choir. And that’s only the half of it. Investigate.