Gang Gang Dance - Saint Dymphna Review (In Real Time)

ganggangdance-st Gang Gang Dance - Saint Dymphna Review (In Real Time)

So here’s the drill. Gang Gang Dance’s Saint Dymphna is out on October 21st on Social Registry. I have an advance copy and am going to sit down, listen, and blog my review/experience live, and hopefully, won’t have the egregious grammatical errors that plagued the Deerhunter real time review.

As far as the music that you find on this blog, Gang Gang Dance is a rather important force, and they have their fingers in a lot of pies. From conducting the the Brookyln chapter of the 88 Boardrums to opening for Sonic Youth (which was my first exposure to the group at the CMJ Music Marathon opening party) to buddying up with Animal Collective and Black Dice, they tend to be looked at as an artist’s artist.

For the Gang Gang Dance novice, GGD specializes in complex rhythms and dense layers of equal parts noise and melody, with tribal/worldbeat influences in both the percussion and the vocal chants. Like the Dirty Projectors, Gang Gang Dance is a New York band extremely popular in the noise kids circle while also, and perhaps inexplicably, gaining notoriety among the indie pop dorks. As such, Saint Dymphna, the anticipated follow up to 2005’s God’s Money, has a lot of dudes muy entusiasmado.Mashin’ play…

1) Bebey – 4:53
The first two minutes of this introductory track have a groove quite similar to their labelmates Growing. Lots of shattered tremolo-soaked noise until the Indian-influenced beat drops in. The timbre and rhythm of the percussion sounds almost like tablas – almost. The bit-crushed samples and treble-riding rhythm augmented with an Egyptian house flavor radiates a strange Matmos meets Lee Scratch Perry vibe. I would prefer if this track was an instrumental, as Liz Bougatsos’ yelps are distracting.

2) First Communion – 3:05
Daft Punk fans rejoice. At the 20 second mark, a serious space disco beat pokes through all the general weirdness. Gang Gang Dance has just proclaimed that Saint Dymphna will be their pop breakthrough. I’m going to go on and call them the Cibo Matto of the ’00s, and not just because of the accent-heavy vocals. The electro-acoustic dance sprawl throughout also recalls Excepter’s more beat-oriented material. Why is Gang Gang Dance considered a noise band? Experimental, yes, but not noise.

3) Blue Nile – 3:09
This is a great track! The deep harmonies, the mix of acoustic drums and synthesized beats, and the almost juxtaposed Middle Eastern vibe of yodels and chants conjures up prog to an extent, without the unnecessary length. If all of their material sounded like “Blue Nile,” they’d be a good fit for Sunburned Hand of the Man or Circle. I hope the rest of the album follows this vibe, as my esoteric ears will be won over instantly.

4) Vaccum – 4:13
Gang Gang Dance welcomes you to to sci-fi territories. You hear the archetypal “shooting lasers” effect mixed with thick, high octave synthesizer reminiscent of choice space rock, and a pinch of distortion. Though this is the group’s closet foray into psychedelic, it comes off as a bit corny.

5) Princes – 4:26
Woah, what the fuck? When did Gang Gang Dance get all up in the UK Garage genre? Who the hell is rapping? Sounds like a British version of Birdman, or whoever that dude was who collaborated on the Lil’ Wayne song about cake and eating stuff and riding motorcycles. Let me research this, brb…

Okay, back, it’s MC Tinchy Stryder, and he’s in the grime scene, not UK Garage. Are they different? I don’t remember. Anyway, this collaboration would’ve sounded pretty monumental and out of left field if it was released before Dizzee Rascal’s Boy in da Corner. No doubt that this is certainly a club banger, and hell, next time I DJ, I might throw this on. But right now it’s really harshing my mellow and is quite misplaced on this album.

5) Inner Pace – 3:17
A minute and a half of a meandering, phased out tabla-style beat with a “woo” at the end of each measure proves to be rather… annoying. The interlude, I suppose you could call it, gradually evolves into a barrage of glitchy space-age beeps, blips, Gameboy sound effects, and fractured vocals loops with a couple of “oh yeahs” in tow. Just because you can combine various genres and effects together doesn’t mean you necessarily should. I feel like M.I.A. is going to drop in any minute to bust a rhyme or two. Speaking of, I have an interesting story about Diplo peeing in my backyard that I’ll tell another day. True story.

