Diablo: Limited Edition Neon Pink Vinyl 2LP

Close your eyes and listen to Gabe Gurnsey’s latest offering, “Diablo”. You might be transported to a German autobahn after nightfall, strobe lights flashing in your private imaginarium. Or perhaps to a dimly lit basement, getting your top off as sound cascades off of concrete walls. Gurnsey’s music is like an aural cinema, conjuring multiple screenplays, usually involving the darkness. “Diablo” moves in unexpected directions, and you quickly realise you can relax and trust it to make you feel extremely good. We’re in a place of giddy echoes, 808 boings, sexy-menacing vocals and soft throbs, with lyrics full of pleasure and desire; like proper rave lyrics, they are in turn filthy, grandiose, devotional, and cryptic.

“Diablo” is the follow-up to Gurnsey’s acclaimed 2018 debut, “Physical”, on Erol Alkan’s Phantasy Sound. Where “Physical” followed the arc of a night out in a linear way, “Diablo” expands time, slows it down and opens it up, showing a quiet confidence and progression, and making judicious use of Gurnsey’s girlfriend, Tilly Morris, whose role is that of both muse and collaborator. “I wanted Tilly to dominate on Diablo,” Gurnsey explains. “I wanted her to have free rein. This album works because of her influence, her input.”