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LP
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TOUCH 006LP
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2016 release. Gross Net present their debut album Quantitative Easing through Touch Sensitive Records. Initially a guitar/bass/drum-machine duo of Philip Quinn (Girls Names) and Christian Donaghey (Autumns), Gross Net was conceived as an output for ideas alternative to their other groups. After the release of their first cassette EP on Art For Blind Records and Donaghey's subsequent departure to concentrate fully on Autumns, Quinn took up the Gross Net mantle solo. Released via his own Austerity Drive Records imprint earlier this year came Outstanding Debt, a collection of re-commissioned tracks from aborted releases. Beautiful boys, ghosts, exorcisms, resurrections, sex, mental disorder, the boredom that comes with being "dole-scum"; Gross Net now singularly stalks the lineage of electronic body music. Utilizing analog synthesizers, sequencers, virtual studio technology, a slew of effects, voice, and some electric guitar, Gross Net channels everything from Throbbing Gristle's "Tesco Disco", to the fear and futurism of the European cold wave, through amyl-nitrate powered strobe-lit dancefloors and empty, decaying industrial halls. Quinn on the release: "I'm keen to leave mistakes in, or what people may perceive as mistakes. I also try to do things in as few takes as possible, not only for the sake of my own interest but to bring some human aspect back in amongst all the electronics. You're hearing performances, moments in time recorded, not something that's been pieced together from numerous attempts. . . . I want to do something different. I see so much homogeneity in music and in general these days that I want to stand apart, show that there's another way or at least hold a mirror up to what's going on. . . . I'm also keen to use themes which reflect the times we're living in, certainly the darkest days I've seen in my lifetime. Sometimes I feel like I'm just constantly wading through a cultural and political cesspit." Pairing dark and brutal rhythms with existential and world-weary themes, Gross Net is the sound of the post-Brexit dystopia of now, the antidote to the endless whitewash of indie groups in their matching Topshop outfits, and a riposte to the messianic false prophets pontificating a financial ruse as a grand truth.
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