Experimental Mercury Prize-nominated UK trio Gogo Penguin release their third single “Friday Film Special,” a low-fi breakbeat nod to the seminal hip-hop instrumentals of DJ Shadow, with a nostalgia-tinged sonic palette. The single is from the band’s upcoming album Everything Is Going to Be OK, out April 14, 2023, is the first LP from the trio since almost breaking up, re-forming with a new member, signing to a new label and persevering through immense personal loss.

You can pre-order Everything Is Going to Be OK here.

“Friday Film Special” is a masterpiece in low-fi composition that builds into climactic tension. Peppered with lush piano, eerie synths, and a plunking, funky bassline, the new single shows off the subtle range of Gogo Penguin and the exploration of the interior, while also casting the net culturally back to the late 80s/90s.

Says bassist Nick Blacka, “Chris and I have been big fans of hip hop and instrumental hip hop albums for many years and it’s something that we haven’t had much chance to explore before with GoGo Penguin. Albums such as DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing were a huge influence on us when we were young and ‘Friday Film Special’ really tips its cap to the hip-hop instrumentals that we’d grown up loving. We were both into skateboarding as kids and I think we wanted to capture a nostalgic throwback to those times.”

He reminisces, “I remember being incredibly young and asking my older brother what he was watching one day, and he said, ‘Friday Film Special’. Friday Film Specials were a series of films made by the Children’s Film Foundation and were on TV every Friday in the mid to late 80s. Even at the time, they felt old because most of them were made in the 1970s, so all the kids were wearing flares. It’s one of the most retro and nostalgic things I could think of.”

photo: Veil Projects, Emily Dennison