Tag: GoGo Penguin Necessary Fictions

Top 25 albums of 2025: #’s 25 – 21

It’s time for my annual review of my favorite albums of the previous year. Who made the top 25 (or 40+) albums I reviewed? Read on!

#25: GoGo Penguin – Necessary Fictions

This is a solid jazz / prog album full of great beats and slick piano work. It was a pleasant surprise to discover it and this band last year.

#24: Beta Voids – Scrape It Off EP

This is a wonderfully nuts punk EP with songs about women kicking ass, people named Alan, and how much toxic masculinity sucks. A full LP from Beta Voids is in the works, so watch out before they run you over and laugh on the way out of town.

#23: Ric Wilson – America Runs on Disco EP

Speaking of good EPs that came out last year, here’s another. Ric Wilson is still somehow a secret force despite being a top-notch producer, songwriter, rapper, and cheerleader for the overly maligned city Chicago (Don’t believe what you hear. Go spend a couple days there, especially in the summer.). This EP is funky and joyful, which was exactly what we needed when it was released and still need right now.

#22: Bonnie Trash – Mourning You

On the opposite side of the spectrum, here’s an album about grief that’s one of the heaviest records of the year. The lyrics cut deep if you’ve lost a loved one, or even witnessed someone’s grief from afar.

#21: Dusty Rose Gang – A-One from Day One

Just when you thought rock might be taking a vacation for a little while, along comes this quartet to deliver one of the best straight-up rock records of 2025.

Who makes the top twenty? Tune in tomorrow, gang!

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe!]

Review: GoGo Penguin – Necessary Fictions

Part-classical, part-jazz, part-krautrock, part-techno, and part-funk, GoGo Penguin‘s newest album, Necessary Fictions, is a neat blend of styles that’s difficult to pin down, but an enjoyable listen. The band (Nick Blacka – bass, Chris Illingworth – piano, and Jon Scott – drums) explore some new territory on their seventh record, mainly synthesizers.

“Umbra” is a bumping track with rich bass and subtle synths to evoke a slight sense of darkness, but not skimping on creativity. Illingworth’s piano on “Fallowfield Loops” is a delight to hear, as it sounds like he was having a fun time playing it. “Luminous Giants” features a rarity on a GoGo Penguin album – vocals. They’re provided by singer-songwriter Daudi Matsiko.

“What We Are and What We Are Meant to Be” is a standout, with the band embracing synths and creating neat textures suitable for a new Blade Runner movie. Blacka’s bass almost becomes vocals on “The Turn Within.” Apart from having a cool name, “Living Bricks in Dead Mortar” has some of Scott’s hardest drumming on the record, swelling up with the synths to create a brief industrial riff. “Naga Ghost” refers to a pepper that builds in heat when you eat it, and the track builds in speed and intensity as it goes along.

Rakhi Singh‘s guest violin on “Luminous Giants” is beautiful. “Float (Loi Krathong, 2003)” is a bass-led track about Blacka attending a floating lantern festival in Bangkok. The eight-piece string ensemble Manchester Collective joins the band on “State of Flux” – a cool, sharp track in which GGP rocks out a bit while the strings dance around them. The closing track, “Silence Speaks,” takes the band, and the album, from electronica to acoustic and brings everything to a nice close.

It’s a lovely record, and I hope GGP continues this trend of blending jazz with electronics. It’s a good mix.

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe!]

[Thanks to George at Terrorbird Media!]