When I started listening to Everything What We Recorded from Seattle, WA’s Gumshen, I immediately imagined a room with a huge wardrobe full of clothes from every era. From my father’s King Crimson T-shirts to the sparkling jackets my mother wore straight from the ’80es, through baggy rappers pants and typical indie striped polo shirts. I looked in the mirror and continued to change my clothes, experimenting new and completely different kind of styles. And the perfect soundtrack for this is Gumshen.

The twelve songs that make up Everything What We Recorded change their musical style so quickly that you’ll to ask yourself, “am I still listening to the same album?” and in today’s music production, that is incredibly remarkable. In just a few minutes you can go from the modern indie, attractive and breezy (“Jag it up”, “Dandelions” and “Hammer and Nails”) to the heavy and powerful à la Rage Against the Machine of “Done”, trough funky hip-hop and rap rhythms  in songs such as “Delicious”, “Perfect” and “Gooch Machine”.

Ron, Jan, Dennis and Rich are able to change direction between one song and another (even within the same song, to be honest) faster than me changing my clothes while I keep on dancing in front of the mirror. Their music grows into a constant evolution; a continuing experimentation of styles and genres, which only a perfectly close-knit band could play in its shining madness. “I know you girl” is in my humble opinion, THE example of this perfect harmony and musical knowledge that only experienced members may have. During the four minute, six seconds of the song it spans 40 years of music history: a piano intro reminding me of Beatles, a song structure worthy of Jamiroquai and Public Enemy, a long jam that includes progressive synthesizer and electric guitars licks perfectly mixed together. In short, it is an insane attempt for most musicians, but executed and managed with incredible mastery by these guys from Seattle.

The concentration of music that comes out from Everything What We Recorded is somewhat disarming and reaches great compositional and structural peaks. In Seattle, you know, they love inventing, experimenting, destroying and then putting everything together and create something unique. I’m not a big fan of experimentation, but when I’m faced with an album like this, you cannot help but tip your hat.

Now excuse me, but I gotta rearrange my wardrobe. I’ve worn so many clothes and now I look like a mix between the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Ian McDonald of King Crimson. Don’t judge, not everyone can mix different styles perfectly.