(Credits: Far Out / Geese)
Wed 24 September 2025 16:36, UK
Geese – ‘Getting Killed’
Modernity is hellbent on making music subservient to aesthetic culture. Designed to soundtrack glimpses of our curated lives, the days of directing all of our sensory power to listen closely to the music, feel somewhat lost. But with Getting Killed, Geese have provided a safe cocoon for music fans to dive headfirst into the true immersive brilliance of music, creating a record that sounds coherently chaotic.
On the New York band’s third album, enlisting the help of Kenny Beats for the production has helped crystallise their myriad ideas, for the famed producer has a knack for sitting at the eye of a diverse idea storm. Sure, he can put his spin on the final product and meticulously comb through tracks and samples that will undoubtedly help layer the band’s textured approach, but will they lose their voice?
The simple answer is no. ‘Trinidad’ sees the band shake loose all of the hyper excited energy that laced previous records, leaving them standing in the softly blowing dust where the tender ‘Cobra’ comes in, gently tilting them forward. The Beach Boys-esque sonic profile feels like a fizzy bottle waiting to pop, especially when viewed through the lens of Geese-based expectation, but it doesn’t. Instead, they gently pour out, foregrounding Cameron Winter’s vocals, which waltz with the rhythm section for the entirety of Getting Killed.
By this point, you’ve had it all, Geese old and new and you’re listening with curious intent. So it’s only right that the string of the record’s best songs follow in ‘Husbands’, ‘Getting Killed’ and ‘Islands of Men’.
The first of which borders industrial and ethereal, with a typically Kenny Beats rhythm section that feels air-tight, almost like a web of tightly woven strings, that forces the melodies around sharp corners before unveiling the beautifully crafted chorus harmonies. It’s a perfect song of paradox that must have quietly been waiting for a band like Geese to prize it out of a creative session.
The title track sounds like the band are basking in the emboldened sense of liberation the success of a signature sound has garnered them, while ‘Islands Of Men’ really kicks their musicianship into gear, perfecting the art of tension. It pushes and pulls throughout every verse, with an almost industrial disco guitar line driving it forward into the very heart of intrigue.
But where ‘Islands Of Men’ emphatically shows improvement from anything they’ve previously done is their textural restraint. Compositionally, the song is suitably dense, but rather than throwing tracks at it like a sonic Jackson Pollock, they slowly trickle colours in with patience to eventually make a hypnotic yet charming kaleidoscope of a song.
The B-side continues on in the same vein. ‘100 Horses’ has a groovy dad-rock feel to it, boasting the sort of riff Keith Richards might have written after a sleepover at Andy Warhol’s house. It’s bluesy, art-rock and experimental all at the same time.
An insecurity that’s usually been protected by slacker-rock humour seems to have fallen away on Getting Killed and Winter fully embraces the different flecks of his vocal timbre, not hiding its idiosyncrasies but instead embracing them. The result of which is a heightened humanisation of the records more tender takes, making it at times, a fitting voice for this obscure new age of indie. Somewhere between humorous, obscure and outright despondent, he, along with the rest of this band, has become a bastion of twisted hope on Getting Killed.
Defining track: ‘Islands Of Men’.
For fans of: Cosplaying in every great era of New York art.
A concluding comment from the local record store owner: “All crates are organised per subgenre. You might find Getting Killed in four.”
Release date: September 26th, 2025 | Producer: Geese / Kenny Beats | Label: Partisan
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