GNOD • www.instagram.com/ingnodwetrust

Since their inception, Gnod’s musical trajectory has been one of constant fluctuation borne out of an incessant need to discover new sonic worlds. Beginning life as a shamanic drone ensemble, at times fitting up to 15 members on stage, these early rituals informed the core ideals that have come to define the group in their years of activity; community and trance-inducing repetition. Throughout a discography that has amassed dozens of CD-R’s, cassettes and vinyls for labels like Rocket Recordings, Trensmat, Krokodilo (Blackest Ever Black) and their own Tesla Tapes imprint, a restless yet organic need mutate their music into new realms has had critics clawing for comparative touch stones. Acts as far ranging as Hawkwind, Popul Vuh, Pan Sonic, Sunburned Hand of the Man and Pharaoh Sanders have all been referenced in attempt to pinpoint their output, one that has historically never aped any genre but with each record furthered their own unique place in truly independent music. It is the exact same dedication to the live arena that has seen Gnod become one of the most celebrated live bands in the UK and secured them multiple tours and festival appearances throughout Europe. In these times of cash in hand ‘glory days’ reunions and bands simply rehashing their recorded material pitch perfect live, Gnod are a stark and welcome anomaly. Already moving on from the barley released and universally acclaimed epic ‘Infinity Machines’, the current live incarnation of the band is characterised by a crushing, cataclysmic new protest music whose call to arms gravitas offers a meaningful defiance to Cameron’s Austerity Britain. Gnod have taken their very namesake and charged it with bludgeoning new edge that is as euphoric as it is nihilistic. It is one that stridently attests to the group’s spiritual center, one of community that is inclusive and respectful of its audience yet will never placate to their expectations. Instead, Gnod offer a gateway to an aural black hole and along with firm guiding hand, the opportunity to dive head and body first into a powerfully new psychedelic maelstrom full of possibilities.

VANISHING • www.instagram.com/vanishinguk

Vanishing is the unique creative project of lyricist and arranger Gareth Smith. Featuring multi-instrumentalist Karl D’Silva and a shifting set of studio and live collaborators on strings and electronics, Vanishing have been playing live in the last two years in support of 2024’s Shelter Of The Opaque (State 51 Records). 

Taking in electronic, jazz, modern classical and ambient influences, Vanishing creates sound pieces that one is supposed to fall into. Each piece is guided by a vocal trail that tries to express a moment, without beginning or end. A moment to slip into, observe and then leave again; a painting in a gallery, a section of film exposition.

On Shelter of the Opaque - ‘more skeletal, more ambitious and more affecting than previous work… Today the musical backing – which is as much informed by cold wave electronics, free jazz, Japanese ambient and discrete minimalism as it is by DIY noise – serves to aid Smith’s lyrics, not to obscure them’ - John Doran

‘a record that confronts the darkness and melancholy of quotidian realities, capturing an oblique perspective that feels vital, expressive, and defiant. There’s the sense, at times, of the skies opening up and the light pouring in too, transcendence found through sonorous prose and lustrous composition’ - Ransom Note
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Presented by Gravy Train.
GT events • www.gravytrainbristol.co.uk
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