Hailed by The Deli as "The Best NYC Band of the New Millennium (so far)" and also as "the NYC band with the worst name ever" (please note they recently changed Gass to Gase, which slightly improves things), Buke and Gase are a creative force of epic proportions. The duo builds and master to perfection their own crazy sounding instruments and forges a musical style that’s hard to pintpoint: I guess "electric-industrial-noise-rock" (since industrial is normally an electronic genre) gets very close to the substance of their music. The band was on the cover of the summer 2009 issue of The Deli, but didn’t make Pitchfork’s "Best New Music" only because the reviewer (who shouldn’t have reviewed that album) thought their songs weren’t structured enough. While that’s a critique that makes sense for your regular indie pop or indie rock band, a different set of criteria should be used for an act so obviously (and so efficiently) experimental.
This being said, the preview track from the upcoming album ("Hiccup," streaming below), besides showcasing once again Arone Dyer’s melodic talent and the band’s imaginative "anti-funk" tendencies, also betrays signs of coming to terms with a more "classic" song structure, which is something that can take this band to the next level in their career, since we all enjoy the tension and release qualities of more traditional pop songs.
For some more crazy goodness, check out the video for "Misshaping Introduction" here.
Buke and Gase is a band that will be remembered, and is best enjoyed live (Arone is also very entertaining on stage), so do not them at Mercury Lounge on October 12, and we mean it! – PDG