tribal futurism

Gang Gang Dance

/ David James / 1 Comment

Gang Gang Dance released their self-titled (and initially vinyl-only) sophomore album in 2004 and quietly set alight their singular brand of cavernous, sample-fluent, tribal psychedelia with this tripped out onslaught of free form beat-laden soundscape exploration.

Gang Gang Dance

So, holy shit.  I finally got around to listening to this album.  An album I should have discovered years ago when I was knocked on my ass by God’s Money.  Jesus.  I was waiting until I found the real McCoy, and succeeded in my quest.  I’m so thankful.  This is better than it has any right or percentage of probability to be.  Though leagues more free-form than God’s Money or Saint Dymphna, it’s got far more focus and drive than the murkey Revival of the Shittest.  2 tracks totalling 40 minutes wind through movement after movement like a song-based album broken apart and shuffled into a smooth blend by a mad scientist DJ’s hand, giving ample evidence that the masterly flow of the band’s later efforts didn’t materialize out of the wild blue ether.

So truly odd and uniquely rewarding, I’ll leave it up to the listener to understand my enthusiasm and infatuated prose.  Just hit play and sit back, resist the urge to skip around on the slow-building opener and make sure to note the point, halfway through the second half, when you’ve completely lost track of time and place.  Or don’t.

In memoriam of Charles Bukowski, I had a vodka drink and listened to scandalously good music tonight – then I wrote.  This is the one thing item being shared, however.  And I mean it.  You may feel disoriented, lost, and slightly apprehensive.  But in the end you’ll thank me for that final push, what made you take the plunge.

[the album is somewhat of a rarity but one can obtain it via amazon sellers]

Gang Gang Dance – Retina Riddim

/ David James / Leave a comment

Gang Gang Dance dropped this slice of fried (and twisted) gold less than a year before their breakthrough masterpiece Saint Dymphna arrived to warp the innocent minds of our youth.  (A video project released as a combination dvd/cd, this is the audio portion.  You’ll have to buy that dvd yourself to see the insanity.)

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In a way, Retina Riddim is even more mindbending – packing in every conceivable rhythmic shift and unexpected sample, every wild percussion tone and dub variation – it’s like a wild roller coaster ride through the band’s collective labyrinthine nightmare, the moment before they awoke and created Saint Dymphna.  Stuffed to the gills with middle eastern string sounds, heavy bass thumps, bent and skewed organ swells, and an overwhelming exotic feel, the uninitiated may be forgiven for assuming it’s like any other release from these esoteric primal psych spelunkers.  It’s not.

If you haven’t heard Saint Dymphna, do so now in preparation for this disorienting onslaught of blissful oddity.

A single uninterrupted 24 minute track, Retina Riddim nearly feels like the band dropped their other albums into a blender and simply poured the resulting fluid into the grooves of an LP as it spun at top volume.  Fortunately, repeated listens reveal an intricate structure and flow, a steady build through varying tempos and structures both dizzying and purposeful.  Fans of Dymphna in particular will notice several sampledelic building blocks for that masterpiece album embedded throughout this wild ride;  some in untreated form, some ready for the spotlight, and some which require a bit of teasing out to reveal their source (or more likely, destination).  When the whole package wraps up with an undeniably transcendent part of the later LP (recognizable in the track Vaccuum) confusion is an understandable first thought.  Second thought usually goes something like:  “I want to hear that again.  Now.”

[the best part of this is that the sound is only half the show – pick up the dvd combo at boomkat or amazon for a totally reasonable price]

ROVO – Pyramid

/ David James / 3 Comments

ROVO.  Readers of my previous post about this galaxy-shattering band, the gravitationally powerful Mon, know that I’m beyond crazy for them.  It’s more of a physical and spiritual impulse at this point.

rovopyramid

The “man-drive trance” outfit has evolved from what was (mistakenly) believed to be a side project for Boredoms guitarist Seiichi Yamamoto into a pre-eminent percussive juggernaut with a genre all its own and a die hard fan base ever eager for further permutations of their uniquely pulsing energy signature.

