Listen: "Tree Drum (Gobby Remix)" -
Listen: "Tree Drum (Total Freedom Debt Stalking
Version)" -
Read: The Fader interviews Gatekeeper -
This Friday, Gatekeeper + Thunder Horse will transform
Public Assembly into a fully immersive listening environment for Exo.
Serving as the world premiere for Tabor Robak's first-person gaming environment
which accompanies the album, Robak will be live-playing the game on a massive
80" plasma screen, along with Gatekeeper's first live performance
featuring much of the music on Exo. Additionally, the walls and
ceiling of the venue will be lined with audio-reactive, custom designed
lighting FX rigs by Thunder Horse, wholly transporting the audience to the
world which Exo activates.
Also featuring live performances by James Ferraro, the NYC
premiere of Yen Tech, and DJs Total Freedom, Arca and Special-Guest.
Record release show - http://www.facebook.com/events/310046279087731/
About Gatekeeper:
Pineal activation. IMAX phantasy. Drippy acid ecosystems.
HD....everything. All contribute to the sentient environment that is Exo, Gatekeeper's
debut LP dropping on LA-based label Hippos In Tanks. Demented and celebratory,
sinister but pure-hearted, Exo is a cerebral spectacle, a
gapless playback rush of digitally-enhanced stimulation.
Gatekeeper's 2010 EP Giza demonstrated the
duo's acumen for pop horror, contouring both the sinister and camp of bygone
synthesizer-driven soundtracks. The EP was accompanied by a video for each of
the six tracks on the album, rendered in brilliant 3D by their visual
comrades-in-arms Thunderhorse Video. Brought together by a common passion for
underbelly culture, Gatekeeper linked with Hippos In Tanks later that year to
release the Giza videos on VHS. Both the album and videos
received critical support for their intelligent and humorous take on the
bizarre pairing of John Carpenter myopia with industrial discotheque.
Exo takes the exotic, outlandish after-hours of Giza to
an entirely higher setting. The lust and rust ofGiza have
evaporated in the blinding light of universal mind, leaving behind the silvery,
glowing ecosystem of Exo in its wake. Here Hollywood FX meld
with twisting 303 basslines, angelic choirs with metallic synths, cut-up chants
with cryptic chords -- all fused together by a tight blend of IDM, acid and
big-beat inspired techno rhythms. The album is meant to be listened to as a
whole - the tracks blend seamlessly to create a continuous environment with a
consistent, deep-breathing feel. Imagine angelic dewdrops in a deep forest
clearing; diving off a cascading, crystalline waterfall to an instant river.
Staying true to their EBM roots, Exo is
also an expert surgery: in which Gatekeeper has taken a scalpel to
big-American-dance inundation, and revealed a throbbing and insistent heart
with HD exotica at its core. This is not a surprise to those who have witnessed
Aaron David Ross as producer and performer in contemporary boy-band HDBoyz,
whose debut performance at MoMA PS1 in 2011 featured stunningly rendered
visuals, choreographed dance moves and generously-sized illegal fireworks
courtesy of Thunderhorse. Or further to that, Matthew Arkell's imaginative
production style and work as a gallerist and curator in New York City,
specializing in contemporary, experimental, often internet-oriented artwork.
Both Aaron and Matthew are pre-occupied with what it means to engage in a
high-definition society.
Sharing an apartment in New York, Aaron and Matthew approach
Gatekeeper not as a band or a production duo, but as an immersive audiovisual
experience. To that end, Exo will be complemented by a
first-person gaming environment designed by Tabor Robak, in which one explores
various worlds inspired by the tracks on the album. To exist in an immersive
interactive simulation is truly befitting of the album's simultaneously organic
and synthetic nature.
Exo will be available worldwide July 17th, 2012
on Hippos In Tanks.
-- written by Norman Clay
TOUR DATES
07-27 Brooklyn, NY - Public Assembly ^
08-10 San Francisco, CA - DNA Lounge #
08-11 Los Angeles, CA - Los Globos *
08-12 San Diego, CA - The Casbah *
08-17 Vancouver, British Columbia - Waldorf Hotel @
08-18 Portland, OR - Mississippi Studios *
08/24/12 - NYC - Rock off Cruise !
08/31/12 - Minneapolis - 7St Entry %
09/01/12- Chicago - Lincoln Hall %
^ with James Ferraro, Total Freedom, Arca
* with Thunder Horse FX, Teengirl Fantasy
# with Thunder Horse FX, Teengirl Fantasy, Nguzunguzu
@ with Thunder Horse FX, Teengirl Fantasy, James
Ferraro
! with Teengirl Fantasy, Lemonade
% with Teengirl Fantasy
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