Clay Class Released on DFA Records Today

British duo Prinzhorn Dance School deliver their unique brand of encouragingly hopeful tunes to the US with the release of their new album, Clay Class, on DFA Records today! Made up of Tobin Prinz (voice, guitar, drums) and Suzi Horn (voice, bass, drums), Prinzhorn Dance School makes music that gives thrillingly clear picture of what living in 21st century Britain is actually like.

Clay Class opens with “Happy In Bits,” a track that greets us straight away with “so glad you’re here…” over a fluctuating guitar riff and locked down bass line. Prinzhorn Dance School’s Download the “Happy In Bits” MP3 HERE.

Clay Class is a follow-up to Prinzhorn Dance School’s self-titled 2007 debut on DFA, which was mixed in New York by James Murphy. It abruptly introduced the world to the peculiar shared mindspace of Tobin and Suzi, and had a certified indie anthem with the single “You Are The Space Invader”. Prinzhorn Dance School’s journey the past few years has played a vital role in painting the landscape for Clay Class. Album track “Usurper” showcases the duo’s layered vocals, which crisply break through gaps of silence with lurching drums in tow. The cries of call and response on “Your Fire Has Gone Out” express an air of finality, while “The Flora and Fauna of Britain in Bloom” tenderly confirms that the light at the end of the tunnel does not always have be an oncoming train. Closing the record, “Shake The Jar” is an airy almost off the cuff-feeling tune, the two of them sounding both vulnerable and maybe even a little amazed to be back.

As Tobin recently expressed:
“Even though our band lives in two different places at once – Brighton and Portsmouth”, Prinz explains, “a sense of belonging doesn’t really happen in either. I think that’s a wider issue which probably affects millions of people in this country, and the empty spaces Suzi and I are interested in – fields; lakes; warehouses; the sea; huge, people-less car-parks, or even the gaps in our music itself – simultaneously amplify that feeling, and give you the room to ask questions about it”.