Friday, May 6, 2011

Gang Gang Dance - Eye Contact





















(4AD, 2011)

Saint Dymphna, the predecessor to Eye Contact, was my album of the year for 2008. Which means that I bring expectations to the table. Gang Gang Dance has for a long time been swirling around in my life. I bought God’s Money at the Virgin Megastore in Time Square when Erin and I went to New York City for our honeymoon (that old thing). There’s a history here. I remember talking to one of the gang (gang) after their set at the Urban Lounge in Salt Lake City, about how it was like the wild wild west out here in a good way and how, even then, there was a vision for something that could transcend the avant, everything-Animal-Collective-related chatter of the day. And here we are now, in the middle of 2011, with Eye Contact, another wind-change for a band constantly fidgety, constantly on the move, constantly inventing. I can’t help but relate the album to Destroyer’s most recent effort, Kaputt. The way the both albums dive headlong into everything ridiculous and cheesy about music and come out the other side with amazingness. Eye Contact probably shouldn’t work. Erin said that Saint Dymphna didn’t work. I disagreed, obviously. And Eye Contact somehow also works. Even with all the glammy, synthetic, new-aginess of it all, it’s still got percussion upon percussion and rubber basslines and massive, ascending melodies. Gang Gang Dance will not burn out. They will burst hot forever. Eye Contact is forest music with eye glitter, but it’s no less primal for it, no less dangerous. Gang Gang Dance cannot be taken for anything other than Gang Gang Dance: a band fully formed and, with Eye Contact, stalking their peak.

Gang Gang Dance - Adult Goth

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