GoGo Penguin New Single “What We Are And What We Are Meant To Be”
Today, GoGo Penguin, the Manchester trio known for their blend of jazz, classical and electronic influences since forming in 2012, released their second single “What We Are And What We Are Meant To Be” from their forthcoming seventh studio album NECESSARY FICTIONS due out June 20 via XXIM/SONY. It’s a bold new chapter in the band’s evolution and represents a deep dive into identity, authenticity, and transformation. Listening to this single was honestly very soothing to the ears and I feel that it brought a new element to GoGo Penguin’s sound.
“What We Are And What We Are Meant To Be” is the spiritual thesis of the new album, the result of an inner journey of self-discovery and shedding anxieties about identity. Bassist Nick Blacka had been reading The Middle Passage by James Hollis, which presents “very Jungian stuff about the shadow self, and hidden personae. You begin to think, ‘Hang on, there’s an authentic me, deep down in there somewhere!’
Musically, the band went on a similar journey, the same process of “ditching some of the things we’d got used to doing which were holding us back. We’d be writing tracks in the past where we’d be hesitant, like, ‘But what are people going to think? Aren’t we supposed to be this jazz trio who are not really jazz? Who play electronic-type music on acoustic instruments and it’s all very fast and frenetic?’”
“What We Are And What We Are Meant To Be” features synth lines and electronic elements – the drums are forward and Nick is wielding the Moog Grandmother synth in addition to his bass. “It’s really simple, really melodic,” Nick explains. “It’s not showboating, like ‘Hey, look at all the chops we’ve got, and how great we are!’ There’s not even any improvisation in it. Bass-wise, it’s just got a bass synth like a dance track. There’s still a part of me that’s like, ‘What are people going to think?’ Then there’s another part that just thinks, ‘Fuck it, they can think what they want! This is what we want to make right now, and it feels authentic.’”
“That’s where the title comes from, the idea of us shaking off the imagined outer perceptions and expectations people might have of us and fully embracing who we are and what we want to say.”
GoGo Penguin’s last album Everything Is Going to Be OK (2023) found the band reeling from almost breaking up, a new drummer in the form of Jon Scott (formerly of Mulatu Atsake’s band), coping with the death of family members, grief, the pandemic, and finding solace in the studio as they journeyed through uncertainty, survival and ultimately, resilience.
With NECESSARY FICTIONS, GoGo Penguin — Chris Illingworth (piano, synths), Nick Blacka (bass, synths), and Jon Scott (drums) — have embraced new textures and ideas more fully than ever before. They are operating from a place of confidence, having truly found their groove with Scott, and Illingworth and Blacka both in their fifth decade, and truly embracing who they are without fear. The album sees them expanding their signature sound, drawing deeper into modular synths, and, for the first time, welcoming other voices into their sonic world. I give GoGo Penguin and their new single a TGR rating of 4/5.