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

A Consolation: Gang Gang Dance

So Excited:

Video after the jump.

53.

Gang Gang Dance
Saint Dymphna
(The Social Registry, 2008)

The audacity of Saint Dymphna gets me every time. Following up their experimentally raw (and also super terrific) God’s Money with this polyrythmic dance/hip-hop album was a genious move that has garnered them the lime light that their contemporaries (Animal Collective, Black Dice) have been reaping for a long while.

-Thistle

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

Gang Gang Dance- Rawwar EP

Gang Gang Dance
Rawwar EP
(09.2007, Social Registry)
6.5/10.0

Rawwar is a diversionary tactic. Anyone as impressed as I was by Gang Gang Dance's 2005 release God's Money has been eagerly awaiting the purported full length follow up that was supposed to drop this year. And now this, Rawwar, a three song ep that just breaks twenty minute mark for length. The first track, "Nicoman," revisits the glory of God's Money but is followed by a ho-hum instrumental track and an extendedly boring mix of ambience and samples that harkens, most closely, this year’s earlier GGD diversion: Retina Riddim. I can't help but get anxious at what is going on. While the wait between album releases can give the necessary time to digest previous material and prepare for more, Gang Gang Dance is pushing the limits to forgetability. I actually spoke with Gang Gang’s drummer earlier this year about their forthcoming album when they played the Urban Lounge and he sounded pretty frustrated with their current process. Struggling with the funds necessary to record the album they wanted, they find themselves currently standing in the monetary shadows of good friends Animal Collective and Black Dice. I personally hate this stance because their production is lacking in no degree when filtered through my speakers. While Rawwar isn’t the death of Gang Gang Dance it is a serious speed bump and at $10, it is a pretty pricy fundraiser for a full length album that seems to be fading further into the horizon.

-Mr. Thistle

Gang Gang Dance - "The Earthquake That Frees Prisoners"