Album Review: 100 gecs — 1000 gecs
There is no better way to exemplify the power of pure and unfiltered friendship than to listen to an album that not only sees two best friends making music as they please, but having so much fun doing it. As far as 2019 is concerned, the only album that perfectly reflects this notion is the outstanding meeting between St. Louis, Missouri’s own Dylan Brady and Laura Les — with their debut project under the name “100 gecs” entitled 1000 gecs.
When focusing on this idea of friendship as it stands, it would be reasonable to conclude that the meeting of similar minds would make for a better musical constructive process in its entirety. Building off of this, the fun in the music might also have a higher potential to shine given the chemistry between the friends making the music in the first place. The reason why Dylan and Laura are even being mentioned in this light is because their friendship and collective intuition has produced easily the best time anyone will have listening to an album all year.
Centering in on a 2000s-Internet culture ethos with sounds and styles that range from niche trance music to the deepest depths of grindcore of all things, the duo comes through with ten songs that each have their own distinct personality while staying within the aesthetic of this era that many a Gen-Z member holds so fondly.
While the execution of this project works so well from a strictly conceptual standpoint, it would not be complete without the musicality following suit. It should come as no surprise given the talents of these two polarizing artists that indeed it does. Tracks like “money machine,” “stupid horse,” and “ringtone” are some of the catchiest pieces of pop music that anyone will ever hear, let alone just from this year. These appealing standouts work in tandem with other tracks on the project such as “800db cloud” and “hand crushed by a mallet,” which serve to offer departures in sound towards those aforementioned 2000s vibes in startlingly different ways.
Given the simultaneous musical and social chemistry that Dylan and Laura share, this project was bound to be as good as it is from the start. No album has ever sounded quite as unique while taking inspiration from and building off of a past era as much as this one, and it is sure to be one that we look back on with great appreciation and thankfulness as the years carry on.