Album review: Prinzhorn Dance School - Clay Class
No, no - leave your dancing shoes in the cupboard. Single-minded, stripped-back art-rock defines the sophomore record from this Brighton boy-girl duo.
For the uninitiated who may have missed PDS’ 2007 debut, this record will not help you become don of the dancefloor.
This stripped-down duo produce something closer to coolly diffident art-rock than anything else. Think The XX without the warmth and you’re partway there - the thin snap of drumskin on opener Happy In Bits is a pointer for the various stream-of-consciousness proclamations that follow.
Here Tobin Prinz and Suzi Horn pick up where they left off, making music without using any effects - although some might say it’s full of affectation.
Such a dogmatic approach would be almost threadbare by the album’s midpoint, Crisis Point, were it not for the Brighton duo’s knack for a certain poetic lyrical bleakness.
At its best, this is seductively sleek.
3 stars
Most Read
- 1 Scandinavian primary school moves to bigger premises in Highbury
- 2 New Covid-19 vaccine centre opens on Holloway Road
- 3 Covid-19: How Islington's current figures compare to November 2020 lockdown
- 4 Family of missing Islington man make urgent appeal for information
- 5 Islington pub Alpaca wins lockdown service award
- 6 Meet the Islington-based Rangers fans who are helping food banks
- 7 Not just for Christmas: Rescue dogs looking for forever homes
- 8 What are the chances of a white Christmas in London?
- 9 Warnings of ice across London amid plummeting temperatures
- 10 Planned travel disruptions in east and central north London this week
