.
http://www.rollingstone.com/assets/images/album_review/2dc7d142b94b87ced5180a922b32f292f6f6cab6.jpg Clay Class

Prinzhorn Dance School

Clay Class

DFA
Rolling Stone: star rating
Community: star rating
5 3.5 0
February 17, 2012

"We're happy in pieces/Happy in bits," sing Suzi Horn and Tobin Prinz of the Portsmouth, England duo Prinzhorn Dance School. They might be talking about their emotions; they're definitely describing their music. Prinzhorn's second album is all about pieces and bits – fragments of rhythm and melody, a bassline chunk here, a snare drum shard there – arranged and rearranged like a jigsaw puzzle. When the pieces slot together, the result is ingeniously minimalist art-pop: "The Flora and Fauna of Britain in Bloom" combines Horn's thrumming bass, Prinz's kickdrum, a sinisterly pealing guitar, and a mordantly monotone vocal into something spooky, transfixing, and (intentionally or not) hilarious. Clay Class is nearly an indie classic. All that's missing are tunes—not quite enough of those bits.

Listen to "Happy In Bits":

Related
Photos: Random Notes

prev
Album Review Main Next

ADD A COMMENT

Community Guidelines »
loading comments

loading comments...

COMMENTS

Sort by:
    Read More

    Music Reviews

    • star rating
      Watching Movies With the Sound Off
    • star rating
      Omens
    • star rating
      Walking on Air
    more Reviews »
    Daily Newsletter

    Get the latest RS news in your inbox.

    Sign up to receive the Rolling Stone newsletter and special offers from RS and its
    marketing partners.

    X

    We may use your e-mail address to send you the newsletter and offers that may interest you, on behalf of Rolling Stone and its partners. For more information please read our Privacy Policy.

    Song Stories

    “V.T.T.L.O.T.F.D.G.F.”

    Fishbone | 1985

    Quite a few musicians have utilized initials for song titles -- Michael Jackson's "P.Y.T.," Abba's "S.O.S.," Donald Fagen's "I.G.Y.," etc. But the more curiously initialed tune has to be "V.T.T.L.O.T.F.D.G.F.," short for "Voyage to the Land of the Freeze-Dried Godzilla Farts." Fishbone's original guitarist, Kendall Jones, explained to Rolling Stone, "When Norwood [Fisher] wrote it, he introduced it to the band saying, 'Man, I've been hearing about all these Nazi right-wing groups on the news saying the Holocaust was staged. So what if America said it never dropped two atom bombs on Japan, that it was actually Godzilla popping a couple off?' Only Norwood would come up with something that out." The same year "V.T.T.L.O.T.F.D.G.F." was released, the film Godzilla 1985 appeared in North America.

    More Song Stories entries »