New album by Gang Gang Dance on the way

The good people of Gang Gang Dance have a new album called Saint Dymphna dropping on the 21st of October on the NY based label, The Social Registry. OK I’m being a little premature on this one, but I’m feeling it for a number of reasons. They approach the dance music/indie rock nexus in a very original, yet timeless fashion, their sound is lush, intricate and interesting and they have this tribal feel which brings bands like Japan, Codek and Dissidenten to mind while retaining a wholly original style. Imagine The Knife collaborating with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and you’re almost there.

The track “House Jam” sounds like something Todd Edwards would do if he spent a year in India with Kate Bush and “First Communion” comes over like an eight lane pile up of M83, Roxy Music, Shackleton and Bush Tetras. This band flirts with dance music, but goes on a date with it too, unlike the plethora of increasingly tired, rock swaggering electro which worships at a golden calf shaped like Daft Punk, yet doesn’t take the time to investigate the American house music that the visionary French duo cut their teeth on. Like the cocaine come down of late ‘70s disco and its descent into breakneck hi-energy, electro is going the same route. History repeats, as do politics and economics. The nu-‘80s is almost over thank God, or Moroder or Todd Terry even. Irony wears thin, and it’s threadbare at this point.

Bands like Gang Gang Dance will carry the spirit of rock/dance fusion into the next decade without, wearing it on its sleeve, dabbling in the kind of rock posturing that marginalizes dance music while ripping it off wholesale, or harping on endlessly about post-punk in that cloyingly irritating, rich kid at art school fashion that has become as de rigueur as a pair of dirty vans and going to dive bars on a 1,200 dollar, fixed gear bike. Post-punk was great, it’s done, time to progress. Ditto with all ‘80s stuff, it’s great, we love it, let’s use it and move on. But back to Gang Gang Dance. The new album rocks, check it when it drops and I’ll be going back to it. It’s that good. Can a band be experimental and accessible at the same time? This band can.

Orr