Wednesday 11 March 2009

GANG GANG DANCE - Blue Nile


Emilia. He went hence but now,
And certainly in strange unquietness.

(Shakespeare, Othello, III.IV)

A sedate, pregnant rhythm slinks in, sampled-sounding vocals insinuate; a dance of death joined by plangent guitar part post-punk part '60s John Barry theme. Liz Bougatsos's vocals intimating, refracting in upon themselves, MIA summoning Mary Margaret O'Hara; Fairlit voices and keyboard bursts of piercing, pained colour, Animal Collective dallying inexorably with Belbury Poly. For me, the aptly named 'Blue Nile' is possibly the centrepiece of one of last year's very finest records: Saint Dymphna by Manhattan-based Gang Gang Dance - a band perfectly emblematic of a more outward-looking America, with their rootless rhythms taken from

And there is this; a Kate Bush-themed disco summoned up anew, Liz sounding like The Knife's Karin, the overall feeling of a breakneck Bel Canto; their deathless, ethereal Shimmering Warm and Bright submerged in the analogue bubblebath of their UK labelmates Broadcast:









Gang Gang Dance, along with The Knife, Ladytron and the aforementioned Brummies, do represent the sort of hauntology pop I was calling for some time ago; all that is lacking is the mass audience, . A dreampop dreamt anew, taking in Tinchy Stryder in this piece of glorious, profoundly glimmering absurdity:







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