Prinzhorn Dance School - Prinzhorn Dance School (DFA / EMI)
3/5
By: Chris O'Toole
A two piece minimalist gloom-core band from Brighton, Prinzhorn Dance School consists of Tobin Prinz on guitar/vocals and drums and Suzi Horn on bass/vocals and drums. Although their exact origin appears to be totally arbitrary; the band exist in a world where everything moves at glacial pace, a world so brittle that if you smile it shatters into a thousand tiny fragments. But in this world they produce a natural sound where a snare drum sounds like a snare drum, a bass drum sounds like a bass drum, a cow bell sounds like a.... Simplicity is the key. Silence is as important as sound.
Although signed to New York ultra hipster label Death From Above, the group's self-titled debut album could have been recorded on a three track in a bathtub. There are virtually no overdubs, no studio rabbits in the hat, no trickery. Indeed, there is not even a strummed guitar on the whole record! It doesn't even have a name! This is shades of white, feint lines making out pale outlines of songs; warbled lyrics over plucked bass.
'Black Bunker' cruises out the blocks, all swaggering bass and snapping stare, dead-weight and dead-pan lyrics laying like cadavers over the top; sounding like Edie Argos on one hell of a downer. Another comparison would be with Friends of the Bride, all macabre, on-liners; a hundred black horses moving through the streets
'Do You Know Your Butcher' follows a similar vain, slow, steady marching bass, Tomy-toy drumming and more droll, suave vocal delivery. Unfortunately the actual lyrics don't keep pace with their immaculate delivery. A few fast one-liners are submerged beneath a puddle of apathetic, blaze ponderings; case in point, 'Worker', featuring the line, "It's good to have a start stop, It's good to have a stop start". Not quite as oblique and elusive as the duo seems to think it is.
Prinzhorn Dance School is planned to the last detail. Complex mathematical equations in a language only seven people can understand spell out the notes and silences that compose the album. Even the album art work, which was completed by the band themselves, seems to be a treasure map for a mysterious prize and it. 'Don't Talk To Strangers' witnesses the group coming as close to singing as they do on the entire album, repeating the same lesson every mother has told every child at every school on every day of their lives.
One of the most self important albums you will ever hear, Prinzhorn Dance School still somehow works. It has a steely gaze that captures the imagination and doesn't let go until the final note has finished resonating. However, Tobin does go as far as to say, "I'm unfamiliar with the language of cool," before singing a ballad to the kitschiest subject matter of all time on 'You Are A Space Invader'. The band knows what they are doing; don't believe a word of the whiter than white, recycle everything, waste nothing philosophy they tout. Even if it is true it doesn't add a jot to the sound. 'Eat, Sleep' continues the simple philosophy, reducing human existence to its core components. A one line guitar melody and drum manipulation filling in the space where the lyrics leave gaping holes.
Shot through with contradictions 'Prinzhorn Dance School', made by a band signed to EMI but claiming to do everything themselves, a recycled philosophy and trying hard not to try attitude, is still a remarkably good record. This is an interesting duo with a lot of good ideas, and fewer instruments.
Stream three tracks from the album HERE.
Artists in this article: Prinzhorn Dance School
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