We’ve known and loved ĠENN for years, including having them on LOUD WOMEN Fest stages, so it’s especially lovely to hear them back and sounding this expansive, strange and completely assured.
‘Jaguar Sun’ is six minutes of slow-burn atmosphere, groove and existential wondering, with Arab Strap’s Aidan Moffat dropping into the middle of it, as vocalist Leona Farrugia describes:
“almost like a god coming from the heavens.”
The song circles around freedom, free will and that unnerving feeling that you might be watching your own life happen from a slight distance. Cheerful little subjects, then. But ĠENN never let all that philosophy turn into homework. Leona’s voice moves from near-whisper to soaring, while the band stretch the song out around her with that instinctive, slightly psychedelic groove they do so well.
Moffat comes at the same questions from Einstein’s block universe theory: if past, present and future all exist, are we actually choosing anything at all? He recorded his part on a laptop in an empty room while the new Arab Strap album was being mixed next door, which is pleasingly low-key for something that sounds this ominous.
The title comes from Italo Calvino’s unfinished Under the Jaguar Sun, and the band also point towards The Unbearable Lightness of Being, La Chimera and Low’s Double Negative. That sounds like an intimidating reading list, but ‘Jaguar Sun’ itself is anything but inaccessible. It’s thoughtful, sensual and properly absorbing.
‘Jaguar Sun’ is out now via Rock Action Records, with ĠENN heading out across Europe and the UK this autumn.
Find ĠENN on Website | ‘Jaguar Sun’