Late Slap. Dana Gavanski

Dana Gavanski is from Canada, living in London, and has released her third full length album after, 'Yesterday Is Gone' in 2020 and 'When It Comes' in 2022. I have not heard the albums at the time, which makes Late Slap my personal Dana Gavanski debut album. Having been forewarned by single 'Ears Were Growing' a few weeks ago, I knew Late Slap would be an album to look out for. And I was not disappointed. Almost mirroring the artwork, I was.

The album opens with 'How To Feel Uncomfortable'. It surprised me because I thought immediately of Elenne May, the Amsterdam band that split last year. The song could have been on 'Veggie Patch In The Desert' without a problem. Vocals, voice, lyric, theme and music. From there on Late Slap takes on its own forms and shapes.

For Late Slap Gavanski worked, again, with producer Mike Lindsay (of Tunng) and her band mate James Howard as co-producer. Together they created an adventurous musical palet over which Dana Gavanski sings with her, let's face it, unstable voice. A voice that she makes work for herself, and us, in all sorts of ways. She may not have been first, nor second choice for the local choir, had she applied. For her own work her voice is ideal and I notice I very much like to listen to it. It may be high and slide quivering over notes, the way she uses her voice gives Late Slap a totally own sound. Especially when it contrasts with the male choir, deliberately singing in a lower register. Her other band members are David B. Miller, Thomas Broda and Dimi Ntontis.

The songs on Late Slap are nearly all approached from a keyboard/synth angle. Mike Lindsay bought himself a Yamaha DX7 synth at Dana Gavanski's request. Now I'm not a synth expert but I do notice the 80s synth sounds on the album. Think China Crisis for example. The soft sounds make Late Slap a relaxing album to listen to. Quite a contrast to the opening song actually. This is so much more confrontational. It makes 'How To Feel Uncomfortable' the more surprising really.

The mood of the album can be quite calm actually. Were it not for the total absence of a surf, reverb drenched guitar, I could imagine listening to Donna Blue's next album. This makes 'Dark Side' such a surprise. The dreamy atmosphere does move to the dark side by bringing in more rhythm into the mix. It makes 'Dark Side' one of the stronger songs on Late Slap. The bass really comes through and, there they are, electric guitars. Let out of their cases, they really go for it, while Dana Gavanski's voice just floats over it all.

Late Slap is a very nice album. Otherwise I would not have written about it of course. It could have done with a little more variation, like 'Dark Side' offers. This would have made the album perhaps even outstanding. Let me put that aside, because there's more than enough to enjoy on Dana Gavanski's latest effort.

Wout de Natris

You can listen to and order Late Slap here:

https://danagavanskifth.bandcamp.com/album/late-slap