Concertwire.com

Since their formation in Brooklyn at the turn of the century, Gang Gang Dance have developed and refined their ritualistic tribal-futurism ’ a unique fusion of edgy electronics, shimmering guitars, dark poly-rhythms, and the eerie vocals of Liz Bougatsos. Drawing inspiration from psychedelic rock, electronica, and noise as well as Indian, Middle Eastern, African, and Asian influences, their early performances are the stuff of legend…wild, sprawling, improvisatory happenings that sometimes blurred the distinction between performers and audience. Most of their sound is made up of percussion, synths and distorted voices, yielding a complex and dark sound. In performance, Javelin will use colorfully painted boomboxes that form large speaker totems (“boombaatas”) which can hang from the ceiling or stack up on the floor like pyramids. The signal from the show is broadcast via FM transmitter, thereby fostering audience participation (B.Y.O.Boombox) or fueling battery-powered, mobile parties. Sounds range from broken dance jams to relaxed instrumental cut-ups, created with love on their MPCs. Long forgotten samples are chopped and re-assembled with drums, wooden recorders, old keyboards, handmade thumb pianos or whatever instruments are readily at hand. The result is a kind of mix tape fantasy (residing in the mythical “dollar bins of the future”), where R&B impresarios, amateur booty bass producers and Andean flautists hold equal sway.