This Is Your Brain on...

Aa, GAaME,
Gigantic Music

The kindsa sounds that young people should
be making and enjoying in bistros from here to
Kalamazoo...and it sounds quite pleasing!
-- Thurston Moore, Arthur Magazine



The name is pronounced "BIG A little a." On their first full-length, this Brooklyn quartet creates an art punk-meets-no wave noise that owes a greater debt to tribal and industrial traditions than to trip-hop, dubstep, or whatever the kids are dancing to these days.

In other words, GAaME is more Animal Collective than Scissor Sisters. I also detect delectable traces of the Pop Group and Savage Republic. Maybe it's because I don't usually like what passes for modern dance music, but I dig the whispering, the chanting, the woozy bursts of brass, the low-frequency washes of synth, and the three percussionists pounding out jungle beats.

Somehow, Aa manages to be both calming and energizing. Recommended for schizophrenics and wannabe-schizophrenics. They're like a Class A narcotic without all those nasty side effects.



Note: Image from Sleeep.com, video from YouTube.