Larry Gus

Greek artist Panagiotis Melidis adopted the moniker Larry Gus in 2006 once his organic punk duo Ginger had disbanded, shifting focus to solo electronic production. He derived the alias from the Greek term “Larigas,” denoting throat or larynx, whose phonetic twist appealed as a fitting banner for his emerging work. Blending trippy experimental electronics with pop songwriting and alternative dance music, his earliest sample-driven pieces surfaced in television commercials before evolving into live sets built around improvised looping and spontaneous assembly of kaleidoscopic beats. The project’s first proper full-length, Stitches, appeared in 2009 via the Greek imprint Cast-A-Blast. After numerous compilation contributions, remixes, and web-only tracks, Melidis joined DFA, issuing Silent Congas digitally in 2012 and following it with Years Not Living in 2013. His third album, I Need New Eyes, arrived in 2015 and, though still musically intricate, reduced reliance on samples. For the subsequent long-player Subservient, released on DFA in 2019, Gus performed every part himself on guitar, bass, drum kit, and both portable and vintage synthesizers. The same sessions also produced the standalone 7-inch “Kerkis (Judas-Tree)/Foreign Steps.” Screenwriter Efthimis Filippou, known for The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer, co-wrote the lyrics to “Kerkis (Judas-Tree).”