[200829]
The Gaslamp Killer - Heart Math - CUSS Records
1,000 limited-edition Deluxe Double 10" Gatefold Vinyl.
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After a short hiatus, The Gaslamp Killer has returned with turbulent, moody, and gorgeous symphonies on his third full-length album, Heart Math. An intense and emotional masterpiece, it reaffirms why he remains one of the best DJs and instrumental hip-hop producers of his generation. This is a work conceived and creative with every last ounce of love and pain, all of it made in turmoil and psychic unrest, with music providing the only form of solace or opportunity to find even a fleeting moment of happiness. It is as pure as catharsis gets. Heart music to survive a season in hell.
credits
released August 7, 2020

It’s audible from the first notes of the first track “Forged By Fire,” recorded in one haunting take. It’s suffused with John Carpenter synths, tempestuous violins swirling in the background, and a rich smoke-filled air of psychological torment. The vaunted multi-instrumentalist Miguel Atwood-Ferguson did the arrangement in a single night and it’s one of the most startlingly beautiful works in a career filled with them.

Step into the sinister and sad Arabic funhouse that is “One Take Jake,” where GLK is aided by the Grammy and Latin Grammy Award winning composer, Roberto Schilling. It’s like the scene in Big where the young boy slips a quarter in a machine to consult the genie. The synthesizers glow like they’re coated in neon slime. It conjures images of Arabic bazaars wreathed with mystery and intrigue. DJ Shadow if he was making the soundtrack to a psychedelic rendering of One Thousand and One Nights . “The Cat’s Meow” features an otherworldly banshee falsetto from longtime GLK collaborator Amir Yaghmai of The Voidz that sounds like a long-lost deep cut from Portishead’s Dummy.

“God Willing” finds GLK and Atwood-Ferguson creating their own version of Fantasia. Like all of his previous works, this is a journey. Here, he conjures the feeling of the pirate ship in The Goonies emerging from the cave. As with all the resonant odysseys, this one contains a sense of uplift and determination, a sense of triumph and a purging of demons.

With “Null and Void,” there is a long awaited meeting of the minds between San Diego’s legendary Drumetrics Crew and Yaghmai to create a hypnotic trance-inducing jam. It’s followed by “Hooked On Classics,” which features London’s Heliocentrics and makes sly allusions to the Hooked On Bach records of the 70s. GLK and the legendary British jazz group are releasing a full length together next year, but in the interim, this sounds like something Dilla would’ve sampled for Donuts if he had these raw materials at the time. “Hjorth” is a club banger collaboration with Mophono and Mono/Poly that would’ve packed the dancefloor and peeled the paint from the walls of Low End Theory if it still existed.

The record’s virtues extend far beyond sonic virtuosity. It’s special because of its intentionality and sense of purpose. Every song possesses a singular story and emotional tenor. “Blue Butterfly” supplies a soundtrack for anyone suffering or struggling. Buoyed by singer Kid Moxie -- a close collaborator of the composer, Angelo Badalamenti ( Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive ) -- it floats gorgeously above the turmoil and has been repeatedly rinsed by Gilles Peterson on his radio show. Co-produced by Mike Parvizi of Penthouse Penthouse, “Midnight Music” is a Middle Eastern wail that could be played at a Sephardic temple in Jerusalem or a mosque in Istanbul. While “Malcolm’s Library” is the GLK’s tribute to classic European library music.

The finale is the title track, “Heart Math.” It boasts two rhythms simultaneously intertwined between the drummer and Yaghmai, who does his solo on the yaili tambur -- bowing the instrument with a bow. All done in one take, the first take. No edits were made later. The track skips at a pace approximating the pulse of a healthy human heart. Thus, the name “Heart Math,” a namesake and narrative that underscores the deeper theme of the album.

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