GROSS NET
Ex-Girls Names guitarist shares new song ‘Gentrification’
New album Gross Net Means Gross Net coming 30th August, via Felte
Gross Net – the experimental electronic project from ex-Girls Names guitarist Philip Quinn – has reemerged with ‘Gentrification‘, the first single from new album Gross Net Means Gross Net, due out 30th August, via Felte. Pre-order the album here.
Philip was inspired to write ‘Gentrification’ after seeing construction works on a familiar street in Berlin whilst on tour: “Even though it was an area I’d be pretty familiar with from previous visits I couldn’t remember what used to be there,” he recalls. “I thought how in certain places I couldn’t really reminisce about old times anymore as they’d changed, been built upon or whatever. The emotional experience was locked out in a sense by the physical. I thought that from a mental, personal perspective that could be positive on an emotional level, to have the old ripped out to be replaced with something new.“
The track is the first one written for Gross Net Means Gross Net, and Philip says it is “undoubtedly the most poppy Gross Net track, and probably the poppiest it’ll ever get. In a sense it kinda gentrified the sound of the project, and acted like a clean state to make the departure from the previous record I was hoping for.“
Founded in 2014, Gross Net is the project of Belfast-based artist Philip Quinn, guitarist of the now defunct Girls Names. A departure from the techno-driven sound of 2015’s Quantitative Easing, Gross Net Means Gross Net bridges dark electronics, avant garde experimentation, and black humor.The album title is based on outgoing British Prime Minister Theresa May’s vague remark that “Brexit Means Brexit”. Gross Net Means Gross Net mimics this – the album is whatever Quinn sanctions the project to be. Shaken by the political upheavals in the US and UK in 2016, the refugee crisis, and the consequences of present-day capitalism, Quinn mined internal feelings of mental anguish and slowly pieced the album together starting with acoustic guitar sketches that would evolve into the carefully crafted compositions that comprise Gross Net Means Gross Net.
“In terms of the lyrical themes of the record, I drew inspiration from the old adage of “write what you know,”” Philip explained of the album. “So I mined my feelings and where possible I tried to fit them in with other things going on in the world; political turmoil especially in the USA/UK, refugees crossing the Mediterranean sea for Europe from the Middle East and Africa, and the effects of capitalism. I never like to write too much about myself but there was a lot that seeped in this time. In the year or so since I finished the record, I went through a period of almost not wanting to release it. Like, I didn’t recognise the person that wrote it anymore, that it seemed too painful and I should just close a door on this chapter and move on to do something else, maybe I wasn’t in my right mind while making it and I wasn’t good enough then or something. I think, however, that it holds some value as a milestone along the way, and that I can listen back and think of what a fucked up time that was.”Throughout the album, melodies of rapture and unease duel, creating a dizzying anxiety similar to the minimal electronic doom of Coil and Bish Bosch-era Scott Walker. The ethereal “Gentrification” alludes to the orchestral ambience of Popol Vuh, eventually entering unexpected pop territory with the arrival of a palpitating beat and Quinn’s delicate croon. “Of Late Capitalism” demonstrates Quinn’s range of instrumentation with combat-ready percussion and ominous textures wielded from both synths and guitars. The equally gorgeous and unsettling “Dust to Dust,” with its melancholic beauty, builds to a dramatic conclusion that marks the album’s cinematic climax. Conceived in the void of personal isolation and societal darkness, Gross Net Means Gross Net is an eerily intimate affair that captivates with its originality. You can preorder it here.
| Live Friday 5th July – Ulster Sports Club, Belfast |
Tracklist
Light Introduction (for Will)
World of Confusion
Shedding Skin
Theresa May
Gentrification
Of Late Capitalism
Dust to Dust
Damascene Conversion
The Indignity of Labour
Social Nationalists
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