7) Afoot – 3:25
I’m beginning to get bummed on this album. This is the first time where the tribal beats that defined God’s Money are really showcased, without any real melodies or noise explorations to augment them. Instead, you get a mostly spoken word diatribe against… something. Maybe capitalism? Maybe McDonald’s restaurants opening up in India? Maybe it’s a secret message to drink your Ovaltine.

8 ) House Jam – 4:44
The album’s mid section is really sagging. Sure, this would be an obvious single, as it’s the most melodic, and certainly the most straight-forward (pretty standard 3/4 measure), but songs like this are fairly unremarkable and don’t showcase why Gang Gang Dance has become so revered. “House Jam” is more like “Poppy Post Rock Dance Number” or “Richard Gere Dinner Party.” Battles pulled off this vibe a lot more fluidly and creatively with last year’s Mirrored.

9) Interlude – 1:16
Sounds like a vocal sample was spread across an octave and played along a traditional Middle Eastern scale. This is pretty cool, but unfortunately, Gang Gang Dance elected to form “House Jam” into a full length song instead of this one.

10 ) Desert Storm – 5:10
Soap opera intro? I have no idea what just happened in the first four seconds. It sounded like Liz and Tricky just broke up or somethin’. That’s a drag, man. “Desert Storm” is “House Jam Redux” – same tempo, same idea – amalgamating odd beats to swaying rhythms, broken samples fluttering in and out, and those expressive and worldly Cibo Matto vocals. “Desert Storm” is a really ridiculous and hokey name considering, ya know, they’re a band throwing Middle Eastern rhythms and melodies into their genre burgoo.

11) Dust- 5:30
At least Saint Dymphna ends on a high note. “Dust” is very, very reminiscent of some of my favorite Brian Eno work, primarily Another Green World and My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. Gorgeous melodies, engaging samples, a mystical, temple-like sonic milieu, and a phantasmal soundscape accent the majority of this instrumental. If the rest of this album took cues from “Dust,” Gang Gang Dance would’ve dropped a killer new joint.

I was hoping to have a more analytical, creative review for you all. Unfortunately, I suppose mediocre records result in mediocre entries. I apologize, but perhaps that says more in a review than anything – if the music can’t inspire you by example, then maybe not much needs to be said at all. As I’ve mentioned many times before on this blog, the notion of the “assocative listening experience” can really affect you negatively. With the amount of adoration and lauding Gang Gang Dance garners from taste-making acts, you expect something great, which also cultivates a ripe environment to be let down hard. I guess I don’t get why this isn’t as earth-shattering as I’m told it is, from people whose opinions I almost always agree with no less. Perhaps with multiple listens it will grow on me.

Saint Dymphna is not a bad album. As a matter of fact, it has flashes of brilliance in the first and last tracks that bookend the album. Unfortunately, Saint Dymphna does not remain consistent, and the band seems to spend the middle third of the album trying to reach out to a broad audience with club bangers that, although slightly askew, follow a pretty standard pop checklist. The really insane neo-tribal groove and slowly enveloping moods established on God’s Money, for all intents and purpose, were pretty much wiped out to make room the new, polished, pop-crossover direction. The actual Saint Dymphna is the patron saint of outsiders, mental illness, taboo subject manner, and general disorder – an odd name for a record that plays things pretty safe. Meh.

I included two songs I loved from Saint Dymphna and one I didn’t for your consideration. If you disagree with me, great, go purchase the album here. This is simply one man’s opinion, and most of my issues with Saint Dymphna deal with the fact that I’m not a huge fan of dance music. But if you are, and want a somewhat fresh approach to dance rhythms, you may find Gang Gang Dance’s latest more rewarding than I. And besides, writing about music is like dancing about architecture, right? Go on and listen to the samples below for yourself.