Get to know Shoal & Gonebrook – an exciting new name from a pairing you may well already be familiar with.
Shoal is also known as Chords AKA Chris Ansah, an artist who came through on Ram Records around the early 2010s and brought a fresh, euphoric, bouncy energy to Andy C’s now dearly departed imprint, most notably with tracks like Lust (with Jaguar Skills) and his breakthrough track Biting Point.
A hugely talented artist, you always got the vibe that Ram’s complications (and eventual downfall) as a major-owned imprint left us fans bereft of more Chords bangers as he focused on other creative roles in his life (he runs a design agency).
Still sporadically active under this alias, Chords released the exceptional Percolate with Sklart Mafia on Soul Vent earlier this year.
Gonebrook is Paleblu AKA Ryan Gonsalves, an artist who started his release journey a few years after Chords but cut his teeth on the same London underground scene.
An MC, a radio broadcaster and singer-songwriter just as much as he is a producer and DJ, Paleblu’s sound carries a unique and beguiling edge that sits in a really sweet spot between drum & bass and indie that can be felt in its most vivid and immersive form on his debut album he released earlier this year For The Ones Who Didn’t Get Picked.
Both significant and prominent solo aliases, a string of events and collaborations over the last 10 years has brought the two friends together creatively and given them a chance to sculpt a sound that’s very different to what you feel you might know about them individually.
Not bound by tempo or genre, the pair’s shared vision is an explorational process as they chase moods and feelings and express them in the best form they feel fits… Be that garage, house, breaks, downtempo, banger or any unclassifiable category in between. The end result is a fusion of songwriting and electronic soul that carries huge levels of euphoria, feeling that you could easily picture on daytime radio but a powerful dynamic and energy that is fully rooted in the rave.
Think Booka Shade, Bicep, Hot Chip or Overmono and you’re in the right neighbourhood. You can feel their signature brewing on their limited output already. In March they dropped their debut; two subtle, understated feel-good house cuts September and 4am (In SanAn), now they’re set to drop two more tracks…
Favour The Brave is a gutsy, urgent house track that drops on November 28. Sensations is a much slower, smokier affair that drops on December 12. Both feature Coltham, an exciting emergent vocalist who hits with an earnest, warm soulful tone and adds a nice consistency over the two cuts. Don’t take our word for it. Listen here…
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Want more and reading this in real time? You’re in luck as the pair are playing at our party in Southend On Sea this Saturday November 29 as we head to Sonnet’s hometown to launch his latest EP Bobby. They’ll be joined by the likes of Danny Styles, Glitchgirl, Dysfunction, Lakeway, Scartip, Fireworks Factory, Katamine and more. Free entry and streaming live on our Twitch and YouTube all day, please join us in whichever way you can!
In the meantime, here’s how Chris and Ryan’s exciting new project came about… And what we can expect from them in the future.
So how did this all come about? What’s the Shoal & Gonebrook origin story?
Ryan: Chris and I have been working together for a long time. We met at Phonox around 2017 and then went onto work together on other projects and hosting a radio show together on Reprezent Radio. As a performer I have MC’d for Chris under his DnB alias at a myriad of venues & festivals. Printworks, XOYO & Secret Garden Party to name a few. We both had our own projects focussed on the deeper side of electronica from around 100-160BPM, so we decided to merge the two together Shoal & Gonebrook.
Chris: As Ryan said we had separate but parallel projects that we felt worked best as a duo, bringing the best of both of our styles together, as well as maintaining our individual projects for the future. Our stories, tastes and influences align well as it is, so it felt natural to explore making music together in this way.
Was it an instant click where you both felt you could complement each other musically / creatively or have you found an alchemy through the process?
Ryan: We’ve been writing music together since 2017, but mainly drum & bass. A lot of the stuff at the start was experimental but we have definitely found a synergy in the way that we work with this particular project.
Chris: I think we’ve both found over time that drum and bass and some other genres around that can be limiting if it doesn’t naturally come to you. Especially for me if you don’t gravitate towards the right kind of sounds (and believe me I’ve tried!) So some of the slower tempos and cooler temps make space for experiments in a way that we’ve both found very fun.
Are there any particular shared musical touch points and influences that you both link on?
Chris: So many. From deeper electronic in Clark and Jon Hopkins, through the leftfield world of DJ Tennis, Amé and Dixon, through the birth of UKG and US House in Todd Edwards, Sunship and Locked On, through modern deeper tech in Dusky and Anjunadeep and Technicolour. And obviously the production technique, breaks, heavy bass and detail that comes from dnb across the board.
Ryan: Chris said it perfectly. In terms of this project, it draws a lot of inspiration from early house music from the likes of Kerri Chandler, Frankie Knuckles to name a few. From my early years, my Dad was introducing me to the likes of Massive Attack, Portishead, Fatboy Slim and a bunch of 90s dance music that really had an impact on my taste for emotionally charged and deep dance music. For me personally – Disclosure was also a big impact in my life growing up as a teenager and that definitely influenced my sound.
Tell us everything about this new release!
Ryan: This is our second single as Shoal & Gonebrook. Sensations was mainly put together by Chris and Favour The Brave was made with us both in real time at the studio in Battersea. Both tracks have lovely lyrics written by Coltham. He’s a good friend of mine and we were in school together, so it’s been a long time coming to put a collab out. Sensations definitely has that sexy downtempo kind of house sound, something you’d expect to hear on a beach somewhere around the world. Whereas Favour the Brave, definitely has more of that deep kind of energy.
In all the best partnerships / collaborations from relationships to creative collabs I find you have one person who is the fire and emotionally led and another who is the ice and much more stoic / pragmatic. Does this resonate with you and which one of you is the fire and which one is the ice?
Chris: We are kind of in both of these directions. Ryan in some ways leans more towards the networking and extroverted side of the music biz, whereas I can be a bit of a cyclops in that sense and emotionally focussed on the craft only, to a fault sometimes. On the other side, Ryan is highly passionate as a musician and creatively loose, whereas I can be more clinical and pragmatic in song structure/production. I think it works!
Ryan: Yeah, ditto to Chris on this. I’ve done a number of roles within the music industry and still currently work in music (My 9-5 is working for a ticketing company and I also run my own company as a curator). Broadcasting has definitely had an impact on that too. I’m self taught as a musician and know things by ear and tend to have a draw for the weird/dissonant side of things, whereas Chris is classically trained. I think we’re both fiery ice cubes. Does that make us melts?
Haha yeah why not. You’re playing with us on the 29th What can we expect from you both?
Chris: A blend of garage, house, and dancefloor electronic, and a bit of a journey, and hopefully no clangs.
Ryan: Bangers pon bangers.
Anything else to add at this particular juncture?
Chris: Nothing from me, hopefully you will see and hear us soon!
Ryan: We’re sitting on a lot of music and we want to push genres and boundaries with it. Can’t wait to share it all with you. S&G to the world, baby!
Shoal & Gonebrook Feat Coltham – Favour The Brave / Sensations are out Nov 28 and Dec 12 respectively
