RawWar in Bloomington, MN

New York's
Gang Gang Dance
follow their CD/DVD issue of the
Retina Riddim
EP (a single 24-minute track on the CD and a DVD) with
Rawwar
, a three-track set that comes in at just under 20 minutes and is presented by the
Social Registry
imprint in a tri-panel foldout with art from various friends' video projects. Musically,
isn't all that different from the sessions that produced 2005's
Hillulah
. Cheap drum machines, kit drums, loops, and synth strings play in simplistic
pop
patterns on
"Oxygen Demo Riddim,"
evoking something akin to early
Orchestral Manouevres in the Dark
fooling about in the studio.
"Nicoman"
has actual kit drums, guitars, and synth strings all playing in a semi-Eastern groove (think of nightclub music in Lebanon), with
Liz Bougatsos
' vocals expertly bringing the entire musical mix to a nearly believable level. But the tune rocks, too. The guitars begin to sting and punctuate her high-pitched vocals and she comes on nearly rapping in the bridge. It's a gorgeous tune: exotic, dubby, tripped out, and tight. The final cut,
"The Earthquake That Frees Prisoners"
spends its first three minutes as a nearly
ambient
soundscape before
Bougatsos
' warbling, nearly yowling vocals enter over an underwater synth before the whole thing just breaks loose with spoken narration by one of the male members of this group, a big, fat early-'80s drum loop kicks in, thins out, and this strange story unfolds as an aural travelogue while effects -- again synth strings, keyboards, and the swooping sound of
' reedy voice -- shimmer in and out. It's less a "song" than it is a seeming soundtrack to a news report underscored with noise, rambling, shambling percussion, and tape effects. ~ Thom Jurek