First Listen: Gagarin – Aoticp

You might, like us, be rather fond of a good old adventure – just like the ones that the Famous 5 used to do, though we're a fair bit more partial to a cat than that Timmy that was yapping at their heels all the time. We love a good maze. Actually, anywhere we can get lost that takes us away from the monotony of the city and into a world where anything is possible. You'll find just such an escape (Oh, so you WERE going somewhere with this! – Ed.) in this album filled with top quality sounds from Gagarin, the solo project from Graham “Dids” Dowdall of Pere Ubu. Before you indulge yourself in this cracking LP, here are some words from the curator to settle your mind;

"The recording of Aoticp took place, as usual in my home studio in South London which looks out onto the mainline into Clapham Junction through my lovely wildlife garden. So the two constant competing strands in my psyche are always present when I'm working. Due to my hectic work life composing took place over quite a few months but to ensure some cohesion I always mix and revisit the tracks in a concentrated period. My natural approach is for pretty composed and structured pieces even though they often result from improvisations but this time there are a few tracks like Ammil where I tried to be less compositional and just let a simple groove flow – Wandle , on the other hand is heavily structured and shows the other end of my approach I guess."

AOTICP is out now via GEO Records.