GANG GANG DANCE - God’s Money

An obscure avant-rock collective from New York, Gang Gang Dance had their first brush with notoriety (so small, in truth, that calling it that already feels odd) with last year's self-titled album, in which, across two twenty-minute sides, they stirred krautrock leanings, experimentalism, percussion, electronics and much more into a blazing cauldron (listing everything that got cannibalized on that record would take up all the space of this review). Gang Gang Dance return, then, just a year later, and they do so by wrong-footing pretty much everyone: if it was already hard to predict which direction the band would take, it would have been impossible to foresee "God's Money".

"God's Money" is nine vignettes in which the group's impulses are blended into a single kind of sound, decidedly more relaxed, dominated by three elements: a) first and foremost the female voice, with its Eastern inflection, which accompanies almost every track — undeniably distinctive and incisive, if a bit too pervasive; b) tribal percussion; c) the Orient, by way of mallets, cymbals, bells and pan flute. The evocative delicacy of the tracks, moreover, is often branded black by an underlying unease and gloom. A single kind of sound, as mentioned. Naturally, within individual tracks the percussive side, the electronic pulse, or even synths sketching ambient landscapes, may take the upper hand.

It opens with percussion and tribal chanting that define "God's Money I". In truth it's just a brief intro, leading into one of the album's highlights, "Glory in Itself/Egyptian": a five-minute crossing, opened by an electronic flicker over which keyboard patterns and mallet strikes are grafted, before a dance of synths gradually takes over, at first airily, then, after a noise-rock incursion in the style of Black Dice, turning decidedly macabre, with a torn vocal accompaniment. It all ends in little bells and flows into "Egowar", another notable track. This time the track's pulse is krautrock-branded, tight and unfree, serving as a carpet for the pan flute melody that dominates the scene. Here too noise makes an incursion, first cracking the spell, then breaking it for good, becoming the sole protagonist in the finale, with a shredded guitar up front and the percussion turning tribal once more.

More little bells lead into "Untitled (Piano)", where, indeed, piano phrases break against waves of synth that can be by turns light, mysterious and frightening. "Before My Voice Fails", on the other hand, is the most song-like track of the bunch, with the voice taking center stage, shimmering riffs and a grand finale with violins swollen with epic feeling. The move into ambient territory, already hinted at earlier by "Untitled (Piano)", is instead brought to completion by the synths of "God's Money VII", soon dethroned by mallet strikes. After the Eastern declamation of "Nomad for Love", which is pleasant enough but doesn't particularly strike, all that's left is to close with the dance of "God's Money IX", amid heavy drum thrusts and dissolving violins.

What ultimately emerges is an album that, while not fully in focus, is full of good ideas and good results, completely different from its predecessor in attitude, ambition and structure alike. "God's Money" will never be able to aspire to the title of masterpiece, nor will it be a record you'll want to listen to constantly, but it's a refined, personal work, with just enough of a spark of enchantment to give you pleasure whenever you decide to put it back in the player.

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30/04/2026