KEY POINTS:
Rating: * * * *
From the Battles school of berserk beats and the psychedelic playroom of TV On the Radio comes the fourth album from New York quartet Gang Gang Dance.
Formed in 2000, they are tight with the city's arts community and toured with fellow Big Apple acts Sonic Youth, Animal Collective and TV On the Radio, and these influences are reflected in tracks like Inners Pace and Afoot, an agitating couplet of uneasy and intriguing listening. There are more light-hearted moments: Princes has fast-chatting London grime MC Tinchy Stryder duetting with Gang Gang's wailing vocalist Lza, whose style is somewhere between a Vietnamese club singer and Kate Bush; and House Jam rides a tranquil groove with - gasp, horror - Sarah McLachlan vocal serenades.
Sometimes they sound a little too much like some others, with First Communion beating a Battles path and Vacuum's woozy galactics a dead sitter for My Bloody Valentine's Blown A Wish off Loveless. Then again, a minute and a half into Vacuum, the barrage of beats and the undercurrent of space-age shoot-'em-up blasts is entirely of Gang Gang's own making.
The band concede Saint Dymphna is their most accessible work yet, but it remains rogue music of the highest quality. And beware of taking the "dance" part of their name literally for fear of splintered shinbones.
Scott Kara
