Discovery of the Week: GoldFFinch

Dark, exotic, mysterious, alluring and above all genre bending. This is what makes any techno great yet the music must also fulfil its ultimate purpose. It must make us move and it must make us dance. It must provide an abundance of groove to keep those feet moving into the early hours of the morning when all other limbs have vacated the murky underground basement. GoldFFinch it seems have managed to perfect this formula, as such great techno ensues.

Swathes of windswept ambience are met with 90’s gospel-esque vocal lines (Black Pyramid). Quirky, schizophrenic synth lines are laid bare alongside minimal, yet driving beats (Diatomic). The whole affair is exultant but sparse like rising smoke spiralling, climbing towards the heavens.

GoldFFinch’s sound transports the listeners through the three classic waves of electronic music – Berlin, Detroit and Chicago. There could be fears that their music in this sense is merely derivative, uninspired and lacking excitement due to its reliance on the past as a source for the present. Some may agree. No doubt, modern dance music has a nostalgia problem.

Dance music lacks the revolutionary and evolutionary power it did in 80’s Detroit, but then again no band has really brought anything new to the guitar since Radiohead in the 90’s, why should we expect anything different on the decks? GoldFFinch have an eclectic palette on show for all to see but there is no pretentiousness about the music they offer.

The Belgian duo are in debt to the masters but they recreate these sounds with such joyous passion and immersive expansiveness that the music stands up to if not exceeds that of its earlier forefathers. They recreate and refashion the techno of old for a new, modern dance-floor, with admittedly one foot in the past but one significant step into the future, able to conjure up the new spirit of our current age.

Their defining and evolutionary sound is one of contradiction – the techno is sparse, but the rhythms are alive, placed in lush harmony with visceral vocals breaking into a mind numbing, pounding pulse. It all makes for a largely unsettling affair, as GoldFFinch attempt to go darker and more hypnotic than previously thought possible, making them in the world of techno – a terrifically, exciting prospect.