Get Your Fix: Album Reviews by the CoolJunkie Staff

October 22, 2008 2:17 PM
by The CoolJunkie Staff

Gang Gang Dance - Saint Dymphna
by: Marcos Colón

If you’ve ever been a part of a Gang Gang Dance live show, or even heard any of their music, simply known as ‘neo-tribal’, then you might be able to guess what their new album may sound like. If you’re new to the Brooklyn based quartet, then keep reading. Whether it’s LZA’s enchanting, yet hard to interpret, vocals or the 5-minute long riffs that go from a jam-band melodies to a space odyssey dance party, Gang Gang Dance produce experimental indie rock tracks that may be hard to get, but certainly make you move. On their fourth studio effort, Saint Dymphna, it's business as usual for Gang Gang Dance.

Right off the bat, the intro track, Bebey, is equipped with a flurry of layered drums and electronic chords that have an underlying Asian influence. Put it this way, if Japanese musicians from the 19th century got their hands on modern instruments, this is what Bebey would sound like. Other tracks like First Communion, carry a semi-raggaeton beat that slowly shuffles into a dance rock tune accompanied by yelping un-interpretable vocals by LZA. Although it’s hard to make out the lyrics, at times sounding like M.I.A. speaking in tongues, they mesh together perfectly with the heavy dose of spectral sound supplied.

Utilizing similar music notes as their NYC counterparts, Animal Collective, Gang Gang Dance seem to have brought in more of their signature experimental melodies. This may not be everyone’s cup of tea. If you’re not into Animal Collective, or even the recent attempts by Liars, then I wouldn’t take a listen unless you’re looking to go beyond your Top 40 CD collection. If it’s something different you’re looking for, then take a stab at it.

Click here to hear more from Gang Gang Dance.

Mixed by Louie Vega - House Masters
by: Michael Maryanoff

Defect In The House’s brand new compilation series entitled House Maters, is an interesting take on the traditional mix series. While you would expect most DJ compilations to be mixed, House Master is comprised of four releases a year, each from a different house producers, all with unmixed tracks. It’s a novel idea, and I’m sure DJs will appreciate buying a mix CD and not having to go on beatport and spend more money on a track that they like.

The first offering in this mix series is a bit lukewarm, and while it doesn’t feature anything that is especially bad, there isn’t really anything that good either. Most of the tracks are standard vocal house fare befitting as a soundtrack to a stroll down Lincoln Road or an afternoon cocktail brunch.

Some of the tracks do lift up the overall tone of the album, such as DJ Gregory’s Elle and a re-interpretation of Lil’ Mo Yin Yang’s track Reach, but it still stays a bit subdued. There are some tracks that stand out such as Carnival 95’, but for the most part the pace of this mix CD is mostly homogenous.

House Masters mixed (or complied, to be more accurate) by Louie Vega would make some nice background music for a two-hour long cocktail party, with standard vocal tracks on disc one and more upbeat (but not too harsh) tribal offerings on disc two, but it’s most likely not going to get you jackin’.

Click here to hear more from Louie Vega.

Department of Eagles - In Ear Park
by: Damon Dewitt Boardman

Department of Eagles is the brainchild of two assigned roommates who made the most of the cramped quarters of college freshman living. Daniel Rossen and Fred Nicolaus began making music together in 2000. Now eight years later after many years of curiously comprised EP and LP collaborations, Department of Eagles brings forth Ear in the Park, their second full-length album.

The fruition of Ear in the Park or any other body of work is in part responsible for the guy down the hall in the NYU dorm days. Chris Taylor loaned some of his musical toys to the boys living a couple doors down, then later went on to become band mates with Rosen in the band Grizzly Bear and now plays the utility role of DOE’s Engineer/Producer, chiming in with horns and electric bass heard throughout DOE’s sophomore attempt. Not to be confused with Taylor, Chris Bear, Grizzly Bear’s drummer contributed heavily on the album as well. Last but not least, Nat Baldwin came through playing double bass adding to the assortments of instruments and subdued electronics found throughout Ear in the Park.

The album has an expansive sound, an intamate collection of a personal story. At first listen the album lyrically leaves you guessing, until you do your research. Dedicated to Daniels father, who passed away in 2007, Ear in the Park draws on some of his memories. The album dives deep into a progressive psychadelic camp fire folk setting that leaves you camping in a magical forest kingdom like two lonely mates on a Bridge to Terabithia. To sum up the sound; Arcade Fire, meets The Beta Band, meets Led Zeppelin’s folk and Sgt. Peppers whimsy.

If summery seems confusing listen to Teenagers and Floating on the Lehigh for a better understanding. Classic Records is the shortest song on the album but it demands the respect of the longest, and one of the best, Floating on the Lehigh. Classic Records is concise and inculpate in the abrupt lyrics that encompass the first half of the song and transfers over perfectly to the sounds that also end abruptly in the second. In truth each song can be spoken on, each song has something new to offer, from the synthesized hand claps on No One Does it Like You, to high tuned middle eastern string plucking on the final track. Department of Eagles claims indie and experimental, Ears in the Park is precisely just that, but it’s well thought out and for oddness sake it’s a good body of work.

Click here to hear more from Department of Eagles.