Willem Gator

Willem Gator“Willem Gator focuses on the larger impact. Letting each song gradually increase in emotional intensity helping it incorporate both rock and electronic aspects.” – Beach Slot

Willem Gator creates a unique blend of downtempo beats, fat basslines and a multitude of oriental and orchestral instruments. He creates music that is not only about ‘place’, but also deeply embedded in its own place of construction and composition. His pivotal 2011 album Hong Kong Express is testament to this approach, composed while the artist lived in a ‘cubby hole’ apartment in Kowloon.
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Discography

 

The Encyclopedia of Failure


October 2022

The Encyclopedia of Failure is the final album to be released under Giuseppe Musmeci’s Willem Gator moniker – but certainly not the last we will hear from him. Fittingly, there’s a focus and relentless drive to this music that speaks to a desire for closure. ‘A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step’ opens the album in a style reminiscent of Giorgio Moroder’s Midnight Express soundtrack, which sets the scene for a hypnotic, nocturnal excursion. First single, ‘When stuck, hit the road’, is a heady dancefloor filler, with its roving, gaseous synths and insistent beats. ‘The highlights of a failure’ channels prime Plaid and draws on some of the noisy, rhythmic elements of early Severed Heads, resulting in a visceral, emotive piece. ‘Poets don’t finish poems, they abandon them’ closes the album like a slow-release musical narcotic, gradually building tension before letting it out in one final, cinematic exhalation.

 

Sold Out


March 2022

Sold Out taps into both the playful, danceable territory of Severed Heads and the focused melodic drive of early Warp releases. ‘2007’ is hypnotic and pulsing, evoking a dreamy, nocturnal landscape. ‘Fragments Vol. 2’ conjures an eerie, almost tribal atmosphere, like Popul Vuh jamming with Dead Can Dance. The five-track release reaches its climax with the 11-minute ‘It Collapse’, which lays elegant yet icy synth tones over stuttering rhythms and a roving, questioning bassline.

 

Fragments Vol. 1


February 2021

On his new EP as Willem Gator, Giuseppe Musmeci juxtaposes the glimmering tones of Asian stringed instruments against haunting vocal samples, shimmering guitar loops and pounding drum refrains. ‘Fall of Saigon’, ‘Voice of Korea’ and ‘Korean Shaman Exorcist’ all employ these instrumental ingredients to mesmerising effect. At the EP’s heart lies the glowering, reflective ‘Noodles Western’, built around piano, synth strings and pattering cymbals. Closing track ‘Pina’ sees Musmeci’s role in post-rock band HC-B brought to the fore, with drums that would sit right at home on instrumental hip-hop, offset by spiralling instrumental textures.

 

Locked-In Syndrome

December 2017

Across its concise 40-minute run-time, Locked-In Syndrome deploys its beats and synths for maximum impact, creating an eminently danceable yet deeply melancholic experience. Conveying the overwhelming experience of being at a hedonistic celebration and feeling profoundly detached and alone, these electronic paeans to dislocation scale the musical skies while plumbing the emotional lows. Stretching out across six-plus minutes, tracks like ‘Umbrella Revolution’ and ‘AF 16’ have a deeply satisfying momentum, carrying the listener towards a shadowy, unknown destination. Indeed, for Willem Gator, the journey is the destination – a lonely ride through night-time streets, where bright lights promise much and deliver nothing… The album features stunning artwork by English collage artist and musician Ashley Reaks.

Hong Kong Express

2011

In “Hong Kong Express” fat basslines create Berliner style patterns pulsating through landscapes of oriental instruments such as the Erhu, Zheng, Sanxian and swarms of Chinese percussions. While you listen to these tracks, you’ll be able to see and feel the places, faces and ambience of the streets in Hong Kong and of the smothering cubby-hole in Kowloon where they were conceived and almost completed.

Touch me and i will save you

2008

Touch me and i will save you is Guiseppe Musmeci’s sophomore release under the Willem Gator moniker, preceded by the debut Musica Orchestrale per sordi. The album is a gorgeous tapestry of atmospheric down-tempo counterpointed by a number of more urgent and angular electronic beat driven explorations. As with each Willem Gator release Touch me and i will save you has a unique wholeness to it and expands when given the full album listening experience.

