Drum and Gaze you say? Well there’s a first time for everything I suppose and that time is now apparently with the self titled debut release from 100%WET! So what the hell is Drum and Gaze, well it’s shoegaze (think Slowdive for your old school, BDRMM for your moderns) meets Drum n Bass (I can’t give you an example of this because I think it’s rubbish).
In a nutshell, this is a largely experimental record from Jakob Birch and Casper Munns, known in Scandinavia for innovative and boundary-pushing production, who are flexing their creative muscles to put out their own original tracks with the help of vocal talent from across Europe.
It’s a genre-bending collection of songs with each track offering a new twist in a way that is always captivating and accessible. Lost Myself throws you in headfirst with distorted soundscapes, club worthy beats and dreampop vocals before Ether pushes the boundaries further into Electronica, this time with the assist from Danish vocalist Eir.
Looking In From The Outside encapsulates the record, a mish-mash of instrumentals, indie tinges, yet with the onus on danceability, it’s perfect summer listening and something of a throwback to the chill out sounds of old, think Groove Armada if your memory can stretch that far back.
Re-Emerging is music you can get lost in, ethereal, transcendent, saddled with enough drum kick to keep up the theme of amalgamation between the two stand out themes. It’s typical of the efforts of 100%WET and the experiment largely works because most of the tracks are damn catchy and they’ve selected their vocalists wisely, keeping things light and pop adjacent.
Over Me has the emphasis on the D&B side of things from the outset but then morphs into an epic of everything Wet are trying to do, a mash up of rock and roll, dance, pop, you can’t question their ambition and with Danis artist Polly on vocal duties, it’s the album standout.
So what’s the verdict? It’s chaotic and at times overwhelming as there is that much thrown at the wall in terms of ideas and boundaries not being pushed but set on fire. At its best, it’s cathartic and pretentious in the right way, and is respectful of its wall of sound influences, will ‘Hypergaze’ be the next Nu Rave? Time will tell.
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