The Bang Gang Deejays

The Bang Gang has attracted international attention as one of Sydney, Australia,'s sweatiest, most forward-thinking club nights, where techno trash and indie slop coexist happily. This double-disc mix set, a group effort by the night's masterminds, is a hypercaffeinated mishmash, a snapshot of what would be one of the most fun dance floors ever. Most important, Light Sound Dance proves that these guys aren't pretty human jukeboxes but real DJs. They're impressive for their song selection as much as for their skills at putting things in the right place at the right time, for crafty cuts and creative thinking. The track list is impossible to sum up, for few tunes last much longer than a minute and many are tangled and piled up as if at an audio orgy. There are a few of the usual suspects, such as the Klaxons, MSTRKRFT, and Boys Noize, but boing-boing electro is just as likely to be followed by tweaked-out future disco as by baile funk. There are more than a few songs from Modular artists, even from the usually fuzzy rockers of Wolfmother, whose hit "Woman" appears here as a crackly big-beat re-creation by the Avalanches. Surprisingly, there isn't one appearance by the Presets, who are both Modular artists and Australians and play dance music. It's just one way the Bang Gang Deejays have upended expectations on this pleasantly jolting offering. If these guys ever throw a party around here, we demand an invitation.