(Muso's Guide, January 28, 2009)
Album Reviews
Gang Gang Dance are an experiemental music group.
It’s imperative that anyone who embarks on listening to Saint Dymphna, or indeed, any of Gang Gang Dance’s other three records, understands that fact. Experimental, as in, takes sounds you have never heard the like of before and mixes them with other sounds, to make something wholly unusual and, well, generally speaking, quite taxing.
Hailing from New York, the quartet have produced an audio release which sways from the sublime to the ridiculous. There are flashes of genius at work here and then there are pieces with all the aural appeal of having a cotton bud stuck too far inside the ear - painful, jarring and leaving you with a slightly violated feeling for the rest of the day.
With opener ‘Bebey’, Gang Gang Dance attempt to recreate the sounds of water, as ‘plinky plonky’ keyboard sounds ripple from the speakers. The whirring electronica of ‘First Communion’ puts the listener in mind of incidental music from Play School, which is ungainly at best, but here and elsewhere on the record there is a degree of oriental influence at work within the melody which is refreshing and intriguing.
As for the other accomplished areas, ‘Vacuum’ is a very atmospheric track, building like a lost Boards Of Canada classic and closer ‘Dust’ is grand and delicious. But then a track like ‘Princes’ wrongfoots with its Oxide and Neutrino-style rap and absurd lack of musical focus.
Saint Dymphna shows all the hallmarks of a band on the move. From the more sedate rhythms of some of their earlier work, they have grown, and their fourth record is the result - but the message in between the random notes is clear: there’s still a way to go to reach Gang Gang Dance’s best.
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