Gang Gang Dance - God's Money (Album Review)

 

Gang Gang Dance - God’s Money

(2005)

My copy: 2005 press by The Social Registry.

With God’s Money, Gang Gang Dance combined the maximalist energy of NYC’s experimental scene with eastern melodies and psychedelic influence; producing an album that is an odyssey across seas of strange repeating tones, alien vocals and tribal clattering.

“God’s Money I (Percussion)” introduces the album with primitive drums and indistinguishable spiritual chanting that is lifted into psychedelia by an assortment of effects. An expanse of synth opens under patient percussion on “A) Glory In Itself B) Egyptian” where the vocals appear to speak in never before heard tongues. Playful eastern scales dance through the fever dream while the shaman-esque vocals carry us into a wormhole that swallows all coherent tones. “Egowar” rebuilds the album with nostalgic lo-fi chimes that are tempted away by sudden but calm bouts of percussion. “Egowar” then descends into a hollow cave of synth, with pounding bass and drums. There is an exciting balance between the haunting layers of keyboards and the lulling melodies that tip-toe carefully atop the madness. 

“Egowar” passes through phases of varied instrumentation before being disassembled into a mesh of synth and guitar that rise and fall rhythmically. “(Untitled) Piano” is a mystifying take on early ambient and new-wave music, rearranging the gentle creativity of Steve Roach into something slightly more dangerous and unknown. Vivid melodies are broken by glitches as a nervous and repetitive bass line emerges. “God’s Money V” is another instrumental track, now filled to the brim with varied percussive tools. Twinkling bits of melody peek out between the cascading rhythms, before the track falls apart into the grand progressions of “Before My Voice Fails.” 

Gang Gang Dance are experts at introducing uncanny and dissonant elements, brightening their shifts into mysterious 7th chords or manic major chords. “Before My Voice Fails” features the most furious crescendo of the whole album, employing synth strings and raucous drumming to further the sense of grandeur. “God’s Money VII” is a calm reprieve of ambiance before the album is once again rebirthed into the dramatic “Nomad For Love” in which looped spoken word passages repeat like cave paintings along walls of sound. The album ends shrouded in mystery with “God’s Money IX”: an assortment of sound effects that are tied down to a drum beat before fading into the void. 

The production on God’s Money perfectly highlights the lows while maintaining the shimmering highs of the odd synth arrangements. The vocals can be a bit obnoxious, and though there are lyrics, you’d never guess so from hearing the album (it’d almost be better that way if the vocals weren’t so overly dramatic at times). God’s Money is an amazing take on electronic psych, obviously borrowing heavily from Japan’s Boredoms; mixing primal drumming with futuristic sound fonts. There are times where the illusion is broken, but God’s Money is one of those rare pop albums that truly feels like it was made on another planet.

    This album is sold for very cheap, it's a steal and one you should indulge in.