Not only is Gas' Narkopop a top candidate for best microhouse album of 2017, it may also be the best drone album and the best classical album — and possibly just the best album you'll hear this year, period.
After 17 years, Wolfgang Voigt returns to his GAS moniker with a new album of unsettling and symphonic ambient music that has become deeper, richer, and more luxurious.
Voigt’s music can be hypnotic, transporting, and soothing, or it can sound like an orchestra tuning up over a throbbing headache, depending on your own tolerance for such things. But for those who appreciate the palliative pleasures of those kinds of immersive ambient textures, Voigt’s first Gas album in 17 years marks a very welcome return.
It’s refreshing in an era that loves to mythologize and package our legends to experience something as resistant to shape as GAS. Without making any grand, lofty statements, Narkopop lets its presence become felt nonetheless, mining the same fascinating textures that made the project seemingly eternal (and internal) to begin with.
Narkopop emerges as a fresh conceptualization of the same tradition, refined into an altered form while retaining the fundamental aesthetic that made Gas so groundbreaking in the first place.
Fully maintaining the trademark Gas sound while adding new dimensions, Narkopop couldn't be a more welcome return.
Whatever the differences on Narkopop, the album is remarkably true to the project's past: this is music that takes inspiration from childhood memories, bygone eras and the natural world. The results can feel like another dimension, but the album is also intensely personal.
At times, Narkopop moves surprisingly fast and the senses struggle to absorb all the nuances of sound. Other moments are more traditional mesmerizing GAS offerings. Either way, it is a complex, beautiful and terrifying experience.
We call it Voigt-Kampff for short.
There are returns that we don't expect, that worry us, that we don't understand the reason for, that we think we regret; others that we are waiting for, with more or less impatience, that we have fantasized about for a long time. The last decade was marked by these comebacks, all different. Among so many others, we've always hoped for the Avalanches' second album, we didn't dare to believe in a new My Bloody Valentine, we wouldn't have needed a new Pixies, we ... read more
what does Pop do to y’all that Narkopop doesn’t? i’m willing to bet that throughout the entirety of Narkopop, Gas builds and expands on this sound way more than he does on Pop
apparently the most polarizing ambient record of all time
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all because of melon and pitchfork
and that is silly, because really it is a very simple and sophisticated listed (IMO)
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album starts of just eerie and dark, and slowly smooths itself into transforming into a hypnotic dark forest rave (which is the most GAS thing ever) .
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great as always from GAS, but not as impressive as Koningsfrost and Pop
The soundscapes on this album are so dry. I really didn't enjoy any part of this album to any large degree, there are parts that sound nice but still they get drawn out and lose any of that intrege that was there
what does Pop do to y’all that Narkopop doesn’t? i’m willing to bet that throughout the entirety of Narkopop, Gas builds and expands on this sound way more than he does on Pop
1 | Narkopop 1 4:26 | 70 |
2 | Narkopop 2 9:44 | 40 |
3 | Narkopop 3 3:50 | 60 |
4 | Narkopop 4 3:34 | 80 |
5 | Narkopop 5 6:03 | 90 |
6 | Narkopop 6 4:43 | 70 |
7 | Narkopop 7 8:40 | 70 |
8 | Narkopop 8 6:07 | 60 |
9 | Narkopop 9 7:02 | 30 |
10 | Narkopop 10 17:09 | 70 |
#15 | / | Time Out New York |
#18 | / | Tiny Mix Tapes |
#22 | / | Gigwise |
#31 | / | Uncut |
#39 | / | Crack Magazine |
/ | AllMusic |