Review: Ariel!

Ollie Hussey
Feb 19
2 min read

Chaotic industrial hyper-pop from new duo gunWORM.

Billy Lancaster laughing in a chair with a newspaper on the cover of gunWORM's new single Ariel!

Despite this being only their second single under this moniker, gunWORM seem to be making a name for themselves in Manchester's Northern Quarter. They've already had great reviews from sets at iconic venues like Fuel Cafe Bar and the Peer Hat. The brainchild of Pedro Pedro Pedro members Heléna Walsh and Billy Lancaster, gunWORM are loud, frantic and lots of fun. Ariel! doesn't have the sweetness or the bounce of previous release MY WAY (in a blue bikini) but instead leans into raucous noise and an almost stream-of-consciousness lyrical content. It's intriguing and catchy, overdriven and unapologetic.

Throughout, the choppy vocal samples and a pulsating synthesised bass line carry the song. Everything in the mix has the gain slapped up to 11, including the drums and especially Walsh's vocals. It's like an electric train threatening to go off the rails - but somehow managing to stay on a cohesive course. The crescendos of synths at times can border on a little jarring, but in actual fact I think they help to maintain the sharpness of the whole song. The drum machines will then also join in the attack, with machine gunned fills and rolls. It's effective in setting the right vibe for this electric hybrid of genres.

Heléna's avante-garde vocal style is so fun to listen to, even if you don't catch every word. Some of the inflections in certain parts are like if you gave five shots of adrenaline to Elizabeth Fraser. It's fantastic.

Similarly to the Pedro stuff, I think you can somehow tell that this music comes from an art school, conservatoire kind of place. The pair were at RNCM and, in listening to some of Walsh's solo compositions, there is such deliberate dissonance, almost Schoenberg-esque, in tracks like Sandcastles and And All Atop The Walls Were Wet that it's clear that any similar soundscapes created with gunWORM are well thought-out and crafted. Thankfully, Ariel! stays away from any major harmonic fuckery, choosing instead to focus on its fun production techniques and pop song structure.

Serialism was never my thing.

In all, I came into this with relatively little experience within the hyper-pop sphere and might have even expected not to like it so much. However, I think everything is done so purposefully and with such artistry that it comes together really well. I'm definitely looking forward to hearing more from gunWORM and I'd highly recommend you check out the single when it drops.

Ariel! will be released on streaming platforms on Friday 21st February.

Presave the single here.