Gengahr

Having just wrapped up their sold-out UK tour, Gengahr are gearing up to kick off their Australian and New Zealand tour next week. With the tour just days away, Gengahr today have announced that special guest DUAL will join them in Auckland.

From the embers of kiwi four-piece Narwhal, a new and untamed beast was formed. Over the coming years, a perfect synergy would form between two kiwi songwriters, transcending into a propulsive force of nature. Makers of lush, low-key dancefloor anthems, DUAL bring together the raw, glacial power of lead vocalist Maurice Miller with guitarist Jamie Pyne’s dynamic guitar lines and electronic production for a heady mix of indietronica.

Gengahr released their third full-length album Sanctuary last month. The album was hailed by music press, with triple j choosing it as their Feature Album, Jack Saunders on BBC Radio 1 making it his Album For The Weekend, and BBC 6Music featuring it as their Album Of The Day. Amongst these many accolades, Danny Ward from Gengahr has been crowned as having the Sexiest/Smoothest Voice from Jack Saunders on BBC Radio 1’s The Saunders Awards.

Sanctuary features the single ‘Heavenly Maybe’, which is playlisted on Radio Hauraki, A-listed at BBC 6 Music, playlisted at BBC Radio 1, and was Greg James’ Tune Of The Week on Radio 1’s Breakfast Show. DIY called the track “a pleasing slice of indie-pop”; and Clash “an ultra-infectious new synth jammer”. The single reached #28 in Spotify’s UK Viral Chart.

★★★★ “A monumental shift in the right direction – it’s a record that is boldly more expansive and electrifyingly curious” – Dork

8/10 "Gengahr release an album that is bold, daring and dazzling with sheer pop excellence. It packs in a full bag of human emotion eloquently and sophisticatedly" – The Line Of Best Fit

★★★★★ "An album you’ll die for... an extremely exciting, well-written, beautifully produced album that I doubt will be forgotten any time soon" – Indie Is Not A Genre

UK four-piece Gengahr announce their much anticipated return with their third full-length album Sanctuary, released on 31st January 2020 via Liberator Music. 

Today they also announce an Australian & New Zealand tour for March 2020. New Zealand fans will get the chance to catch Gengahr live when they play their first ever NZ show at Auckland’s Neck Of The Woods, taking place on Tuesday 10 March. The band will then make their first visit to Australia since 2015 – performing at Sydney’s Lansdowne Hotel on Friday 13 March, followed by Melbourne’s Howler on Saturday 14 March.

More expansive and ambitious than ever before, Sanctuary is the experimental alt-pop band’s finest body of work to date, a DIY triumph which welcomes old friend Jack Steadman of Bombay Bicycle Club as producer, adding his distinct brand of symphonic sparkle to Gengahr’s complex, layered sound and pushing the band further into all-out pop territory than they’d ever dared stray before. Recorded at the brand new Propagation House way out in Bude in Cornwall, the album also recaptures the magic that old school friends Felix Bushe, John Victor, Hugh Schulte and Danny Ward felt when they were making their debut.

The North London four-piece today share the stunning, floor-filling first single ‘Everything & More’ following a premiere from BBC Radio 1’s Annie Mac. 

Listen to ‘Everything & More’

Born of an epic journey, the follow-up to their acclaimed 2015 debut A Dream Outside and 2018’s Where Wildness Grows sees songwriter Felix Bushe tapping into personal pain but coming out fighting. Homer’s Odyssey was constantly in the back of Felix’s mind when writing, acting as a constant guide. His own modern take largely deals with the fact that his wife is still living in Australia, while Felix is based on the opposite side of the world. The highs and lows of such a long distance relationship, as well as the sudden passing of his mother, have all fed into the album’s rollercoaster of emotions. The disco-inflected ‘Heavenly Maybe’, heavy with ennui as well as a powerful melody, details Felix’s experience of partying in order to distract him from his real life problems. “I was picturing myself as Odysseus in this captive journey where I was just trying to get back to where I wanted to be in life,” he explains. 

With mixing from the hugely in-demand Nathan Boddy (James Blake, Nilufer Yanya, Shame), additional production from John Victor and engineering from A Dream Outside’s engineer James Bragg, Sanctuary is vibrant, intoxicating, intimate and alive; the product of friends having a good time and seizing control of their own destiny. It is a heartfelt, sophisticated body of work that runs the full gamut of human feeling, with a positive ending in the form of the beautiful, twinkling ‘Moonlight’ – a harmonious conclusion of unison and togetherness, hinting at a bright future.

Don’t miss Gengahr live in March 2020 – touring Auckland, Sydney and Melbourne!