On their sixth release with Rocket Recordings, Gnoomes have crossed a threshold, literally. Founders Sasha and Masha Piankov have recently left their homeland of Perm, Russia, settling down in a remote countryside of Slovenia. “The life of an immigrant is a strange thing,” says Sasha, “but luckily, that glow music brings us has never faded.” This glow, radiating through the bodies of the couple on the album’s cover, shines brightly on Losey, a techno-infused post-krautrock whirlwind that questions the modern notions of identity, nationalism, and freedom.
Gnoomes’ previous releases have generally existed in the more traditional spaces of psych- and krautrock that those like Neu!, Can, and Kraftwerk helped to popularize. Gradually, especially with their two previous LPs Ax Ox and Mu!, they have begun introducing more innovative, electronic elements to their mechanistic approach. Losey goes a step beyond this, completely immersing itself in apocalyptic synths, dark drum patterns, and distorted vocals. Take “Repeat Repent” and “Satan’s Ball”, perhaps the most un-Gnoomes-like of the bunch. Pushed from the foreground is the cold, calculable assembly line of hypnotic rhythms, supplanted by an apprehensive, static-charged atmosphere of cyber gulags. Think less of Charlie Chaplin getting dragged through a factory machine and more of a warped HAL 9000 wasting away in a whirring data center.
Still though, Losey exhibits the mesmerizing prowess Gnoomes has so often accomplished. Lead singles “Foreign Agent” and “Losey” both start off simple enough with waves of synth and a driving beat to draw you in. Sasha and Masha’s vocals are balanced perfectly as the tracks expand, both ultimately exploding into a crackling frenzy of what sounds like a mix between your favorite Beach House and Merzbow records.
Aside from these novel approaches, Losey is laced with themes of isolation and identity. In a post-pandemic, war-torn world, many have looked towards isolation as a coping mechanism, and some say, in doing so, this has created an epidemic of loneliness. For Gnoomes, however, their exodus was not simply a coping mechanism, but rather a “nervous system decision”, says Sasha. “Living in the countryside, partially in isolation, gave us space to be ourselves. It helped reduce the constant background anxiety we’d carried for most of our lives.”
It is easy nowadays to feel like a foreign agent even within one’s own country. Here in the United States, it seems increasingly evident that people are slowly detaching from their nationalistic pride. Even the “U. S. A.” chants for the USMNT during the World Cup seemed forced and flimsy, and that was some of the most bipartisan, nationalistic fervor I have seen in some years. I think this exemplifies the modern notion that your country does not define who you are. But how, then, are you supposed to know where you belong? Do we even need this source of allegiance to some geographical location?
For Gnoomes, the answer I would guess is an empathic no; their escape to the hinterland allowed for a revitalized expression of the self. “I crossed the line, but I have no sorrow / I’m pretty excited to be a foreign agent” are some of the first words we hear from Sasha on Losey. As they bask in the anonymity of the Slovenian woods, Gnoomes finally feel they can create the music they have always wanted to create. On the closer “Crangonyx”, a small insect-like sea creature, Masha’s vocals float through a ocean of reflective quietude. “In this sea of many fears, there’s no wrong or right decisions”, she concludes. In the end, the message is simple: Move to the countryside with the one you love. Make music you like to listen to. Be a crustacean.
