WL//WH Review DADA DEGAS
Andi McElligott
“A HISTORY OF THE HANGED” LP is the debut album from DADA DEGAS through Liberation London UK. The new art music project from Andi McElligott (Andi Sex Gang), singer, composer, multi-instrumentalist, and founder of post-punk bandits Sex Gang Children. Featuring the bass of fellow SGC cohort John Rigby, and the guitar on one track only of Jerome Alexandre from garage post-punks Dead Cuts. Album art by Lara McElligott, and the whole package is a complete and unforgiving socio-political manifest describing our brave new world as in a conversation with this so important provocateur of rock and roll.
Truly the album is like speaking with the man face to face. Ιt reminded me of our lava conversations in Athens with drinks and the mood to both listen to each other very carefully. The lyrics of the album, the words of Andi’s are all statements given like texts or poems soaked in the punk-irony and the beat generation’s determination who rejected the conventional society, and Andi is not only a “judge” but has answers to the questions and the issues that this world and his mind are burning with.
The album was produced, mixed, and arranged by Andi Mac & John Rigby with the former playing almost everything here; vocals, keyboards, bass, percussion, guitar, melodica, piano, accordion, bells, horn, and did the programming as well. John Rigby handled the bass, guitar, and programming too. A flashing surprise too from Kitty Lectro who remixed ‘Death Mask Mussolini’ from the last ‘Oligarch’ LP (2021) by SGC; she took that song and totally transformed it into a new track!
All you’ll hear in ‘A History Of The Hanged’ LP is a show like in the colorful cabaret styles with the deathrock tension (occasionally) in the old-school post-punk way. After all, Andi plays in the pitch since the early ’80s and he knows well his position which can be “entertaining” or can be offending if you are touchy or even can be exactly as he wants; defiant and irritant, and such manners don’t bother me at all, quite the opposite I’d say!
But it needs depth of thought and some education so that they don’t think that you are just a rock and roll manikin, but offering them food for thought and in the end to have a good and useful time with you like our man here who is an avant-garde person in life (lyricist-poet, singer, musician, painter) with a character. So, in this phase of his artistic career, Andi will describe himself as Dada Degas and really somewhere in the middle of the album you will understand why as the songs reflect somewhat familiar situations of the eternal past of the arts, make the connection, and listen loud!!!
Keep Up With Dada Degas and Andi McElligott:
Written by Loud Cities’ Mike
