W.T.R.
I just simply love this album. It twists and turns and takes its influences in a seriously fun and exciting manner, without really sounding like any one else.
Can't wait for their next album.
Tylerglow
One of my fav releases of 2020! Tasty tropical/afrobeat 'n middle eastern influenced pop psych with occasional harpsichord. Very happy to own this!
Favorite track: Out of Reach.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Purchasable with gift card
£7.99GBP or more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Special edition! Trans red / yellow split colour splatter vinyl with bonus 7" featuring Maston & Traffik Island remixes of "Out Of Reach" & "Taking The Present For Granted" respectively.
Includes unlimited streaming of The True Story of Bananagun
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
ships out within 3 days
Purchasable with gift card
£25.99GBPor more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Black vinyl pressing. Free Bananagun sticker with each order whilst stocks last!
Includes unlimited streaming of The True Story of Bananagun
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
ships out within 5 days
Purchasable with gift card
£22GBPor more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Compact disc, presented in softpack sleeve with re-useable plastic outer sleeve. Carbon offset. Free Bananagun sticker with each order!
Includes unlimited streaming of The True Story of Bananagun
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
ships out within 5 days
Purchasable with gift card
£8.99GBPor more
Clear Vinyl
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Limited edition clear vinyl, 300 for the world, includes download card. Free Bananagun sticker with each order!
Includes unlimited streaming of The True Story of Bananagun
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Sold Out
Ltd Gold Vinyl
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Limited edition of 300 pressed on gold vinyl. Includes digital download code.
Includes unlimited streaming of The True Story of Bananagun
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Sold Out
Non-mint Sleeve - Black LP
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Bumped sleeve, unplayed vinyl.
Includes unlimited streaming of The True Story of Bananagun
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Hailing from Melbourne, but with a sound stretching from 60s and 70s afrobeat and exotica to Fela Kuti-esque repetition, the proto-garage rhythmic fury of The Monks and the grooves of Os Mutantes, there’s an enticing lost world exoticism to the music of Bananagun. It’s the sort of stuff that could’ve come from a dusty record crate of hidden gems; yet as the punchy, colourfully vibrant pair of singles Do Yeah and Out of Reach have proven over the past 12 months, the band are no revivalists. On debut album The True Story of Bananagun, they make a giant leap forward with their outward-looking blend of global tropicalia.
The True Story of Bananagun marks Bananagun’s first full foray into writing and recording as a complete band, having originally germinated in the bedroom ideas and demos of guitarist, vocalist and flautist Nick van Bakel. The multi-instrumentalist grew up on skate videos, absorbing the hip-hop beats that soundtracked them - taking on touchstones like Self Core label founder Mr. Dibbs and other early 90’s turntablists.
That love of the groove underpins Bananagun - even if the rhythms now traverse far beyond those fledgling influences. "We didn't want to do what everyone else was doing,” the band’s founder says. “We wanted it to be vibrant, colourful and have depth like the jungle. Like an ode to nature."
Van Bakel was joined first by cousin Jimi Gregg on drums – the pair’s shared love of the Jungle Book apparently made him a natural fit – and the rest of the group are friends first and foremost, put together as a band because of a shared emphasis on keeping things fun. Jack Crook (guitar/vocals), Charlotte Tobin (djembe/percussion) and Josh Dans (bass) complete the five-piece and between them there’s a freshness and playful spontaneity to The True Story of Bananagun, borne out of late night practice jams and hangs at producer John Lee’s Phaedra Studios.
“We were playing a lot leading up to recording so we’re all over it live”, van Bakel fondly recalls of the sessions that became more like a communal hang out, with Zoe Fox and Miles Bedford there too to add extra vocals and saxophone. “It was a good time, meeting there every night, using proper gear [rather than my bedroom setups.] It felt like everyone had a bit of a buzz going on.”
Tracks like The Master and People Talk Too Much bounce around atop hybrid percussion that fuses West African high life with Brazilian tropicalia; the likes of She Now hark to a more westernised early rhythm ‘n’ blues beat, remoulded and refreshed in the group’s own inimitable summery style. Freak Machine is perhaps the closest to those early 90’s beats, but even then the group add layers and layers of bright guitars, harmonic flower-pop vocals and other sounds to transmute the source material to an entirely new plain. Elsewhere there’s a 90 second track called Bird Up! that cut and pastes kookaburra and parrot calls as an homage to the wildlife surrounding van Bakel’s home 80 kilometres from Melbourne.
Oh, and there are hooks galore too – try and stop yourself from humming along to Out of Reach’s swooping vocal melody.
Bananagun are first and foremost a band enthused with the joy of living and The True Story of Bananagun is a ebullient listen; van Bakel - as the main songwriter - is keen not to let any lyrical themes overpower that. There’s more to this record than blissed out grooves and tripped out fuzz though: The Master is about learning to be your own master and resisting the urge to compare yourself to others; She Now addresses gender identity and extolls the importance of people being able to identify how they feel. Then there’s closing track Taking The Present For Granted, which perhaps sums up the band’s ethos on life, trying to take in the world around you and appreciating the here and now.
A keen meditator, van Bakel says of the track: “so often people are having a shit time stuck in their own existential crisis, but if you get outside you head and participate in life and appreciate how beautiful it all is you can have a better time.”
Even the band’s seemingly innocuous name has an underlying message of connectivity that matches the universality of the music. “It’s like non-violent combat! Or the guy who does a stick up, but it’s just a banana, not a gun, and he tells the authorities not to take themselves too seriously.”
The True Story of Bananagun then is perhaps a tale of finding beauty in even these most turbulent of times.
credits
released June 26, 2020
Nick Van Bakel - guitar, voice, flute, trumpet, harpsichord, percussion
Jack Crook - guitar, voice
Charlotte Tobin - percussion
Josh Dans - bass guitar
Jimi Gregg - drums
Pierce Morton - alto saxophone
Miles Bedford - tenor saxophone
Zoe Fox - voice
Songs written by Nick Van Bakel.
Recorded, mixed and mastered by John Lee at Phaedra Studios.
Photographs taken by Jamie Wdziekonski.
Layout by Jimi Gregg.
Joe Waine's dreamy, melodic release benefits the Seattle homeless population and the Italian people, two demographics hit hard by COVID-19. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 9, 2020
