In two weeks’ time, April 20th to be precise, Andy Gill’s long running post-punk outfit Gang of Four are set to release their new EP, Complicit—which features some very bold cover art.
On the cover in fact, is none other than Ivanka Trump—President Donald Trump’s daughter that he was once quoted as asking someone—while she was the age of a mere 13 years old:
“Is it wrong to be more sexually attracted to your own daughter than your wife?”
Perhaps along the lines of the incestuous quote above, Gang of Four’s EP complicit contains a track titled: “Ivanka (Things You Can’t Have).”
In a statement about the song, Gang of Four’s Andy Gill says:
“When we think of “the media,” everyone has lots of ideas about what we mean. It could be social media, where hundreds of memes criss-cross the world; informing, misinforming, beginning or reinforcing ideas that may last a lifetime and beyond. Ideas about Jews, Muslims, or, say, the world trade centre or perhaps, the criminality of certain American politicians. And then there is the receding traditional media with disappearing jobs like “journalists” and “fact checkers.” That’s the media the Trump family despise”.
Notice that the EP’s title is also written in Russian adjacent to English text, certainly implying collusion between Putin and the Trump administration.
Listen to the first track off of the EP “Lucky” below, to which Gill goes on to describe as a product of chance:
“I’d been watching a serious debate on one of those financial news channels – six white men in suits arguing about the stock markets – and it set me thinking about how limited luck can be. A lot of trading is anyway now done by algorithms to try to eliminate the element of chance, but luck isn’t capable of fundamentally changing the system. Even if you believe market crashes are the result of bad luck rather than layer upon layer of human and machine error, the system shudders, restarts and goes on as before.”
Complicit is out on 4/20, with guitarist Gill joined by frontman John “Gaoler” Sterry and the rhythm section of Thomas McNiece and Tobias Humble.
Gang of Four also have promised to followup the EP with a new album this summer.
