CD Reviews

Gang Gang Dance | Saint Dymphna

Warp (2008)

By DANIEL BROCKMAN | October 28, 2008

3.0 Stars

There’s a fine line between submitting to the infinite in the name of transcendence and being a self-indulgent jerk-off, and it’s one the NYC “underground” “collective” GGD have walked precariously for several albums and EPs. How to throw together so many interesting textures and flavors without turning out a batch of inedible crap, right? Well, they figured it out with Saint Dymphna (so named after the patron saint of mental illness, among other things): set some time limits, make shit catchy, and rein the magic in. It’s a strategy belied at the outset: “Bebey” is the sound of three musicians opening a portal to Hades, but will they know what to do once they step through? That question is answered once the song flows into the glittering Afro-crunk of “First Communion”: Liz Bougatsos’s wailing vocals collide with some seriously fuzzed bass while trailing spidery guitar runs that extend like DNA strands to infinity. Jam-band haters, rest easy: even though this album has a song called “House Jam,” it’s a tightly wound exercise in disciplined psychedelia, with motorik beats and powerful vocals. Saint Dymphna is the sound of a band of psychedelic dabblers finally getting their shit together.

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Tropicália storm
When Sérgio Dias takes to the Somerville Theatre stage this Sunday with the current incarnation of Os Mutantes, it's a safe bet he'll be beaming with gratitude. "I'm riding the same wave," he says of his band's legendary Brazilian albums, "but this time I have my eyes open."
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In a life of many garlands and much renown, it was Mailer’s strange engagement with literary destiny always to be trapped on the wrong side of his art.
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To Leave or Die in Long Island (2005) and Goodbye Cool World (2006) cemented this outfit's legacy as a band-type thing too self-consciously goofy to be taken seriously.
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Girls, it’s sort of like if your prom date showed up in a helicopter, handed you the bill, and then asked you to pay for dinner — every night for the next hundred million years. Sure, it was both hilarious and outrageous that these guys took private jets to Washington where they then requested auto bailout bucks, but then again, if we owned American cars, we wouldn’t take the chance of driving them that far either.
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Topics: CD Reviews , Swearing and Invective, psychedelia, Gang Gang Dance, More

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