{"id":28690,"date":"2013-04-02T20:52:04","date_gmt":"2013-04-03T01:52:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=28690"},"modified":"2014-02-08T08:35:12","modified_gmt":"2014-02-08T13:35:12","slug":"gno-crass-palace-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2013\/gno-crass-palace-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Gn\u00f4 | Crass Palace<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Alissa Ordabai<\/span>
\n– Senior Columnist —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Gno\"French guitar guru Christophe Godin continues on his cultural deconstruction mission with the trademark mixture of virtuosity and kooky humor. Most know Godin as the leader of the now legendary outfit M\u00f6rglbl \u2013 the most original, if not the best, French rock band to emerge in the Nineties. But this time Godin is leading a different, although an equally far-out crew \u2013 a trio called Gn\u00f4. The main premise Godin remains, however, the same \u2013 to mix and shake up as many disparate popular music styles as possible to make your head spin and your reason buckle.<\/p>\n

Only this time the juxtapositions of punk and jazz, metal and pop, electronica and prog-rock sound even more outrageous and brazen than before. On standout \u201cToy Boy No More\u201d the band manages to go through punk, pop, and metal with such fierce disregard for decorum, conventions, or respect for the settled ways in which those styles resonate with an ordinary music fan, it drives you beyond confusion and into spasms of nervous laughter.<\/p>\n

Add to this the colossal riffs a la Dimebag Darrell and Godin\u2019s virtuosic guitar leads which sound both learned and ballsy, and the end result becomes cognitive dissonance of epic proportions. Some would say it\u2019s ruthless of Godin to place Beatles-esque melodies and Pantera-style riffs right next to each other, but his main purpose remains to see what happens with such wild contrasts. Exhilarating, constantly developing, and completely unpredictable is how this record asserts itself from the word go.<\/p>\n

But it isn\u2019t all cerebral fun or experimentation. Subtler tracks such as \u201cModern Day Jesus\u201d with its NIN-meet-Alan-Parsons vibe, or the self-ironically sentimental \u201cFly Free\u201d show how Godin can use his knack for writing a perfect melody to test not only the outside world, but things within his own private realm. His fundamental formula may stay unchanged, but here he delivers some of his sharpest songwritng to date. What certainly helped is the fact that this is an album of actual songs, not instrumentals, with all band members taking turns with the mic duties. <\/p>\n

Not simply pastiche and post-modernist games with culture, Godin\u2019s approach points finger at the atomized state of rock \u2013 overflowing with historical references and allusions, and at the same time with a chaotic sense of direction. Song titles such as \u201cAbracadavra\u201d become a perfect commentary on how popular music sees its own reflection in a fractured mirror where dozens of fragments remain irreconcilable and incomprehensible to each other. The final impression is akin to seeing a jazz scholar having an altercation with a punk \u2013 fascinating, grotesque, and hilarious at the same time, just like intended by Godin and his accomplices. <\/p>\n

Genre: rock, hard rock, jazz, pop, electronica, heavy metal, punk, alternative<\/p>\n

Personnel:
\nChristophe Godin \u2013 guitar, vocals
\nGaby Vegh \u2013 bass, vocals
\nPeter Puke \u2013 drums, vocals<\/p>\n

Track Listing:
\n1. Fate is My Name
\n2. Momentum
\n3. The Scavenger
\n4. Modern Day Jesus
\n5. The Doll
\n6. All Life Has Left
\n7. Don\u2019t Waster Your Time
\n8. Toy Boy No More
\n9. Punish Yourself
\n10. Abracadavra
\n11. Tooth and Nail
\n12. Fly Free<\/p>\n

Label: Send The Wood Music<\/p>\n

Online: www.christophegodin.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven rating: 9\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Alissa Ordabai – Senior Columnist — French guitar guru Christophe Godin continues on his cultural deconstruction mission with the trademark mixture of virtuosity and kooky humor. Most know Godin as the leader of the […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8704],"tags":[336,5527,1103,2491,6134,4955,3233,334,2387],"class_list":{"0":"post-28690","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-arcrvws2013","7":"tag-cd","8":"tag-gno","9":"tag-hard-rock","10":"tag-heavy-metal","11":"tag-jazz","12":"tag-pop","13":"tag-punk","14":"tag-review","15":"tag-rock"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28690\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}