Three years after releasing their remarkably austere and unique debut on DFA Records, Prinzhorn Dance School has emerged with an equally austere and unique follow-up titled, “Clay Class“.
Although no less catchy or talented than other boy/girl duos who’ve gone on to worldwide superstardom (read: The White Stripes and Matt & Kim,) Tobin Prinz and Suzi Horn’s minimalist post-punk take on the formula has been met with a little less fanfare. Maybe it’s that their monochromatic visual aesthetic is puzzling? Or that lyrically they have the particularly British gift of wittily turning lovely phrases about the discomforts and claustrophobias of love? Or perhaps that instead of alluding to American pop-rock tropes, they headily reference The Cure and Young Marble Giants?
Prinzhorn Dance School – Usurper by DFA Records
In a post at the beginning of the year, KCRW DJ & Music Librarian Eric J. Lawrence called them DFA’s “secret weapon,” and I wholeheartedly second that notion. To date, it’s kind of a sin that they’ve been as under-appreciated as but here’s to hoping that “Clay Class” pulls them out of the secret weapon storage space and on the front line, so people can gravitate to their gravitas this time out.
— Mario Cotto