mushroomsinshampoo
A distant distorted memory, both shared and yet alone - these tracks evoke the spirit of those lost and condemned to serve a society that needs but does not want them. Powerful music.
Favorite track: Falafel King.
Gavin Vanaelst runs the space Aboli Bibelot in Antwerp where exhibitions and musical performances can happen side to side with dealings in centuries-old furniture and unique pieces of folk art or volkskunst. Gavin makes music under the aliases DJ Charme, Kassett and So Sorry. This is the first album under his birth name. Takeaway Loops cycles back to the days when Gavin was working as a courier for Takeaway.
Takeaway is a food delivery company. Their couriers - ehm, brand ambassadors, as the company prefers to call them - dressed in bright orange, they race their bikes around the city. They deliver meals and groceries for all sorts. Thanks to them, the privileged can stay tucked in their private spaces. Interaction between the two groups - the privileged and the brand ambassadors - is mostly kept to the bare minimum. And sparse communications are often driven by annoyances - “my Coke is warm because you kept it too close to the French Fries.” And on the streets the general public dis-approaches the brand ambassadors with pity. We tell our peers: “That’s not a good job,” and “stay away from the Sharing Economy.” Because, you know, in our capitalistic dollhouse we all stand our grounds and play our parts wholeheartedly.
During his shifts for Takeaway, Gavin recorded location sounds on his phone at fast food restaurants while waiting on the orders he had to pick up and deliver. Later in his home studio Gavin added piano and electronics to this source material. The result: a gloomy soundtrack for a shadow world. Seven songs in evening blue with a bright orange glare.
A few years ago, our favorite Belgian publishing house Het Balanseer released Seizoenarbeid by Heike Geissler (available in English trough Semiotext(e)). Geissler writes about her job at Amazon in Leipzig. Because her writing and freelance work did not pay the bills any longer, she was forced towards this underprivileged shadow-world of unwanted jobs. Seizoenarbeid shed a light on freedom in an unfree world. A monument of 'we are all in this, but not together'. Takeaway Loops gives us a similar peak in a world that is at the same time so visible, but then also very veiled for many. A world that we prefer to use, yet that most of us prefer not to see - a world that we don’t like to enter.
Last year at Harbourland subway station in Kobe, I was mesmerized by the sound design created by Hiroshi Yoshimura. For each part of the subway station he composed a short phrase. While walking trough the station, a full composition grows in your head. The looping melodies guide you trough a microworld. Trough a blue world of commuters, of the homeless, of the lonely, of the fast paced, of the tourist. Gavin creates a similar effect with Takeaway Loops. The tonality somehow corresponds to Yoshimura’s work. Yet instead of being guided trough a building, we are now taken to the after dark. You feel the concrete evening heat of the city. You hear the rain. Stiff fingers during cold winters’ nights. You are alone on the bike, cruising. Your maps app telling you where to go. You just left the fake leather bench of the well-lit pastiche interior of a fast food restaurant.
Next order, number ECN44! Please wait outside, sir?
credits
released May 27, 2025
All music: Gavin Vanaelst
Mastered by: Yves De Mey
supported by 26 fans who also own “Takeaway Loops”
“Do you still dream in water?” she asks.
He nods—“only when it rains inside.”
Their words drift, slow like signal loss,, soft clicks between heartbeats.
A drone hums overhead,
its shadow stroking their faces.
“Are we free now?” she whispers.
He laughs, small, broken. “We’re just less afraid.”
They share one headphone,
listening to the city’s pulse—
loops of breath,
echoes of what could’ve been
“Hold me,” she says.
“I am,” he answers,
“in the static.” magoski
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supported by 21 fans who also own “Takeaway Loops”
This is my absolute favorite album of all time, words can not even begin to describe how much I love it. It nails the concept of dementia as an album perfectly 100/10. I don't know if I could find anything better than this. rod