Ten Things I Love About Gabi Garbutt's debut album

THE TITLE

You've got to love an artist with the guts to call their album 'The Discredited Language of Angels'. It's a wonderfully open-ended title - possibly nodding to the psychedelic visions of William Blake, apparently a big influence on Gabi, but perhaps also a comment on the current era of Corbyn-bashing spin and fake news.

THE COVER

Are you looking at me punk?!  The stare says it all!

FOOLING AROUND

The first sound you'll hear after pressing play is the turbulent swirl of a Hammond organ that wouldn't be out of place on a classic Otis Redding tune. Album opener 'The Fool'' is driven along by a big booted Northern Soul beat, a proper high octane stomper.

BRASS TACKS

The album's co-producer and the key member of Gabi's backing band the Illuminations is Sean Read. Read has performed with everyone from the Manics to the Rockinbirds, but it's his work co-ordinating the distinctive brass section of Dexys that's most immediately noticeable here. Add powerful blasts of saxophones and trumpets to the rougher-edged indie moves and you've got a unique, rich and rousing sound.

THE POP…

Although they're dispatched with a dash of punk rawness, there's no denying Gabi's keen instinct for writing catchy tunes that take up residence in your brain, Previous candidates.  Prime candidates are the string of recent singles - 'Lady Matador', ‘The Fool’ and ‘Heat of the Machine’ - but the handful of slower tracks are equally hard to shake off.

& THE POETRY

As well as Blake, she counts Lorca and Patti Smith as influential as The Clash and Ezra Furman and there’s a real, evocative poetic edge to Gabi’s lyrics that sets them apart from the usual guitar band cliches. 

THE BALLAD

Definitely the album's emotional centrepiece, 'Armed With Love' is a woozy lighters in the air moment, given a subtle sonic spruce up for the album after initially appearing as her first single a couple of years back.  Written about the power of continuing to love in the face of evil and misfortune, it connects  

HANDCLAPPING 'HEAT...'

'Heat of the Machine' makes great use of that glam rock staple, the real, live handclap. About time for a revival, we reckon.

MELLOTRON MAGIC

Another relic of another age, the eerie majesty of the Mellotron, is dusted off and re-invented here, sending shivers down to the spine of ‘Bright Tiger Eyes’.

THE ANGELIC ENDING

Our favourite track has to be the album's closer 'Ravens and Angels', a proper anthem with a touch of Madness-style soul-done-London style.  The Illuminations’ Jimi Scandal gets to really let loose with a Scandal-ously great guitar solo just before the LP ends too.

Listen to Gabi's single, Heat of The Machine:  here 

The Discredited Language of Angels is released by Music As Insurgent Art.

Text by John Robbins 
November the 16th 2019