Tom Morello + Serj Tankian Salute Andy Gill on Gang of Four Cover

As teased last year, System of a Down's Serj Tankian and Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello have united in their shared love and respect of Gang of Four vocalist Andy Gill to cover Gang of Four's "Natural's Not in It" for an upcoming tribute album.

The set is titled The Problem of Leisure: A Celebration of Andy Gill and Gang of Four and is expected later this year. Gill initially conceived this project as a way to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the band's breakout release Entertainment! A full track listing for the collection along with the artists involved will be revealed on Jan. 14, but for now the Axis of Justice pals are giving the set the high profile introduction it deserves.

"Natural's Not In It" first came to attention on Gang of Four's 1979 debut album Entertainment!

“Andy Gill was one of a handful of artists in history who changed the way guitars are played,” Morello said in a statement provided to Spin, who premiered the cover. “His band Gang of Four were just incendiary and completely groundbreaking with Andy’s confrontational, unnerving and sublime playing at the forefront. His jagged plague-disco raptor-attack industrial-funk deconstructed guitar anti-hero sonics and fierce poetic radical intellect were hugely influential to me.”

“It was a real pleasure to work on this track with Tom and honor the legacy of Andy and Gang of Four at the same time,” Tankian added.

Gill was one of the many great musicians we lost in 2020. The vocalist died on February 1, 2020 after a short respiratory illness.

“Andy loved what Tom and Serj did with this song, the fierceness of their attack and the jet-engine scream of feedback,” says Gill’s widow, Catherine Mayer. “This was a track Andy always enjoyed performing. He said their version brilliantly captured all the explosive, danceable energy ‘Natural’s Not In It’ can create in live performance.”

Mayer added of the upcoming release, "Andy was massively excited about this project. It wasn’t of course conceived as a tribute album, but it’s comforting to me that he lived to see artists he hugely admired enthusiastically agreeing to participate, signaling that the admiration was mutual.”

Take a listen to the song right here and look for the track hitting streaming services tomorrow (Jan. 8). You can pre-save via the platform of your choosing here.

Tom Morello + Serj Tankian, 'Natural's Not in It" (Gang of Four Cover)