Album Review: Dance Gavin Dance - Downtown Battle Mountain II

The best way to describe Dance Gavin Dance’s 'Downtown Battle Mountain II' is “a chaotic sort of confusion,” as screamer Jon Mess said in a recent interview for Alternative Press. Initially, this album sounds like just a lot of noise, but it really is a much more sophisticated composition of disjointed sounds

Meant to be a continuation of 2007’s 'Downtown Battle Mountain', part II has the complicated guitars, incoherent screaming, and soulful vocals that listeners expect, like on “Elder Goose” and “Swan Soup,” but succeeds in standing on it’s own and not becoming a carbon copy of the previous album.

Something Dance Gavin Dance is especially good at is taking sounds-vocal and instrumental-that shouldn’t go together, and create a complete song. “Heat Seeking Ghost of Sex,” one of the best tracks on the album, layers many different sounds together, and at one point, Mess screams and Craig speaks the same lyrics, which makes for an interesting affect. “Previously Poncheezied,” with Craig’s vocals layered with guitarist Will Swan’s rapping, explodes into a completely different song by the middle.

This album also has many elements of funk, making some moments sound straight out of the 1970’s and can't help but elicit some dancing, especially, “Blue Dream” and “Thug City.”

The best representation of the entire album, though, comes with “The Robot with Human Hair Pt 2 ½.” This track combines every element Dance Gavin Dance has been known for- the layering of sounds and pieces, the mix of the dual vocalists-and if you were going to listen to only one track on this album, this would be the one to choose.

On first listen, 'Downtown Battle Mountain II' makes no sense. It takes a while to figure out what the hell is going on, but this may be why Dance Gavin Dance is appealing in the first place. Super complex guitar parts, Jon Mess’s random screaming about things like pie and basketball, and Jonny Craig’s unrelated lyrics and soulful vocals somehow come together to create a complicated, confusing, but really compelling album that does not disappoint.

4.5/5

'Downtown Battle Mountain II' by Dance Gavin Dance is available now on Rise Records.

Dance Gavin Dance on MySpace, Twitter and Facebook.

Jenny Bauer