Gang Gang Dance - Saint Dymphna

Gang Gang Dance
Saint Dymphna
(10.2008, The Social Registry)
Verdict = Gang Gang Dance finally take their rightful place

About this time of year my top ten list is starting to get pretty packed seeing as how the number of bands I have stated were top ten material are far more than ten. Well, even with that being the case I am more than comfortable pushing one more worthy artist out of a top slot to make room for Saint Dymphna. It is a requirement really. There are almost no other albums on the landscape of 2008 that can even marginally eff with what Gang Gang Dance has created here. This is good, because I was getting pretty worried there for a bit. Not that he would remember me, but the last time GGDD came rolling through Salt Lake I spoke with drummer Tim Dewitt and he seemed somewhat discouraged about the recording process. At the time, the band was planning on releasing the follow up to God’s Money in the fall of 2007. I waited, and after two fair EP length releases and no full length I began to get nervous. I thought, maybe it wasn’t possible to successfully follow up something as good as God’s Money. I was wrong. With Saint Dymphna, Gang Gang Dance has upped their game considerably. The band has finally solidified their place along side contemporary heavy weights like Animal Collective, Black Dice and Excepter as one of the foremost innovators in the art rock. That said, GGD has always been the most hip hop of these groups. Saint Dymphna reveals this in spades, filling every inch of the album with majestic, head-bobbing poly rhythms. The hip-hopness is most obvious on “Princes,” which employs the help of grime emcee, Tinchy Stryder. I have actually seen a couple reviews that have slammed this track and the other most notable single on the album, “House Jam.” Seems to me to be some type of ridiculous, “I-am-hipper-than-you-because-I-don’t-like-the-more-assecible-tracks” nonsense because GGD absolutely kill it on both tracks. Seriously, I have no idea how anyone could hate on those tracks, and no, they don’t feel out of place on the album. Anyway, absolutely sick album with dozens of memorable, melodic shifts within each and every track. It’s been worth the wait.

-Mr. Thistle

Gang Gang Dance on Myspace