DC GORE - ALL THESE THINGS - DOMINO

Quick on the heels of the release of a string of acerbic art pop singles, DC Gore shares his synth-layered, politically prescient debut album, All These Things.

Following the dissolution of south London trio Little Cub, Dominic Gore has remodeled and reimagined the band’s electronic synth-pop within his solo work to incorporate additional acoustic instrumentation which makes for a more textured and temperate sound. All These Things expertly layers fantastically dystopian imagery against twinkling tapestries of electronics and propulsive beats. It’s a shift akin to the Pet Shop Boys’ development between Introspective and Behavior: from bright, dancefloor-focused pop to melancholic mini-symphonies.

“All These Things is a bookend to a torrid period in my life,” Gore comments. “There are so many themes in there of failure and frustration (personal and political), shame and longing, but in the end, there is a hope to it. All these things that feel so all-consuming at the time become quotidian in the wake of a global pandemic.”

As inspired by the unvarnished portraiture of Martin Parr as he is Ballardian grotesquerie - and by the seedy witticisms of Jarvis Cocker and arch art-pop commentary of Neil Tennant, Gore’s music sits proudly within a rich tradition of distinctively British disrupters. Skewering notions of national identity with a vivid mix of pin-sharp satire in an expansive palette of synthesizing new wave art-rock, Gore effortlessly creates songs that are as ingeniously calculated as they are dance-inducing. Highlights include the propulsive, tragicomic “Nietzsche On The Beach”, the melancholic dancefloor-focused “California” and “Bodies” featuring plaintive piano chords and distorted guitar.