GusGus, an ensemble from Iceland, appeared on the horizon of the dance scene with Polydistortion (Iceland, 1995 - 4AD, 1997), one of those works of art that subverts and redefines the existing paradigm. The futuristic funk of Gun and the psychedelic techno of Believe epitomize the modus operandi of the band: enhance the melodic song format, while reducing the emotional impact, through an eccentric use of electronics. Gun's core is a shuffle-like polyrhythm of percussions and keyboards that has a life of its own. The soul chanting is a mere parasite on the rhythm's metabolism, an expedient that takes away the emotion from the vocals. African tribalism and a bombing bass propel Believe.
The roots of GusGus' music are in the 1970s and 1980s, and several tracks can be read as tributes to Prince and Barry White (Barry, Polyesterday). But, even when the band sticks to the classic formats of funk and soul, the results seem to land on Earth from another planet, certainly from another culture. Cold Breath '79, sung by Hafdis Huld in a tenuous falsetto, seems to disappear (like a mirage) behind a curtain of slim electronic percussions. The same singer delivers the subdued dirge of Is Jesus Your Pal with childish phrasing and Nico-grade calm in a nightmarish atmosphere of distant echoes. Remembrance is virtually a duet between the male voice (Magnus Jonsson), that impersonates a gloomy folksinger (imagine Lycia), and the orchestral background and the pounding beats. GusGus coined a new kind of ballad, something like the Cowboy Junkies remixed by Tricky.
The pop-jazz ballad Why breaks with this modus operandi. Finally, the singer affirms her feelings and the instruments merely accompany her (the traditional song scheme). In
Everything is sort of anemic, sleepy, out of focus: rhythms never fully hypnotize, melodies are half-whispered, the electronics is subdued. GusGus' atmosphere contrasts starkly with the exuberance of 1970s disco. GusGus' sound is the equivalent of be-bop in the age of trip-hop: a dejected soundtrack for the neuroses of the urban crowd.

On This Is Normal (4AD, 1999) the sound of the nine-piece has evolved towards a more straightforward (i.e., danceable) hybrid of trip-hop and dance-pop. The impeccable vocal harmonies and syncopated polyrhythms of Ladyshave and Starlovers are far catchier than the earlier tracks, but the band has sacrificed the soul of its eccentric retro program to the fashionable sounds of the 1990s, namely Chemical Brothers (Jonsson's funky Very Important People, Agust's trip-hoppish Acid Milk, Alfred More's disco locomotive Love vs Hate) and especially Bjork (Teenage Sensation and Superhuman, both written by Kjartansson and sung by Hafdis Huld), albeit a Bjork who whispers as sensual as Natalie Merchant. The band has certainly perfected the art of arranging melodies with electronic sounds. Each track is crafted with elegance and style. But the excess of decoration betrays either an eclectic disposition or a lack of confidence and inspiration. The spare, decadent ballad that closes the album, Jonsson's Dominique, drowning in orchestral nebulae, may be worth more than all the dance hits together.
Among the members, the personality to emerge forcefully is that of Daniel Agust. Besides signing the hits, Agust delivers two ballads that don't quite fit with the rest, the orchestral Bambi and the psychedelic Snoozer.

The EP Vs T-World (4AD, 2000) is a collection of instrumental dance music composed by Biggi Thorarinsson and Herb Legowitz before the inception of GusGus. Purple and Anthem are dancefloor grooves, while Rosenberg and Esja display a darker and more experimental style.

Now reduced to a quartet (led by new female singer Urdur "DJ Earth" Hakonardottir), GusGus turns Attention (Underwater, 2002) into a retro-synth-pop affair (Unnecessary, David, Dance You Down, Attention, Call of the Wild). With the exception of Your Moves Are Mine, the music sounds mechanic and impersonal. A couple of incursions into techno (Desire, I.I.E.) do not succeed in relieving the overall feeling of dejavu.

The predictable and almost nostalgic house music (Lust, Moss, Need In Me) of Forever (Gun Ho, 2007) was a far cry from the enthusiastic creations of Polydistortion.

24/7 (2009), that marked the return of vocalist Daniel Agust Haraldsson after a decade, sets the chaotic instrumental Bremen Cowboy and the eleven-minute elegy Add This Song in a skeletal beatscape.