Editors Note: This article was written in September of 2019, and at the time it was not posted because it wasn't up to snuff with our old editorial standards. Seeing as both the old site editors and the writer graduated, along with the fact that the world is ending, I've decided that I want to post this because it's good. Enjoy.

by Parker Sanchez, Assistant Music Director

2019 is the year of gec. The end of the 10s is the perfect time for a group that looks back at the past couple of decades and says “heck yeah”. This album boiled down to its core is a kind of digital pop-punk that kind of resembles what frank zappa might have made if he were a member of PC music. 100 gecs, the duo consisting of laura les and dylan brady, take almost every major microgenre of the century thus far and throws it in the blender concoction consumed by a certain hot and bothered astronaut at the beginning of the decade (who also made a sub 30 minute masterpiece a couple months ago) and force feeds it down our throats. Whether or not we like it, we will all submit to the gec. 

Remember ska-punk? How bout dubstep? Crunkcore? Youtube poops? 1000 gecs blends up all of the wildest stuff we were all obsessed with as 13-14 year olds and lovingly embraces it. I’ve seen this used to drag the album by the fools who have not yet bent the knee, but in my humble the weird metalcore/abstract interludes and trance-y beats that get icarus levels of close to Darude - Sandstorm without becoming parody are some of the most exciting things I've heard in years. Brady has been working towards this sound for a couple years across his previous releases (I’m not super familiar with the work of laura les), but this album takes his sprawling obsession with weird alt music and compresses it into a diamond of an album. The internet age makes it near impossible to create truly unique music, so most of the really exciting stuff that has come of the social media sphere (aka the complete breakdown of individuality and pre-formation of the eventual human-machine hivemind that has been the last ten years) is some sort of unique interpolation of other music and music styles. We’ve been on the linear road to gec since death grips, there were even a couple of years where we, the collective hipster garbage community,  thought PC music was going to take over the radio and usher in the future of pop. 

What actually happened was the rise of the “genreless” star ie billie eilish, post malone, and khalid. While fine artists in their own right (i guess), they take possibly the most boring route possible for amalgam music and make bland, digestible pop that sounds like everything and nothing at the same time. These artists remind you of a lot of what you like but don’t necessarily operate at a particularly high level emulating any of it. On the other end of the spectrum are acts like Death Grips, who make interesting and most definitely “internet” music but definitely take themselves just a little too seriously as an art project. 1000 gec solves this with an incredible blend of self aware & laughably ridiculous lyrics (stupid horse i just fell out of the porsche comes to mind) with insanely high octane, sugar rush like compositions that include but arent limited to; auto-tune ripped right from your 17 year old brothers soundcloud 2 years ago, shout choruses reminiscint of the end of “Gives You Hell” over drums that imitate a horse run and ska guitars, and ringtone, which very well might be a perfect song. 

I'm not sure whether this is a great album or a terrible one. Whether or not dylan and laura are laughing with us or at us. Whether this is a signal of trends to come or just an isolated bit of weirdness most of us will forget about.

ringtone is probably the perfect distillation of what makes 1000 gecs one of the most interesting albums of the year. The song is dangerously infectious and immediately obnoxious. Starting with a cute chiptuney beat, the song builds in a furious 90 seconds in which you don't know whether or not to rip the headphones out of your ears or sew them in and put this song on a permanent loop. By the time the song reaches crescendo, you probably haven't been paying attention to the narrative about an abusive relationship in the era of constant connection (it might actually be a song about an obsessive stalker??) because you're too busy trying to figure out whether you love it or hate it. You probably finish the song and say that was kind of dumb, but days later find yourself humming the chorus, and you give it another try. With the melody and most of the lyrics burned into your frontal cortex you start to notice all the intricate flourishes across the instrumental, and how seamlessly brady and les build a world to get lost in in 2 minutes and 23 seconds. You think to yourself, “hm, this song rules, i guess i should try again with this album” and you give it a spin from the top.

Suddenly it clicks. The fluid integration of what seems like dozens of conflicting genres, the weird embellishments across the project, the genuinely bizarre interludes of I Need Help Immediately and gecgecgec now seem like outsider art and essential to the context of the project rather than obnoxious and annoying. You still aren’t sure whether this is a “good” album or not, but its got a lot going on and you dive back in. you spend days with gec. gec starts to weave its way into your music related conversation, you can’t stop thinking about how stupid the lyrics are, but you want to stand outside of a CVS and breakdance to them like the skids in letterkenny. You sleep less, you eat less, the only thing that gives you some semblance of reality is listening to 1000 gecs again. Your friends and parents are worried about you. They ask you why you keep talking about the size of peoples arms. You listen to I Need Help Immediately on loop for an hour. You wake up from what was either a manic episode or a blackout covered in sweat with a 1000 gecs tramp stamp and you are totally hype for it. gec has consumed u.

I'm not sure whether this is a great album or a terrible one. Whether or not dylan and laura are laughing with us or at us. Whether this is a signal of trends to come or just an isolated bit of weirdness most of us will forget about. One thing I’ve come to accept is that most things that people at one point think are bad, they will later think are good. 1000 gecs is an album that basically tells us all the stuff that we hate is amazing but we either just dont have the sense of humor to appreciate it or don’t have the musical aptitude to manipulate these sonic palettes into something more high concept. 1000 gecs is either an accidentally genius work by a pair of goofballs just trying to make memey pop music or the goofycore masterpiece by a pair of geniuses who have tapped into something really special that both infuriates and invigorates pretentious alt-internet circles. Either way submit to gec. gec gec gec gec gec gec ge c gecg cegcgecgcegec.

1000 Gecs is out on Dog Show Records. The remix album, 1000 Gecs and the Tree of Clues, is out on Dog Show Records, Big Beat Records and Atlantic Records. Find both on whichever streaming platform you prefer.

Editors Note 2: When informed that this article would be reviewed and posted again, Parker requested that I add the following addendum: "tree of clues fucking bangs too". Thanks for everything Parker.