Gitkin - 5 Star Motel

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 138, June 2018.

Gitkin
5 Star Motel
Wonderwheel Recordings (42 mins)

It’s hard to find out anything about Gitkin. It appears that this is the almost-one-man-band’s debut record, and the press information doesn’t shed too much light besides its story: 5 Star Motel is a concept album of sorts, supposedly inspired by Gitkin’s mysterious US-travelling, bootleg-guitar-selling, possibly part-mythical uncle. If, like me, that brings you to expect an Americana fest full of lonely highways, you’re in for a surprise.

At the heart of it, 5 Star Motel is an instrumental album rooted in psychedelic surf rock, but its branches reach much further. The opening track starts with a guitar in the style of an Arabic qanun (zither) and, from there, influences abound from Greece, Turkey, Ethiopia, Mali, Nigeria, Peru, Cuba, Jamaica and probably elsewhere. There’s lounge jazz, synth-pop and folk baroque in there, and, okay, there’s some Americana too.

When so many diverse flavours are crammed into one album, the results are usually incoherent and forced, but not here: Gitkin manages it with an uncommon subtlety. All those international melodies and rhythms fit into each other with ease, and all with a healthy drenching of reverb and echo straight out of the 1960s.

This is an unexpected delight – so listen without expectation!