Pretty Good Dance Moves (PGDM) got their first break through Seattle’s radio station KEXP. Their in-house recording was aired for over a week and deemed as one of the stations best in-house recordings of 2008. Fast forward to 2012 and PGDM is set to release its first record LIMO on Mad Dragon Records, a student record label which is part of Philadelphia’s Drexel University Music Industry Program.
Brooklyn-based PGDM’s core members, Jimmy Giannopoulos’ and Aaron Allietta’s love for analog synthesizers clearly resonates on LIMO. The eight tracks (divided into Movements and meant to be experienced in one go) take the listener on a trip through a mishmash of electro, disco, ambient, folk and seventies Krautrock. Or in other words, a touch of DFA Records combined with the vintage yet modern sound of the NY-based label Italians Do It Better (especially Chromatics and Glass Candy) and the Juan Maclean. The result is a clever game of building and releasing the tension which finds its culmination during the 4th and 5th Movement.
The following three movements are a breaking-point which slows the pace and brings the album in a more laid-back territory. A special note should go out to Sabrina Sciubba (Brazilian Girls) who delivers her vocals in English, French and German and sounds eerily like Annie Lennox in the 8th Movement (I Wonder Why).
Although LIMO taps into some well-known influences, it’s the thrill of the extended musical journey and the interplay between building and releasing the tension what gives this album an added quality. I like it!
8/10
Patrice Knap
