Geins't Naït — GN

Originally released back in 1986 GN, was the opening sonic statement from French duo Geins't Naït. It features two around twenty-minute tracks- which shift between surreal textured beat scapes, dada oddness, weird industrial texturing, strange field recording, and sudden fleeting darts into punk rock. Here from the folks at Klanggalerie is a well-deserved CD reissue of this great example of French sonic experimentation in the mid-’80s.
 

The reissue comes presented in glossy four-panel digipak- this features garish pink and green edged sausage like art on the front, and inside black and white pictures of the two-piece- with little or no text on the package really deepening the mystery/ oddness of the whole thing. 

Geins't Naït were founded in the year 1986 in the northeastern French city of Nancy. The project brought together Thierry Merigout and Vincent Hachet, who were both students at the cites school of Architecture.  They are often lumped in with other underground industrial acts of the 1980s, but this I think that's a little unfair- as there is a very keen line of oddness and surrealism running through their work- that you really don’t’ find anywhere else- well aside from say NWW’s more set, beat bound work- though Geins't Naït do have their own distinctive flavour/ feel. Between the mid-’80s and 2011, the project put out eight full-lengths, as well as EP/ splits with the pair last putting out a collab with French multi-instrumentalist and actor Laurent Petitgand last year. Apparently, this CD is the start of a reissue of Geins't Naït release from Klanggalerie- so I look forward to hearing more of their releases down the line.

GN originally appeared as a vinyl release in 1986- it was released by no longer active French label Permis De Construire. It featured just two tracks- and this CD just features those two tracks, and it is certainly a puzzling, at points jarring and odd ride…I’m not sure if I fully understand what’s going on, but it’s certainly an eventful ride.
 

First up we have"1234567"- and this is the longer of the two tracks, coming in at the 19.41 mark. It starts off with a snippet of live punk rock, which is suddenly cut out for inside aircraft cockpit recordings- over this, we get a growing in detail beat scape- which starts with steady electro tom hits, and a pumping-yet-subdued horn bass line. As we move on warbling male choirs are added, as are strange noise layers- but just when you think what you're going to get, things switch- we first get chipmunk like vocal chants over a quirky industrial-slightly-light punked musical back. Before fairly soon slipping into a blend of snapping electro beats, low key electronic jittering and drill textures, compressed bassline- and most strange these sort of roaming sing-song robot-like chanted vocals, with the addition of creepy whispering elements here and there- talking about been spanked and liking icecream. Then just before the tracks done, we have cut out/ shift into a few other strange field recording drops, and more pairings of beats, bass, and oddness.
 
Next, we have the track “12” which runs at the 16.08 mark. Once again this opens with a burst of punk rock, but it’s even briefer- and we drop down into what sounds like field recordings of a distant machine drill, some kind of machinery droning, or maybe a closely miked recording of an industrial fridge. This is slowly but surely added to by darting electro-industrial textures, weirdly reverbed sound shifts, and drifting layers of droning and washing field recording tones. Some way into the track we get strange ranting vocals off in the distance, and touches of electro stab and dart- though these never meld into something firm, or consistent. As a track, this is a lot more building/ less darting shifting- though it still creates its own uneasy/odd air- which is lightly pockmarked with elements of the surreal and strange.
 
 
Before this reissue, I’d never heard of the Geins't Naït project, and I must say I was very much taken by what I found on GN- and I think you will be too, if you enjoy electro and industrial fair, with a distinctively odd/ surreal edge to it. To find out more and to buy direct from the wonderful guys over at Klanggalerie head here.