More about: Temps

Temps began when comedian James Acaster abandoned a mockumentary about drumming due to Covid, which left him with heaps of recordings of himself playing the drums. He decided to send them to musicians and artists he admired, and ask them to add to it. These recordings are what makes up Party Gator Purgatory, sent back and forth between Acaster and his collaborators, before Acaster cherry picked his favourite parts. 

Given that there are forty collaborators on this project, it sometimes feels impossible to keep track of everything and everyone. The eclecticism in Party Gator Purgatory feels delightfully un-curated, which makes it feel expansive and unpredictable. Speaking with Gigwise, Acaster told us about his enthusiasm for music that genre bends, and you can really hear his commitment to this in his music.

Part of me wishes that he would take a bit of time to stay in the same musical area, instead of racing between style and genre in a way that is almost dizzying. But at the same time, this giddiness is refreshing and exciting, meaning that Temps really does sound like little else out there. Tracks like ‘ificouldjust’ feel like a testament to the different places that music can take us, ending in a joyful cacophony of harmonies and Acaster’s percussion.

This playfulness in genre means that often the music feels ironic, like Temps are doing their best impression of snobby jazz guys or overearnest spoken word artists. When a twinkling funk-piano takes over midway through ‘partygatorresurrection’, or when ‘kept’ begins with a spoken-word section that features lyrics like “straddling its simplex syntax type”, Party Gator Purgatory can feel like it’s parodying certain genres and their proponents. Part of me thinks that this extrapolates too much from Acaster being known primarily as a comedian, that knowing this encourages the listener to think of Temps as an ironic or jokey project. However there is a lot that is clearly supposed to be funny about Party Gator Purgatory; from Temps’s image and press coverage being dominated by a human-sized cuddly toy that he won when he was 7, to the project’s original conception as a mockumentary about Acaster playing the drums. 

"There is a lot of serious music on Party Gator Purgatory, and you don’t have to look hard to find it."

Amidst all the joking around, though, Temps make a surprising amount of room for seriousness. Opener ‘lookaliveandplaydead’ starts with a sombre drum beat, whilst closing track feels almost hymn-like as Yoni Wolf and Shamir duet over space-age synths. It is very easy for jokey music to come across as cringe. But there is a lot of serious music on Party Gator Purgatory, and you don’t have to look hard to find it. 

‘partygatorR.I.P’ transitions seamlessly from noughties-inspired groves through a funky keyboard section to what feels like an off-the-cuff a capella jam. As well as the genre transgressing, Temps leans heavily on interesting rhythms and time signatures, which is unsurprising given the project’s beginnings. This tendency forces contributors, especially those not from a jazz background, a new creative space to work in, and it really pays off. Listening to Party Gator Purgatory, you can hear a lot of familiar sounds or stylings, but it is all set against a background that is somewhat different to what we expect. 

I think it is this background that makes Party Gator Purgatory such an enjoyable listen. Each time you hear a song, you notice something new, a new mood or perspective. It truly is an album that gets better on each listen, due to the sheer amount of stuff packed into each track, and the obviously high calibre of the musicians working on the project. Despite the joking around, Acaster has produced an album which stands up as really good serious music.

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More about: Temps