Music: Gang Gang Dance

GordonGartrelle super-favorites Gang Gang Dance were featured in the New York Times yesterday. Lizzi Bougatsos drops some knowledge about being in New York in the early 2000's and not feeling dudes on Ludlow in leather jackets letting the Strokes be the official New York reppers.

Like Yeasayer's music with their brown guitar dude Anand Wilder (which is really his government, holy shit), Lizzi's vocals have always reminded me of Bollywood music. I wasn't sure if I was going crazy or if the melodies seem inherently Bollywood to me. I thought maybe I was being a "race dude" who wanted to take Indian credit for something that may have not been Brown at all. Thankfully I'm not insane as the article sheds light on Lizzi's appreciation of "pygmy, Ethiopian and Bollywood music." Also, it points out that this ain't no Brooklyn band, they rep Manhattan.

Upon further digging I found an article in from Drowned in Sound that sheds more light on their taste for BrOWnSOundZ, as I call it. "When asked which musicians influence their current sound both DeWitt and Bougatsos strike in agreement over Indian composer AR Rahman. Rawwar unashamedly documents their applying a particular focus on a newfound pop sensibility, with Rahman amongst many other Bollywood influences applied, acting as a signal of intent but with each element of the quartet suitably splintering violently against one another. "Sonically, the sounds are all over the place. There is a lot in there that inspires as a producer and relates to what we do." Bougatsos snaps her head with agreement: "There is common cinematic quality between our sound."

Hell yeah. Please cop Saint Dymphna as it's probably the most accessible their music has been and I dig it for that. Probably top 5 on my year.

Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/21/arts/music/21gang.html
Drowned in Sound: http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/2321363

Kind of related, I've been thinking about music a lot lately and more specifically my own music. I want to start working on a new project thats spaced out as shit, involves sampling Bollywood tunes to the point where it's not clear where the samples come from, singing sparsely in autotune only to be heavily delayed and not really singing at all, with some bassy ass drums. On some Koushik, El Guincho, Panda Bear type jumpoff conceptually. Conceptually, I mean, that's the concept right there. But how I'm gonna do that though?