Three years in the making, Saint Dymphna is the long-awaited follow-up to the critically acclaimed album God鈥檚 Money.
Eclectic and unique are words bandied around all too often, but Saint Dymphna is not easily classifiable, a jarring fusion of electro, 80s techno, African guitar and tribal beats, which shouldn鈥檛 work but somehow, do. Neatly side-stepping any attempt of pigeonholing in a conventional genre, as they say themselves, 鈥渨e call it Gang Gang. We do our own thing.鈥
An integral element of the New York City arts scene, Gang Gang consists of Lizzi Bougatsos, Brian Degraw, Tim Dewit and Josh Diamond. Leader of the gang is multi-talented individual Brian Degraw who creates the band鈥檚 striking artwork and Diamond credits with majority input in the band鈥檚 artistic direction. Where other bands may be moulded to fit the fashion, as a creative collective Gang Gang possess a myriad of talents that have enabled them to 鈥well-define and control our aesthetic.鈥 You get the feeling Gang Gang are not trying to deliberately react against or subvert the current trends, they just aren鈥檛 interested. Dismissive of 鈥渒ids with overnight success that are forgotten about the next day鈥 we鈥檙e just not into that.鈥
Gang Gang鈥檚 innovative, artsy approach to music has not gone unrecognised, in 2007 they were approached by the Whitney Biennial 鈥 an accolade seldom extended to musicians. When touring, Gang Gang make movies and in 2007 the multimedia art and audio film Retina Riddim testifies to their diversity. For the Whitney Biennial, they also incorporated visual installation into their performance. As Diamond says, 鈥淚t鈥檚 kind of nice to be in a group where we are so artful with what we do.鈥 This crossover of art and music is 鈥渟omething very fluid. I鈥檓 not a visual artist, but I like to think we paint with sound.鈥
Having toured with high profile groups such as Sonic Youth and The Animal Collective, very recently Gang Gang collaborated with the Boredoms in a piece that involved 88 drummers on 08.08.08 in their native New York City. To be recognised and sought out by the Boredoms, whose music Diamond describes as 鈥渟ounding nothing like Gang Gang, but spiritually we鈥檙e the same. They鈥檙e just further down the line than we want to go.鈥 The collaboration is a project that Gang Gang are massively enthusiastic about, with Diamond describing it as 鈥渙verwhelming鈥 a highlight of my life.鈥
These prominent, high status collaborations are propelling Gang Gang Dance onto the national and international stage. Although Saint Dymphna is intrinsically experimental, the dance feel of tracks such as Princes highlight the potential of commercial club success. Certain similarities can be drawn to Aphex Twin, Gang Gang Dance could be described as intelligent dance music.
When asked why the production process of this album was so lengthy, reasons ranged from band disagreements, money issues, other creative projects and touring commitments, basically 鈥渓ife got in the way.鈥 However, although the road was long and arduous, it is not overstating the end product鈥檚 appeal to call it their masterpiece.
Saint Dymphna is beautiful and grand, an auditory experience unlike anything you will have heard yet, which remains surprisingly accessible even to the uninitiated ear.
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Samantha Cracknell