Biography

Willem Gator is Giuseppe Musmeci, self-taught composer, guitarist, electronic musician and member of the Italian post-rock outfit HC-B. Musmeci’s rich background in electronic music production and keen sense of texture sees him creating highly distinctive music under his Willem Gator moniker: “My music is photography of a time, of the people I met and the emotion they gave to me.” Willem Gator has performed throughout Europe, sharing the stage with musicians such as FM Einhet (Einsturzende Neubauten), Flying Luttenbachers, Unsane, DJ Spooky, Pansonic, Nobokazu Takemura, U-Cef, Battles and Art Brut.

News

Reviews

  • Willem Gator “Encyclopedia of Failure” Reviewed at Europa e Cultura Electronica

    Translated from the original Italian

    “2022 album for Sicilian musician and producer Giuseppe Musumeci, better known as Willem Gator.

    Willem Gator is a self-taught composer, guitarist and electronic music programmer. His futuristic background leads him to pour powerful bass on highly distinctive grooves created by his very personal views on sound and the pursuit of rhythm.

    Willem Gator has performed across Europe, sharing the stage with musicians such as FM Einhet (Einsturzende Neubauten), Flying Luttenbachers, Unsane, DJ Spooky, Pansonic, Nobokazu Takemura, U-Cef, Battles and Art Brut.

    The tracklist includes ambient techno tracks (A Journey Of A Thousand Miles Begins With A Single Step and When Stuck, Hit The Road) tech house (I Was A Raging Dog, Even The Finest Sword Plunged Into Salt Water Will Eventually Rust and The Highlights Of A Failure), which can call Jon Hopkins or the German techno school depending on the mood.

    There is also room for sounds that recall Mike Oldfield (What Dies In Beauty Dies In Me) and modern classical (Sounds Are Running Race The Trek The Climb The Swim The Pace), until the ambient closure of Poets Don’t Finish Poems, They Abandon Them.

    Willem Gator offers us a techno that is always spinning and direct, never ostica, but full of pathos and suggestions, capable of creating ethereal and melancholic atmospheres together.

    Recommended for those who love the music of Jon Hopkins, Plaid, Giorgio Moroder.”

    – Europa e Cultura Electronica

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  • Willem Gator “Locked in Syndrome” Reviewed at Echoes and Dust

    “There’s something inherently moving when it comes to electronic music. It’s not obvious and at times the underlying theme is more serious than the overlying tone of the music leads the listener to believe. This is the case with the last release by Italian electronic producer, Willem Gator entitled Locked-In Syndrome.

    The album contains six tracks that come in at almost 40 minutes of listening pleasure. As stated in the write-up for this release by Hidden Shoal independent music label, “Indeed, for Willem Gator, the journey is the destination – a lonely ride through night-time streets, where bright lights promise much and deliver nothing…”. I felt that sentiment at times throughout some of the tracks, more obvious with tracks such as ‘Standing on a street corner waiting for no one is power’ with its disconnected piano piece at the beginning of the track and synth lament in behind. The beat pushes the listener through until a change at the 1:32 mark brings continuity. The track’s funky beat and many layers make this a great track to start the album.

    There are three tracks that really stood out for me on this album. ‘Af 16’, ‘Umbrella Revolution’ and ‘Closer’. Rather than write about all of the tracks, I will focus on these three for the rest of this review.

    ‘Af 16’, brings an awesome synth start with a great panning effect. It’s like fireworks between the ears. Love the synth swells throughout. The beat is driving and intense. Wait for the change at around the 3:58 mark. For me, this track is a mix of 65daysofstatic and Boards of Canada.

    The beat in ‘Umbrella Revolution’ reverberates and I find the effect cavernous, it’s incredible. Great synth layers again, the track really makes you move. A pause in the track made me think it was over, but not so. It comes back with a different beat. More of a wet tone effect and a low growl. Great changes in this track.

    ‘Closer’ is a favourite for its driving beat and cool synth layers. This track also introduced a bit of guitar which definitely added another dimension to the track. The track is rich and full. A great way to end the album. I could listen to this track all day.

    If you are in need of some synth and cool beats in your life, this is your album.”

    – Echoes and Dust

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  • Willem Gator “Locked-In Syndrome” Reviewed at Wicked Style

    [Translated from the original Italian via Google]

    “From the Italian producer Willem Gator comes an eclectic album of epic melancholic electronica, poised between post rock and clubbing sonority, full of dreamy musical constructions, along six different tracks, for a total of 40 minutes, modulating softly and with cinematic digressions , in now more eclectic passages, at other times more tense and eccentric, always with a strong emotional impact. Giuseppe Musmeci, this is the name of the musician’s registry, he chose for the Locked-In Syndrome project the Hidden Shoal, an independent Australian label that has focused its work on experimenters and bands not related to a specific genre. The result is interesting and worthy of careful listening.”

