Melbourne-based duo GL (aka Graeme Pogson and Ella Thompson) today release their sophomore album, You Read My Mind via Pool Records. Among Australia’s most exciting innovators in contemporary pop and electronic music, GL have built their reputation by synthesising rhythms and textures to forge thrilling, emotional soundscapes to lose yourself within.
Recorded at their own studio in Fitzroy, You Read My Mind reaffirms GL’s ability to hone a sound distinctly their own, while expanding their palette to explore dreamlike trances and impassioned tones amid body-moving sensibilities. Spinning life and its frustrations into a collection brimming with positivity, GL relinquish control to the music itself, allowing the instrumentation to shape a fluid sonic movement from start to finish.
You Read My Mind is a 10-song compendium, opening with a simmering percussive-groove on the album-titled introductory track. Layers of undulating synths move beneath Ella’s wistful vocals as she contemplates the uncontrollable forces of the post-human world, before prior single “Pistachio” arrives with a welcoming wave of punchy drums and soul-melting euphoria. Up next, “True” combines a swirl of cascading melodies with a slick and steady backbeat. “Night Habit” follows, slow and slinky with a ghostly piano refrain, before a classic serve of GL’s upbeat-pop arrives on “Deliver”.
At the album’s halfway point, Ella’s formidable vibrato sings of the endless ways there are to love in a peaceful accompaniment to the reverb-laced kick and hint of funky bass of “Endlessly”. Next, the introspective feature single “All In My Head” adopts breathless chants amid zig-zagging synths, before the darker edge of “Rush” unfolds to cut-up flittering vocals and ominous bass movements. Their first track to be written with members from their new live band, the tranquility returns on “Oyster” with a delicate GL touch of polished danceability before the sensitive lullaby, “Clouds” punctuates a finale with high-echoing synths and doubled-over choruses.
GL say on the album: “You Read My Mind is about sticking together through uncertainty in a world fuelled by unstoppable forces, accelerating regardless of our choices. The record speaks more broadly about life and its frustrations while also synthesising these experiences into something positive. Our music has always been a positive release for us, working through whatever is going on in the head and making sense of the world. There is an escapism in being able to make music and art and we feel extremely lucky to have that outlet. This record is music you can move to, dance to, it simmers and purrs. More than ever we wanted to create a lot of it on the spot, so it was very fun and spontaneous. The majority was conceived and recorded specifically for this album over several sessions at Swimming Pool Studio in Fitzroy. This is the first of our releases to be released on our record label Pool Records. We are really thrilled to be back in the game releasing our second album, and as soon as we're able to, we will be touring with our live band and bringing the live energy to this record. In the meantime, sing along at home, send us vids, tell your friends, reach out and stay in touch.”
From 2013’s Love Hexagon EP to acclaimed 2016 debut album Touch and their 2017 double A-sided 12” Destiny/Reflect, GL’s international recognition precedes them, counting accolades from TheGuardian, CLASHMagazine, i-D, The Fader, V Magazine and XLR8R on top of over 4 million online streams across their discography. As well as receiving extensive airtime on BBC Radio 1, Touch was also awarded feature album/album of the week on FBi Radio, SYN FM and Radio Adelaide. In 2019 GL unveiled “Night Habit” alongside their first headline show in two years, before following up with the effervescent “Contagious”, and returning in 2020 with “Pistachio” and "Endlessly", picking up more acclaim from the likes of NME, PurpleSneakers and Triple R.
Between selling out national and international shows across their 2016 album tour, GL have performed at some of the country’s most distinguished festivals including Splendour In The Grass, St Jerome’s Laneway Festival, Meredith Music Festival, Pitch Festival, Panama, Lost Paradise and Beyond The Valley. This year, GL also brought their live spectacle to the fundraising efforts of Melbourne’s Music That Matters bushfire relief event, plus PBS’s Sounds Like Home series and live stream festival, Isol-Aid.
As the adored electronic duo today unleash their highly-awaited sophomore album, You Read My Mind, fall into GL’s world slowly and consciously, enjoying every soothing thought and body-tingling mood they conjure along the way.
YOU READ MY MIND IS OUT NOW VIA POOL RECORDS
BUY/STREAM HERE
YOU READ MY MIND TRACKLIST
1. You Read My Mind
2. Pistachio
3. True
4. Night Habit
5. Deliver
6. Endlessly
7. All In My Head
8. Rush
9. Oyster
10. Clouds
