Gloves

Get It Together

A tight 37 minutes of “anti-garage,” Get It Together does exactly that for enigmatic outfit Gloves. The locals’ sub-genre shifts through multiple, syncopated veins, while never quite settling into any one of them, be it Ghanaian highlife, Parliament-era funk, juke-joint R&B, or riff-driven rock. Influences touch, as water and oil, preferring to stay violently unmixed. “Hot Checks” begins the album-long trend of irregularity, falsely leading you down one road, and then aurally disorienting you into another direction. Body mover “Bobbi & Whitney” forcefully shoves the big pop hook into your ears, while monomaniacal funk single “Black Dress” flips an initially straightforward affair to something more George Clinton. The dissociative “Autobus” features lead vocalist Ajit D’Brass’ best vocal performance, soaring over swirling reverb and juxtaposed against a grounded, soulful bassline and beat. Closing on mountain highs, the back end runs with increased mania, the vocals coloring both “Hy-Top” and “Winter Storm Cleon” with percussive lyric drops. This overt insistence on nonconformance continues to the point of frustration – the best kind possible. Get It Together challenges and refuses labeling at every turn.

****

This article appears in April 3 • 2015.

A note to readers: Bold and uncensored, The Austin Chronicle has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands.

SUPPORT US

Kahron Spearman is a journalist and writer with bylines including The Austin Chronicle, Austin Monthly, Consequence of Sound, Texas Highways, and the London-based journal The Break-Down. He currently serves as Senior Editor at Atmosphere TV.