Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Nice B-O-R-E Guy & Boyoyo Touch

Gang Gang Dance’s newest jam is ‘Untitled Number 3’. It's the only song on the Retina Riddim EP, and it dawdles all over the place but then halfway through I found myself nodding my head to a positively infectious tribal sort of drumming that's been invading my ears in various guises over the last week. And I’m not sure why all drumming shouldn’t be considered tribal. After all, what is ‘tribal’, the adjective that gets thrown around so much? I guess it’s precisely that, infectious and most of all innate; not even noticing why you're moving your body, not even realizing you are.

Anyway, it sounds fucking cool. I think it’s just my thought patterns (and listening patterns) but this sort of rhythm reminds me of Animal Collective and Panda Bear and I’m reminded of the time when, at the Sydney Animal Collective show at @Newtown, me and my pal were watching this show and after I resisted the urge to dance or move my limbs in some fashion for a good ten minutes or so they just sort of started moving around, quite ridiculously I’m sure, but unabashedly, and so did my friend. I’m not sure if that many other people were prone to these sorts of symptoms but it seems absolutely crazy that they couldn’t have.


A guy standing nearby asked if me and my friend could stop moving around so much. ‘I’m just trying to watch the show!’. Well, fuck you, pal; you just don't get it! Can’t you see Avey Tare up there! He’s boogying. And the Geologist; check that giant flower hat he’s wearing and how he’s bopping all over the stage. Naturally, I didn’t say that, but inched away and kept on floundering or convulsing or whatever. This whole thing might make me sound like a jerk, but look, it’s a big airport lounge sort of room, plenty of room to move! A better place to lose your shit to Animal Collective, though, seems to be on a trampoline, preferably shared by another friend, preferably out in the country. Anyway, Gang Gang Dance gives me similar feelings but the track’s way too big to put up here (24 odd minutes) but now that my ears have clicked onto some (obvious) types of rhythms (or maybe my brain has decided to process them differently) I’m on this kick and it’s all about the beats and the beats in between so here’s a little snippet from the new Growing LP.

Growing - Emseepee

And let me tell you; it’s every bit as brilliant as their previous Colour Wheel. Beats aren’t really the focus, at least not in any conventional way. The new record moves further away from the heavier Black Dice-esque percussions and more towards ambience and textures. It’s funny how DFA records remixes of Black Dice are totally awesome but still actually unnecessary; theirs are kickin enough, crazy rhythms. But Growing’s sound, it could work well with the ole’ remix treatment. Propelling their sound are keyboard buzzes and squiggles and maybe James Murphy et all can push them along further. Right now, though, in my headphones, it sits just right in the L and the R and in between.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Geez. What sort of sour grape WOULDN'T have gotten down to that Animal Collective set? It was probably the most involuntarily-moving-est show I've ever seen - and there was plenty of room to do it.