Pyramid, released in 2000, is a single 43 minute track situated neatly between the more obviously electronically enhanced early sound and the more sophisticated, minimal, and directly hands-on appoach ROVO has flowered into.  As expected, the incandescent electric violin of Yuji Katsui rides the tidal groove with astonishingly fluid precision while Yamamoto’s six string mastery prods and propels his bandmates while providing crucial textural detail.  It’s uniquely jovial in a gentle free-jazz manner for a good portion of its running time, with meandering horns and  keys dancing unfettered until the rhythmic force pulls every building block inevitably toward a torrential avalanche of tribal motorik ecstasy.  The arc may be predictable, though never any less than thrilling when the band hits their warp drive lock-groove stride and rides the ensuing momentum into a rapturous eargasm.  It’s a space ship jumping to light speed, the stars stretching forward eternally, minute after blissful minute.

Surrender  full attention and be rewarded accordingly.  And then some.  And thank them personally while you’re at it.

[difficult to track down due to its original rarity and out-of-print status, i’ve found this album at jpophelp, or used copies at amazon (for an exhorbitant minimal price of $61) and amazon.jp (for ￥3,730 – under $40)]

Love Spirals Downwards – Flux

/ David James / 4 Comments

A jet engine blast of an aural rubdown. Love Spirals Downwards attained a unique perfection with this release, striking at the heart of what I consider love sounds – music which conveys the intimate, soothing nature of love itself.  Music which can be a close companion in headphones, embracing worn psyches, calming fears, elevating a languid soul.

Tumbling down a vortex of gauzy electronic opulence, with Suzanne Perry’s siren cry as the only constant, this album is designed for losing oneself into shifting texture.  Ostensibly a dreampop-based sound in atmosphere and tone, the immediacy and a sense of futurism derived via many surprising elements sprinkled throughout engender rapt attention.  Love Spirals Downwards incorporates idm beats, afrobeat percussion, deep-as-dub bass lines and an ambient sensibility to drown everything in an opiate syrup.  Overlaid are the most ethereal guitar lines since Slowdive left orbit – and a shoegazer’s narcotic intentions to back them up.

Getting down to brass tacks, I suggest one merely listen to the track Psyche to fully grasp the beauty of this work.  If that one doesn’t bore straight through the frontal lobe to the brain stem and render jaws slack, I suggest taking a puff and then giving it another go.  Lay back and let the waves wash over.

[purchase at the band’s label, Projekt of course, or CDBaby – a new hard copy will be a rare find, but digital copies abound at amazon]

ROVO – Mon

/ David James / 4 Comments

ROVO.  Get familiar. Featuring electric violinist Yuji Katsui and guitarist Seiichi Yamamoto (of Boredoms), this group has built a rock solid career releasing consistently vibrant, energetic, forward-looking, impeccably arranged tribal/jazz/electronic/noise/funk/dance-fueled records.  Yes, I just made a reductive chain of genre names.  Read on to know why…

mon

Mon is an unequivocal masterpiece.  Currently in the center of ROVO‘s ever-expanding discography, this is, to me, their most representative album – an absolute highlight of effortlessly addictive yet experimentally-tinged instrumental groovy goodness.  I truly hope you give it a listen.  For your own sake.

For many people (like myself), discovering this band is that *aha!* moment when they realize there is, in fact, a group making the kind of music that resembles what they’d subconsciously love to hear.  This is dream music in the most literal sense; it’s a perfect combination of previously-unrealized elements brought together in a cohesive, ambiguously, strikingly original sound.  Still, there’s a warm familiarity bred of the intuitively catchy, effortlessly hypnotic beats.  Even if it’s not horizon-expanding for you, this album has my guarantee as an invigorating wave of narcotic bliss.  Jump in, the water’s warm.  You’ll be back for more.

[this is a reasonably difficult album to track down, but I’ve found copies on amazon.jp (don’t worry, it can be read in english) and ROVO’s myspace has more info]

Gang Gang Dance – Saint Dymphna

/ David James / 11 Comments

gang-gang-dance-saint-dymphna

Saint Dymphna is the patron saint of those who suffer from mental illness. You can find all manner of pop-pyschology diagnoses relating the unique title choice to this indisputable masterpiece of an album, from the lowliest myspace blog to the glossiest of mainstream magazines; I feel that talking about the music itself is probably more relevant.

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