Gang Gang Dance – Mindkilla
Does exactly what it says it’s gonna do, pleasingly.
[Video][Website]
[6.86]
Pete Baran: So this is all about that fuzzy bass and slow build, right?
[8]
Chuck Eddy: The indie world as usual is too ridiculously behind the curve on its own damn music to ever realize it, but this band peaked way back in 2004 (on Revival Of The Shittest and their self-titled album to be exact), back when they sounded — at their very intermittent best — like some oil-barrel-banged poly-percussive cross between Chrome, the Pop Group, and Einsturzende Neubauten fronted by a young Yoko Ono. Near as my ears can tell, they’re now more some sterile art-collage dance outfit with a performance-art Bjork imitator attempting to sound cutesy and/or pornographic on top. Okay, maybe that’s not all that remarkable a change, given they’ve had seven years to devolve. This mess isn’t entirely without energy. But it doesn’t exactly feel like an exciting portent of music’s future, either.
[5]
Alfred Soto: Not terrible, but not frightening like early GGD; it’s closer to eccentric. These days Lizzi Bougatsos is closer to Bjork than Yoko or Lora Logic. Progress?
[5]
Britt Julious: If you love GGD (I mean really love them, not just admiring their last album’s poppier moments), then you’re certain to love this perfect combination of a decade’s worth of weird tricks. Gang Gang Dance’s most interesting work has often been danceable, a sure contrast to their past psychedelic or even (and I hate this term) freak-folk origins. Lizzy Bougatsos’ squeal can sound so damn good.
[8]
Katherine St Asaph: My god, it’s the Top Gear soundtrack combined with Knifery, a bizarre female vocalist and some euphoric synth scraps toward the end that can easily be disregarded. Someone out there has an imagination I covet.
[7]
Michaela Drapes: When a song like “MindKilla” comes along, I rejoice, because we’re all going to sound ridiculous when we try to describe what’s going on here. Sure, there’s that garage-y/grime-y/dubstepp-y/jungle-y beat, but I defy you to explain the rest with any terminology that we currently have at our disposal. Processed vocals, sure. Glitchy things, yes. Noise moments, always – this is Gang Gang Dance, after all. The power-down noise, perfect. I suppose I never thought that out of all the dreaded ca. 2002 NYC “hipster” bands, Gang Gang Dance would come the furthest, churning out slick dance tunes a decade trafficking in almost unlistenable, semi-pretentious noise.
[9]
Matthew Harris: This should be as pleasurable as a slice of slippery cheese pizza and a frosty cream soda for me. It has everything I love: weird lady vocalists, synths squelching out irritating sounds, a fast beat that kicks your knees up. As Bougatsos yelps through the song, it sounds like she’s laughing at me: “Mindkilla” is like a high school horror movie that’s all pigsblood and no redemption.
[6]