GoGo Penguin Move Forward with a Fresh Vibe » PopMatters

British instrumental trio GoGo Penguin move forward with a fresh vibe on Necessary Fictions and a big American fall tour on tap. The Manchester-based trio have gained increasing acclaim over the past decade with their unique blend of jazzy chops and electronic dance textures. Now they’re dabbling in eclectic vocal tracks too, as they expand their sonic landscape. The follow-up to 2023’s Everything Is Going to Be Okay finds the group with a new drummer in Jon Scott (formerly with Ethiopian jazz funk legend Mulatu Astatke’s band) and a new outlook on life, all of which makes for a vibrant collection of tunes.

The previous record was billed as an attempt to generate catharsis from both personal challenges as well as society’s larger struggles in the early 2020s, reflected in song titles like the title track and “You’re Stronger Than You Think”. The new album finds the trio feeling revitalized for a spiritual rebirth of sorts.

“Necessary Fictions is about us attempting to speak honestly about who we are as human beings, musicians, and as a band. The title is about us striving to be as open and authentic as we can be and shedding the protective mask that we develop in early life. Each person must find a way to operate in a complex world. To us, this album is about us looking at who we are and what we think are our integral, authentic qualities at this moment in time, as we move forward into the future,” says bassist Nick Blacka in a press release.

The opener “Umbra” comes out of the gate with an energetic bass line, before Chris Illingworth’s keys and Scott’s percussion layer on top and then take off. The way the trio build their sonic layers throughout reveals genuine tone scientists at work, taking their time to distill a specific tonal alchemy rather than just cutting loose. They’re also using a broader sonic palette on Necessary Fictions, including modular synths, Moog Grandmother, and more electric bass in the mix.

The first single, “What We Are and What We Are Meant to Be”, is billed as the spiritual thesis of the album, with a theme of the inner journey to self-discovery. The track starts with a gentle intro, as if the trio were playing in a Zen garden temple. Then the drums come in to add another kinetic element, yet the bass and keyboards still leave plenty of space to generate a sense of sonic comfort. The beat picks up in the fourth minute, giving a taste of what a dynamic tune it might become in the live setting as the bass and keys stretch out a little more.

“It’s really simple, really melodic,” Blacka explains of the track in press for the LP. “It’s not showboating, like ‘Hey, look at all the chops we’ve got, and how great we are!’ There’s not even any improvisation in it. Bass-wise, it’s just got a bass synth like a dance track. There’s still a part of me that’s like, ‘What are people going to think?’ Then there’s another part that just thinks, ‘Fuck it, they can think what they want! This is what we want to make right now, and it feels authentic.’”  

“Fallowfield Loops” features some similar energy, except the trio jump right in as Illingworth leads the way with rippling piano over a tight beat. There are sonic vibes that bring jamtronica stalwarts STS9 to mind, with the dynamic interplay between the keys and the rhythm section to generate upbeat, danceable grooves.

The album also features GoGo Penguin’s first-ever song with vocals, “Forgive the Damages”, with British-Ugandan singer-songwriter Daudi Matsiko (who has previously toured with the trio as an opening act). The song starts out seeming like a piano ballad, but builds behind Matsiko’s voice to generate a grander sonic landscape.

“We’ve often thought about working with other musicians, particularly vocalists, but it had to feel right and not forced. We’ve been friends with Daudi Matsiko for a long while now, and over the years, we’ve talked about writing something together. Originally, we weren’t thinking of having vocals on this track. We had the chords and the melodic idea, but we were thinking of using field recordings, samples, or perhaps even some spoken word.

“One weekend, around the time we were working on this track, Daudi randomly phoned as he’d flown into Manchester from a gig in Slovakia. I went to pick him up from the airport, and we sat in my garden and drank some beers. This is when I explained some of the overall concepts behind the album, and he went away and wrote some lyrics,” Blacka explains.

“He completely understood where we were coming from with this album. Everything clicked into place; it didn’t feel forced, and it definitely felt right. We tweaked a few things together, and we asked for a ‘soaring vocal line’ at the end of the track, and Daudi recorded the harmonised line that sings ‘forgive the damages’ near the end of the song, which is when we really felt we had something special.”

“Luminous Giants” and “State of Flux” feature violinist Rakhi Singh and the Manchester Collective, with a melancholy yet bright string part adding to the former track before Illingworth’s piano comes to the fore. The violin circles back in later to generate more sonic grandeur. “State of Flux” comes out of the gate with more energy, as Blacka and Scott lay down a compelling groove. The piano starts more sparse with the active bassline, but then Illingworth lays down some swirling runs. Blacka has a short bass solo, before the swirling piano runs come back as the trio gels. The strings reappear, too, making this one of the album’s most dynamic tracks.

“The Turn Within” is another highlight, featuring bright melodic piano over an uplifting mid-tempo groove with a warm, comforting bass line. There’s a trippy interlude in the bridge section, where Scott’s drumming is featured before the trio syncs back in. “Living Bricks in Dead Mortar” is another showcase for Scott, as the bass and keys are very subtle around his crisp beats on a track that builds energy in cinematic fashion. “Naga Ghost” also builds into a tight jam where the keys, bass, and drums all seem to solo at once, yet with an alchemy that comes together and moves toward a big climax.

“Silence Speaks” closes the record with atmospheric melodies growing into a vibrant track where the drums feel like one of the melodies, while the keys and bass take on a percussive element. GoGo Penguin are skilled at blending their tonalities in such a way that it generates anticipation to see how these tunes might take off in the live setting.