Gelli Haha’s ‘Funny Music‘ is a bright shape-shifting single, like falling through a wormhole of the entire history of popular music and journeying down a hall of mirrors. The tip-toeing analogue synths that remind one of early OMD or the work of Delia Derbyshire are moulded into giddy, witty, and surrealist pop music. Its nagging, bricolage of skittery beats and sounds is at once familiar and nostalgic, yet bristlingly unique. It oscillates somewhere between the fantasy adventurousness of Magadelena Bay, with dramatic, silly yet serious delivery that has echoes of Kate Bush, pirouetting, swooping and whispering in your ear. Described as “A Zero-G Pop Detour Between Studio 54 & Area 51”. It’s the second single from her debut album Switcheroo due on Innovative Leisure this summer. Watch the mind-bending video below.
A shapeshifter, a sonic acrobat, a performer with one foot in the cosmos and the other in arthouse theatrics, Gelli Haha (pronounced Jelly-Haha) is a space for pure creative chaos that exists somewhere between Studio 54 and Area 51. Gelli’s music thrives on duality: playful but profound, tongue-in-cheek but sincere. Switcheroo is the soundtrack to the Gelliverse, a sensory adventure sphere created by Gelli.
With a shared taste for off-kilter pop and vintage gear, producer Sean Guerin (of De Lux) joined Gelli in turning freshly-formed demos into a high-voltage experiment, abandoning meticulous structure for something freer and more electrifying. Every song on Switcheroo makes use of a myriad of recording toys; wacky analog effects, such as the Eventide Harmonizer, MXR Pitch Transposer, and various Electrix units, fashion an intentionally flawed and strictly silly texture throughout the album.
Switcheroo is an exercise in letting go, an inside joke turned theatrical spectacle. Participation is encouraged. Surrender is required. For more info, follow Gelli Haha on Instagram and/or TikTok.
Photo credit:Dev Bowman
