gushes is hyper rhythmic guitar loop-driven performance art-rock by Jennae Santos.
Santos lives in Brooklyn, was born and raised in the Bay Area, and traces their bloodlines across the Philippines archipelago. These varied coastlines— urban/queer, powerful/dramatic, vibrant/tropical compose the space from which their practice spills forth.
A tapestry of interlocking, polyrhythmic, ambient, and textural guitar loops form the foundation for lyrical songwriting and multiplicitous instrumentation. Held to the present, the loops are organically off-kilter and never quantized. An ever-evolving roster of collaborators further energizes gushes compositions. The music is arranged for chamber prog ensemble, rock band, movement cycle, sound installation, dance music, and drone. 70s prog, dance punk, soul, kulintang in conversation with Afro-Latin rhythms, and cinematic sound design inform their musical world-building. gushes’ ritualistic performances employ light, wind, mirrors, and flowers with intimate bombast and ceremony, casting tactile mythos for unbound expressions of liberation.
gushes has performed in DIY spaces, music venues, and theaters across the US including Performance Space New York, National Sawdust, Abrons Art Center, Trans Pecos, TV Eye, Union Pool, Movement Research, Basilica Hudson, The Vulcan, Thee Stork Club, Eli’s Mile High Club, Coaxial Arts, and JACK Arts.
Santos’ professional work includes Karen O’s (Yeah Yeah Yeahs) psycho opera Stop the Virgens at St Anne’s Warehouse in Brooklyn and The Sydney Opera House directed by Adam Rapp, Spooky Death Ride Sister Wives band with Yuka C Honda (Cibo Matto), Satomi Matsuzaki (Deerhoof), Jen Goma, and Noga Shefi, Dronechoir by Arone Dyer (Buke & Gase) at Basilica Hudson, Wave Hill, and O+ Festival, repairing permissions with Accidental Movement choreographed by Mariangela Lopez at Gibney Dance Center, and Life and Times: Episodes 1-4 with Nature Theater of Oklahoma at The Public Theater (NYC).
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“ONE OF NYC’S MOST EXCITING AND BOUNDARY-PUSHING GUITAR ACTS”
“‘YES MA’AM’ IS SIMULTANEOUSLY A DELIGHTFUL NIGHTMARE AND A HEADBANGING ASSERTION OF POWER. IT’LL WORM ITS WAY INTO YOUR HEAD AND REFUSE TO LET GO.
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“EMBODYING SLUDGY PSYCHEDELIA, WARPED POST-ROCK, AND CLOUDS OF GLITTERING AMBIENCE, SANTOS’ INDULGENT APPROACH TO SONGCRAFT ON GUSHING HELD SPACE FOR BOTH THRILLING PROGRESSIVE JAMS AND HEALING SELF-DEVOTION.”
“SIMPLY ONE OF THE MOST POIGNANT PROGRESSIVE ROCK BANDS AROUND TODAY”