Gamblers Share 'Another Dose' Featuring Mick Jenkins

Long Island's Gamblers announced their new EP, When We Exit, last month with the new single "Preach Your Love" featuring NOVA ONE. They've returned today with a new clubby Mick Jenkins feature on "Another Dose".

While the first taste of Gamblers' new EP showed off a compelling dream-pop meets indie-rock track, Gamblers' genre fluidity is on full display with their Mick Jenkins collaboration that dabbles in House, Pop, and Hip-Hop production with Jenkins' flow front and center.

"Another Dose", and "Preach Your Love", flex the pop sensibilities and knack for writing incredibly replayable and catchy songs that are the core of the Gamblers' ethos.

Speaking to their new single, Michael McManus says; "Mick Jenkins is an artist whose work we became familiar with while recording our next record with The Brothers Nylon out on Long Island.

When the time came to discuss potential guests for this EP, I had the thought to reach out and see if he might be interested. He ended up being super down to earth and easy to work with, and his energetic performance inspired us to take the production of this song to an even deeper place electronically."

McManus formed Gamblers with the goal of bringing rap production styles to indie-rock songcraft. The first iteration of the band, which featured guitarist/songwriter Gary O'Keefe and drummer Johnny Hoblin, was based in Brooklyn between 2014 and 2019.

Lineups shifted; O'Keefe departed; Hoblin, McManus's best friend since elementary school, departed, too, and then returned to the fold. He is now a crucial element of the new iteration-shall we say second wave?-of Gamblers, as is lead guitarist Jimmy Usher, formerly of the influential Long Island band Edison Glass, whose distorted licks weave their way through these songs.

Gamblers formally introduced itself with the release in 2020 of Small World, which was praised by outlets like PopMatters and Newsday and landed single airplay on Sirius XM, NPR Music, and WFUV.

McManus's kaleidoscopic pop sensibility is the through-line-from the beatific, soaring harmonies of "Give Yourself Into Love" to the wistful psychedelia of "Corinthian Order"-but the songs are also replete with references to mental illness, violence, and personal tragedy.

"Tug of War" addresses the struggle of trying to balance being an artist with being a good person, while "Blood Sport" is a bubblegum pop song written from the perspective of a family dealing with a loved one in the throes of addiction. (Again, layers of meaning peel out from a deceptively simple surface.)

The new EP, When We Exit, can be understood as a bridge between Small World and an in-progress second Gamblers LP, which is already in the mixing stage. The goal was to put a new spin on preexisting songs and essentially "A&R" the album from a hip hop standpoint.

Thus, the EP contains skeletal remnants of five songs from Small World, remixed and thoroughly reimagined in a studio in Ridgewood, Queens. Small World's airy, lush title track, now called "Preach Your Love," morphs into a ghostly electro-pop banger; "Bound 2 Be Together" is deconstructed with technicolor synths and pounding '80s snares fit for a John Hughes soundtrack. The chorus of "Tug of War," rendered chilly and sparse, now bookends a rap verse by the underground Brooklyn MC known as Skyzoo.

Most dramatically, "Give Yourself Into Love"-retitled "Another Dose"-is transformed into a house-inspired rave-up with a mesmerizing verse from Chicago-based rapper Mick Jenkins. "I was just digging what he was doing musically" says McManus. "He's really easy to work with and it just came together really, really well."

In reimagining these songs with a curated network of collaborators, Gamblers are operating in the tradition of one of their biggest influences, Damon Albarn.

"I was always a fan of the approach Gorillaz takes, where there's a theme, and it's under this collective or band, but there's a ton of other people involved and it's a space for collaboration," McManus says. "Taking some more chances musically, and having a space to do that with some awesome collaborators, all within the context of the band-that was something I was really interested in."

Watch the new music video here:

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