Social Registry
Though few people could question the talent Gang Gang Dance displayed on their first three albums the success of their execution was up for debate. The band’s relentless experimentation and genre-mashing always hinted at exciting musical possibilities but they could rarely get beyond coy hints as they struggled to coalesce their ideas into songs.
Saint Dymphna solves this problem largely by reining in the band’s ambitions resulting in their most coherent approachable album yet. Instead of the sprawling catch-all of previous albums Saint Dymphna is a relatively straightforward album mixing the band’s typical clacking polyrhythmic adventures with detached disco synths and spectral production tricks. In it Gang Gang Dance creates a sound that recalls ’90s shoegaze posits a potential new direction for hip hop courts with the avant-garde and never neglects the dance floor.
Fans of the Gang Gang Dance’s early work might cry foul over Saint Dymphna ’s toned-down nature but what the band sacrifices in terms of the experimental they more than make up for by finally finding a coherent home for all that talent.
