With the new Gang Gang Dance LP Kazuashita set for release on June 22nd via 4AD, the trio offers up a third single from the upcoming effort, “Young Boy (Marika in Amerika).” The collective’s core members, vocalist Lizzi Bougatsos, guitarist Josh Diamond, and multi-instrumentalist Brian DeGraw sat down with Stereogum back in May to discuss the record, and at that time Bougatsos explained that she’d written the lyrics to the track after watching Raoul Peck‘s 2016 documentary I Am Not Your Negro. With the movie based on James Baldwin‘s unfinished manuscript “Remember This House,” early iterations of the GGD song contained quotes straight from Peck’s film. However, the lyrics for “Young Boy” would end up going through some changes, and as the track developed the singer found herself further moved and influenced by the beating of a young girl at a pool in Hudson, New York. Talking with Stereogum about the cut, she explained:
“It’s definitely a song about the wrong people getting shot, and the wrong people being in Heaven. It’s a song about innocence and youth and the fact that police should not shoot children.”
“Young Boy (Marika in Amerika)” melts together a melange of influences. It’s initially airy opening is like pulling the cork on a magic lantern, but that sense of calm and wonder is soon disturbed by a channel-changing stream of influences that sound like standing on a busy street corner as cars going by and open windows vie for one’s attention. International in flavor, and with nods to 80’s-style pop, this sequenced blend of sounds lends the track a distinctly urban feel. While efforts to catalog this cacophony of source material might lead you down a maze of alley-ways, Bougatsos’ heartfelt lyrics and soaring delivery are sure to offer you a clear path through the sonic overload.
