Before Robert Schwarztman and his 80s revival, Gangi brought an interesting sound at the Satellite on Monday night. The duo, in front of a lot of electronic equipment, didn’t nevertheless sound like any other electronic band. Their music, loud and saturated by lots of different noises, notes and voices, was both complex and catchy, both computer-generated and human-produced.
It was as if the duo Matt Gangi and Eric Chramosta were building layers and layers of vocal samplings, loops and distortion with their electronic machinery, without forgetting the melodies and the untouched human voice. They were also using real drums beside drum machines, and occasionally a real guitar, and their performance was totally enjoyable from start to finish.
When it comes to electronica, there is a fine line between interesting experimentation and total hermetic boredom, for example, I have never been able to get into Animal Collective, but there was certainly nothing of this sort for Gangi. Their music was engaging, like this first song they played ,‘Outside Ones’, a thunderous earthquake-like tune, with a catchy melody alternating between distortions and vocals piling up. I have read the term ‘electronic psych’ to describe their sound, but it is too vague and doesn’t certainly give justice to the complicated texture and the pounding drum beats.
There even was a gospel side to their music, even more real when they brought singer Jasmine Starr on stage for their last song, ‘Gold’, an uplifting ascending tune, with a sort of MGMT meets Arcade Fire dimension, that worked totally great for a firework final.
They have already released two albums via their own label Office of Analogue and Digital, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we hear more of their atmospheric, melodic multi-layered psych-electronic-pop-gospel compositions in a near future.