"Nikoman" has been kicking around in Gang Gang Dance's live repertoire for quite a while. Its Arabic keyboard scales, labyrinthine drumming, and dreamy breakdown are little too familiar to elicit surprise nowadays, but there is more urgency in the delivery. Singer Lizi Bougatsos chants the chorus in a Grime patois poles apart from her normal high pitched cooing. Normally, I would be suspicious of her intentions, but Gang Gang Dance avoids the minstrelsy common when white hipsters appropriate hip-hop culture. They have recently recorded a collaboration with MC Tinchy Stryder, so credit is due to them for actually engaging the rap community instead of just caricaturing it.
The instrumental "Oxygen Riddim Demo" is pleasant enough, but lacks the heft I expect from the band (no small feat considering they don't have a bass player). Nonetheless, the song serves as a good interlude and doesn't descend into the outright obnoxiousness some of the filler tracks had on earlier releases. The drum programming lacks a persistent low end, focusing attention on the interplay between guitar and keys. Alone, they can't fill out the arrangement completely, but given some heavy bass and a bit of vocals it could be a real club banger.
The closing track, "The Earthquake that Frees Prisoners," is an elegy to GGD's late bandmate Nathan Maddox, who was killed by lightning in 2002. Through archived recordings, he lends his voice in a monologue about visions he received on visiting Cairo, the Sphinx, and the Great Pyramids. Languid synthesizer washes and Bougatsos's sensuous vocals begin the track with an uneasy calm, abruptly broken by piercing screams and pounding, reverb-swamped drums . The tempo accelerates as flute samples and pulsing electronics lurch in and out of the mix. Maddox's musings become more agitated and surreal, fracturing into component syllables that skip and stutter under a digital knife. The track exudes a stoned paranoia as engaging as it is unsettling.
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