A tribute album is set to be released in celebration of the music of Gang Of Four and their late co-founder Andy Gill, who passed away unexpectedly back in February.
'The Problem Of Leisure: A Celebration Of Andy Gill And Gang Of Four' will arrive on May 14 and feature renditions of tracks written by Gill and Gang Of Four handpicked by a variety of major artists.
Among the contributors is Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello and System Of A Down vocalist Serj Tankian, who together tackle Natural's Not In It for the record's first single, due out on January 1, what would've been Gill's 65th birthday. The song originally featured on the band's 1979 debut LP, 'Entertainment!'. Morello said:
"Andy Gill was one of a handful of artists in history who changed the way guitars are played. His band Gang of Four were just incendiary and completely groundbreaking with Andy's confrontational, unnerving and sublime playing at the forefront. His jagged plague-disco raptor-attack industrial-funk deconstructed guitar anti-hero sonics and fierce poetic radical intellect were hugely influential to me."
The new comes accompanied by the LP's Damien Hirst artwork, viewable above. "Everybody who grew up with Gang of Four in their lives can remember how mind-blowing and forward-thinking and filled with creative energy it was at the time and guess what? It still is now," Hirst said.
"It's art. Art that’s reaching out of this world yet somehow still down to earth. It's so great to be involved with this release and to see and hear a new generation of musicians paying tribute to Andy Gill's incredible music. My artwork 'Dog with Bone', which Andy picked for the cover from a few ideas I had, is from a new series of giant pipe cleaner animals based on little ones made in my studio by kids. I think he wanted this work for the cover because it’s new and unexpected and in your face and hard not to like, they make adults feel like children and Andy always wanted to celebrate that."
Pre-orders are available here and a full tracklist with all contributing artists will be revealed in January. In the meantime, check out the below clip of Gill's widow Catherine Mayer introducing the project.
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