    – Wicked Style

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  • Willem Gator “Locked-In Syndrome” Reviewed at Global Music Magazine

    [Translated from the original German via Google.]

    “Carried by a strong rhythmic foundation and steeped in audacious sounds, it is possible to describe the new album by the Italian Giuseppe Musmeci, who, as author, however, states the project Willem Gator.

    He has baptized his work “Locked-In Syndrome”. Probably because his music sounds like it’s breaking out of the corset of the musical mainstream. Obviously, Willem Gator refuses to swim, copy, and search for what matters best. Occasionally, his beats and synth sounds sound as if he wants to prove that noncomformance can lead to catchy music.

    With catchy music we do not mean pop music, so nothing that immediately and immediately like. Everything, just do not adapt, is more the motto of the Italian. He does not move so much offside with his pulsating drum loops and feverish sequencer lines. So far from the fact that she quickly gets in the ear, his music is not at all. Rather, only a small thing is missing. This charming game, as if to say that I could, if I wanted, mastered Giuseppe Musmeci perfectly.

    So he drives his fun for almost 40 minutes. As a listener, you are in the end sweaty about the merciless force of this music. When game consoles dance to steamrams, it must sound like “Locked-In Syndrome”. Wow!”

    – Global Music Magazine

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  • Willem Gator ‘Closer’ Reviewed at Escafandrista

    [Translated from the Spanish via Google]

    “Closer is the first sample of the Sublime Locked-In Syndrome , the fifth album by Italian electronic producer Willem Gator .The artist creates a combination of downtempo beats, bass lines and a multitude of oriental and orchestral instruments. It focuses on each song gradually increasing in emotional intensity, helping to incorporate both rock and electronic aspects. The result is an experience that is eminently danceable but deeply melancholic. It transmits hedonism and detachment. Electronic anthems scale the musical skies while probing the emotional lows.”

    – Escafandrista

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  • “Eat Your Friends” Compilation Reviewed at DOA

    “Over almost a decade, Hidden Shoal records developed a reputation as a consistently innovative and experimental music label, giving to us music of remarkable qualities whether it was the instrumental excursions of Gilded, the blissed-out indie of My Majestic Star, the electronica of Marcus Mehr, the alt.folk stylings of Kramies – the HSR list of significant talents was a lengthy one. I say was, as in 2014 or thereabouts, the Hidden Shoal label underwent a reorganisation of sorts, and it began to seem that one of the more influential Australian record labels of the recent past was itself going into hiding. Perhaps so, although only to return refreshed, renewed, invigorated and with its varying artistic visions intact – the Eat Your Friends compilation proves that the Hidden Shoal label is properly with us again.

    One thing I’ve found when reviewing compilations is that not infrequently, when I put them into my music players, the tracks separate instead of remaining in their album folder, and that has happened with my copy of Eat Your Friends, encouraging me to view each of the tracks as a single release rather than view the album itself as a cohesive whole. Then there’s the fact that only some of its contributors are already known to me and so, ditching some of my preconceptions about what it’s going to sound like, I began listening to the 11 tracks in a random sequence, and prepared for the unexpected.

    Firstly, there’s singer/songwriter Erik Nilsson’s “Moksha Can Wait”, a song which electronic composer Marcus Mehr has taken and adapted to his subtly developed production sound, a track that begins almost inaudibly and builds to a staggering crescendo of soaring, roaring electronic sound and with Nilsson’s guitar and piano providing a counterpoint to Mehr’s swirling atmospherics. The ambient chill of City Of Satellites is given an added gloss by Tim Manzano, although I’m not so sure what he’s actually done with the track – it does sound a lot like the City Of Satellites I know from their Machine Is My Animal album, although as the track progresses and the rhythm and bass begin to disintegrate into a dubby conclusion it seems more apparent where Manzano has left his mark. Arc Lab’s “Through The Burning Glass” is remixed by Glanko, beginning with a club-level bassline before levelling into a noir tinged synth epic. And just when you thought the tracks on Eat Your Friends were entirely instrumentals, Rew perform a cover version of Umpire’s “Green Light District” and they do it with a vocal, alongside the strings and crashing cymbals and haltingly uncertain rhythms, a highlight of an album each of whose tracks is in one or another way remarkable.”

    – DOA

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Licensing

Willem Gator’s music is  available for licensing (master & sync cleared) through Hidden Shoal. Please contact us with some basic details about your project and the track(s) you wish to use and we’ll be sure to get back to you straight away.

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