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GANG GANG DANCE AND 2008

The Brooklyn band rightfully cap the media’s year in music.

There’s something great about this time of year. It’s not the promise of an oversized sock fat with forgettable fillers, and nor is it the abundance of mince pies heartily washed down with mulled wine - though both are certainly perks. No, it’s because December is a time for reflection in the music media.

Together writers crook their necks as they glance over their shoulders and into the immediate past to dig out memories of those songs, albums, artists and performances that left more indelible marks than most. And as work begins to wind down for the rest of us, we gather their offerings and, with a glass of seasonal sherry and - if we must - another mince pie, nestle into the sofa by the tree and begin to read. Oh, the bliss of it.

2008, most commentators agree, was the year Brooklyn, NY, ruled the world, and one band in particular, blending the noisier experimentalism and virtuoso instrumentation of earlier albums with a newfound lust for pop, led the way. Picked up by Warp, Gang Gang Dance have beguiled with their bewitching psychedelic workouts on new album Saint Dymphna (named after the patron saint of the nervous and mentally afflicted). Mostly, it’s as brilliant as everyone has said. Give track eight, 'House Jam', a listen and then try getting that vox hook out of your head. You won’t be able to. Trust me. As a whole, the album is the same: diverse, intoxicating, memorable, funky, dark, straight, experimental, vocal, instrumental... It has it all. The only regrettable moment is the group’s descent into grime alongside London MC Tinchy Strider.

[The new album 'Saint Dymphna']

“This was the sound of a group wagering all its chips and coming up trumps,” said Wire magazine. “Gang Gang Dance’s collagist post-everything jams sprawl into dreaminess... The churning noise of the Brooklyn group’s early work has been set aside for blissy gasps of melody.”

Fact Magazine were similarly effusive, naming Saint Dymphna their top album of 2008 despite stiff competition from seasoned vets Portishead and LA upstart Flying Lotus: “Fizzing with energy, awash with innovation, throwing up curveballs while cohesively recasting genuinely diverse and far-ranging musical influences into something that sounded like Gang Gang Dance, and no one else.”

And to think we booked them and showed them for free at the first Music Knights earlier in the year...

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I myself have trouble distilling a year’s worth of music into a single list, but highlights include SND’s 4 5 6; Raster Noton’s never ending devotion to excellence with Ikeda, Byetone, Alva Noto and the new NHK; the return of Autechre and Portishead; Pangaea, Martyn, Geiom, Shackleton and Peverelist; Dusk and Blackdown for doing something different with the album format; Murcof’s Versailles Sessions; Benge’s Twenty Systems; a weekend at Pontins for Bloc; and T++ in Leeds.

Add your own...

Gang Gang Dance myspace.

Categories Music Tags Gang Gang Dance Music

By on 16/12/08