Gang Of Four.

okay, wait

what

If what I've been able to deduce is correct, from this page:

http://www.gamelan.org/directories/directoryjapan.html

Here's some backstory:

Name of Ensemble: Sekar Melati
Instruments: Javanese
Repertoire: Traditional, originally composed
Contact: Ms. Hitomi Ozeki
5-12-2 Kaminakaya-cho, Kakamigahara City
Gifu Prefecture 504-0926
email: ✧.✧.hit✧✧✧.o-1✧✧✧@a✧✧.o✧✧.n✧.j✧
Web site:
Narrative:
The group representative Hitomi Ozeki studied Gamelan in Jakarta and then founded Sekar Melati in Gifu prefecture in June 2000. Currently this community-based group has 8 members. It has been introducing Javanese traditional music as well as its original compositions to this region at museums, schools, art galleries and various other locations. Mr. Hiroshi Ietaka (Marga Sari, Osaka) also gives instruction regularly.

That is the coolest thing ever.

Have already sent this video to a bunch of people. Gamelan Gof4 is pretty terrific. I wonder what the rest of the set was?

Un-freakin-believable. The woman on the far left is really grooving to it!

I mean, really... I want to hear what King/Gill/Allen/Burnham think!

Damn, they should open for them on their next tour!

Allen retweeted it so he knows about it, at least!

This is sick

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUSw_2jkDjM&feature=youtu.be

So skinny, such baggy clothes

Holy cow. One my larger life regrets, never seeing them live in either original or reunion modes.

Was about to say, I'm so glad I saw the original line-up reunion.

OK, apparently the line-up is now Andy Gill and a rhythm section? Gang Of One!

haha wait misread - there's a new lead singer

Is this a band whose rediscovery in the oughts has already been forgotten? I can't put my finger on it, maybe it's our sped-up recycling.

Okay, the Andy Gill plus some other dudes GO4 will be here in March. I've never seen them. Do I go?

Nah.

I don't know if I can dismiss it that easily. Now I'm listening to some 2013 youtubes as I type, and they sound really good even though they're 75% a tribute band. His guitar playing is so huge to me, I don't know how I've never seen them after all these years.

I don't know how much the rerecordings on Return the Gift reflect Andy Gill's live sound these days, but I'll say it: most of the songs benefit from modern sonics.

I mean, I'm digging this!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CFWGE-dT24

There's just no way I could do that. The above screen grab alone says it all.

When in doubt, finagle a spot on the guest list! I'm in, totally realizing this is NOT Gang of Four but approaching in the same way I would a chance to finally see, say, Wilko Johnson and some Gen Y kids touring as "Dr. Feelgood."

Well, considering I last saw the band in its full reunited glory, I'm not sure what would be gained from this exercise. I mean, I know I can go, for free, but what's the point? The songs are great, and they're great when I'm sitting on the couch at home.

When in doubt, finagle a spot on the guest list! I'm in, totally realizing this is NOT Gang of Four but approaching in the same way I would a chance to finally see, say, Wilko Johnson and some Gen Y kids touring as "Dr. Feelgood."

― Deliciously hard yet very accessible (Dan Peterson), Thursday, November 20, 2014 10:07 AM (24 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ha, the current lineup of "Dr. Feelgood" has NO original members, despite the fact that three of the original four are still alive.

No idea there *is* a current Feelgoods lineup, that's amazing!

So, apparently they have a new single?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ4dW6KKrao

Has there been any discussion about this elsewhere?

This is Andy Gill and some scrubs. Not Gang of Four.

Still seems weird that its "Gang of Four" with only one original member Andy Gill

http://www.gigwise.com/news/97485/new-gang-of-four-track-features-alison-mosshartThe What Happens Next full tracklisting is below:

1. Where The Nightingale Sings
2. Broken Talk (feat. Alison Mosshart)
3. Isle of Dogs
4. England’s In My Bones (feat. Alison Mosshart)
5. Dying Rays (feat. Herbert Grönemeyer) English version
6. Obey The Ghost Of The Colony
7. First World Citizen
8. Stranded
9. Graven Image (feat. Robbie Furze)
10. Dead Souls (feat. Hotei)
11. Dying Rays (feat. Herbert Grönemeyer) German version

I didn't know that. Andy is arguably the most important member of GoF but yes, it feels wrong to cash in on his former band name instead of creating a new project of his own, which this is.

It made sense that apart from the guitar this didn't sound anything like GoF.

The Viet Cong album released this month sounds more like Gang of Four than Gang of Four:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUHCyhE-s9M

Andy is arguably the most important member of GoF

Go4 was Andy Gill, Jon King and some scrubs from 1983-2004, 2004-2012.

Though I think Gang of One is a perfectly cool band name.

"Bass/No Tremble" sounds like a Jon King line.

Sara Lee = No Scrub

I don't know how much the rerecordings on Return the Gift reflect Andy Gill's live sound these days, but I'll say it: most of the songs benefit from modern sonics.

― TTAGGGTTAGGG (Sanpaku), Wednesday, November 19, 2014 10:46 AM (5 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I kinda love most of those rerecordings.

The return the gift versions of songs of the free cuts crush the originals IMO

Admittedly I may have heard the gift versions first but OMG that "we live as we dream alone" is so good

seeing the "new" gang of four is a really weird experience

the riffs still sound good but it's hard to shake the feeling that i'm just seeing some random band covering GoF songs

Because you more or less are?

RIP Andy Gill...

Andy Gill. pic.twitter.com/DHNCz5lAe6

— GANG OF FOUR (@gangof4official) February 1, 2020

: (

RIP

Aw. I was always bummed he kept the band going as the only member, and was further bummed by that recent interview where he threw all his old bandmates under the bus and took credit for every single element of Go4. But that band was incredible. I got to see the original lineup at Coachella, back when festivals inspired such things.

Lovely post from his wife, and I've seen numerous posts from others who said he was a charming and engaging fellow.

This pain is the price of extraordinary joy, almost three decades with the best man in the world. https://t.co/otsiVqxK36

— Catherine Mayer (@catherine_mayer) February 1, 2020

But yeah, that split between him and the rest, that was fierce. I saw Jon and Hugo -- with Dave in the audience -- do a presentation at PopCon the other year which was great and also left it clear exactly *why* Andy wasn't in the room. People are tangled, relationships just as much if not more so.

rip

They wowed me and my then fellow age 20 pals when we first saw them in DC in 81 (I had somehow missed an earlier appearance with the Buzzcocks). What an innovative and powerful guitar sound at the time. Pretty sure Guy of Fugazi was listening to those records. Alas others were as well. It's funny seeing on twitter those quotes from Anthony Keidis'memoir how Andy Gill got irritated with the Red Hot Chili Peppers when he produced them in 1984. Gill became their enemy because he didn't like their sound.

over and over:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRjjVFC-oG4

I saw them in 1982 at an outdoor show and "To Hell with Poverty" at stunning volume in the shadows of oaks and high-rise dormitories was a high point of my undergraduate education

My brother has just texted me, "Respiratory illness after touring Asia". I think I'd hold fire on that one.

Gill's performance on "Natural's Not in It" has never lost its power to enthral me. He remains almost unique in the electric guitarist fraternity in his preference for solid-state amplifiers, which provided him with the clean, trebly attack that was his calling card. RIP.

RIP

A statement from Jon King, Hugo Burnham, Dave Allen – Gang of Four. pic.twitter.com/9fRqDT12CH

— Gang Of Four 77-81 (@gangoffour77_81) February 1, 2020