Gnod Is Sometimes Sludgy, Always Loud, and Never Bored on Its New Album ‘Mirror’

Over the past few years, Gnod have steadily emerged as one of the most captivating underground acts in the UK. Vehemently averse to stagnation, their sonic experiments veer from Hawkwind-like space rock to homebrewed industrial techno, incorporating virtually everything in between. In 2015, they released the critically-acclaimed triple-LP Infinity Machines, a psych-jazz bad trip of Herculean proportions. Naturally, their new record mixes things up again.

Recorded in the wake of the UK’s general election of May 2015, in which the pro-austerity centre-right Conservative Party won a working majority, Mirror consists of three long tracks of effects-laden dystopian sludge-rock, and is slated for an April 1 release via Rocket Recordings. Often described as a “collective” due to the number of musicians who pass in and out of its ranks—41 to date—Gnod’s four main members are Paddy Shine, Chris Haslam, Marlene Ribeiro, and Alex Macarte.

Speaking via Skype from their base at the Islington Mill arts hub in Salford, Greater Manchester, Paddy and Chris chatted to Noisey about mixing things up, Michael Jackson, and the ultimate dream of running a café.

Noisey: Critically, Infinity Machines went down a storm, didn’t it? Paddy Shine Did its reception take Gnod to another level? Shine The Wire Infinity Machines sounded like quite a fun and free record, whereas this new one is much more anxious and brooding. Chris Haslam Infinity Machines Mirror [UK general] election results Shine Mirror Haslam I wasn’t having the best day when I first listened to Mirror and it’s so intense I think it almost gave me a panic attack. Is that the effect you hope to have on listeners? Shine Haslam Shine Infinity Machines What’s the most mainstream music that you listen to? Haslam Shine Are you tempted to incorporate the Madonna influence into your own music? Haslam Shine Haslam Grammy performance I’ve seen Gnod perform about four or five times, and each time it’s been a completely different sound.
Shine Chaudelande Haslam Shine Haslam Shine Haslam Are you a democratic unit?
Shine The Simpsons

Haslam: We’re all into what goes on here. Not all of it, obviously, but we’re into the way Islington Mill works as a unit. We meet a lot of people in Europe. They sometimes come over and stay with us here. The fact that we’re able to do that is amazing. We meet a lot of people from around the world, artists who come to the Mill. We like that community aspect to it and that influences us, in a way, as much as any other music does.
Shine: It’s about people, really, getting a network of loads of good people together, people who know if they come to Manchester, England, they can get in touch with us and they’ve got a bunch of people they can come and see and stay with and they’ll have `a roof over their heads. And they’ve got places all around Britain and Europe where it’s the same thing and we can stay. That’s really important, I think.

What’s the worst thing about being based in Islington Mill?
Haslam: If we ever had to leave. I don’t know what we’d do.
Shine: That’s the worst thing. What’s going to happen after this? I’m going to end up being, I don’t know, a fucking monk somewhere. That’s it, the fear of having to not be here anymore, which sounds really cheesy, but we are going to have to leave at some point soon because the thing with a space like this is, it needs to be constantly fresh and vital, with new people and new blood coming through all the time.
Haslam: Nothing lasts forever, does it? We’ve always spoken about maybe getting a place like this ourselves, a small venue or something, with a rehearsal room. It’s possible. There are still some run-down areas in Manchester where you can maybe get an old space and transform it into whatever you want. It’d be good for us to have some sort of café or something. The Gnod Café.

What would you serve in The Gnod Café?
Haslam: Cream cheese and salmon bagels and stuff like that. With good dark beers on the menu. A lot of us enjoy cooking and have worked in catering, so it’s highly possible. If it all goes to shit, that’s what we’re going to do, get a café.


J.R. Moores is now searching YouTube for Michael Jackson’s ‘Man In The Mirror’ Grammys performance. He’s on Twitter.