Music
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..."A WONDROUS MASTERPIECE, LIKE A NICO ALBUM PERFORMED BY GHOSTS AND ANGELS. FIND IT, BUY IT." - Stomp and Stammer
File under "things I pulled out of the promo pile because I'm a sucker for allusions to Broadcast": The Athens-based vocalist/singing saw player Sanni Baumgaertner floated between college-town Georgia and Berlin for a few years, and the results are audible in the album she recorded under the name Dancer Vs. Politician. A City Half-Lost is airy and delicate—a chiming glockenspiel here, a gentle push from an accordion there—-and Baumgaertner's half-English, half-German vocals transform words from both languages into giant, down-filled pillows, even when they're filled with the harshest consonants and glottals. Besides, the tagline on the band's MySpace page is "We love violas," and how can you disagree with that sentiment?
11:30 AM on Wed Sep 3 2008
By Maura Johnston - Idolator
Dancer vs. Politician - A City Half-Lost (Independently released CD-R, Soft pop)
Although she calls Athens, Georgia her home, Sanni Baumgaertner (the young lady who calls herself Dancer vs. Politician) is originally from Germany. But unlike many overseas artists who plant their roots in American soil, Baumgaertner continues to sing in German (although she also includes tunes here sung in English). Recorded over a two-year period, A City Half-Lost features nice, smart, mature, soft, introspective pop tunes that emphasize Sanni's understated and provocative voice. Players on the album include members of Phosphorescent, The Olivia Tremor Control, The Glands, and Five-Eight. Baumgaertner might best be described as an "artist's artist." Her sound is probably a bit too odd for the casual listener...but our guess is that writers and other musicians will eat this stuff right off the plate without using utensils. Neat, moody, subdued tracks include "Mach Dich Los," "Keine Zeit," "Happiness," and "Homeless Mind." Nice smooth stuff... (Rating: 5 out of 6) - www.babysue.com
Dancer Vs. Politician is the pseudonym of singing saw player (!) Sanni Baumgaertner a German native who moved to Athens, Georgia in the late 90s.
Sanni, the tenderoni of Tom Wait's soundalike Don Chambers, sings in both English and German and, for those monolinguists out there, even though you may not always understand the lyrics it sounds so beautiful that it really doesn't matter.
With influences including The Velvet Underground, Belle & Sebastian, Tom Waits and Neutral Milk Hotel and a fragile and finespun sound that floats like finest chiffon on a warm summer breeze, Dancer vs Politician is a perfect antidote for the world wide financial turmoil, a bolthole to escape from the wall to wall news coverage of a world spinning wildly out of control.
Check out the dazzlingly delicate 'Justin Fairborn' which sounds oddly like an ethereal cover of Babybird's mid 1990s hit 'You're Gorgeous' and the equally diaphonous, if impenetrable to us monolinguists, 'Mach Dich Los' ( if you enter into Babel Fish translates as detach you, which sounds suspiciously like an homage to Lorena Bobbet!). - The Devil Has The Best Tuna
Dancer Vs. Politician’s music perfectly matches the season where the colours are warm and the wind is cold. Yes, I’m talking about autumn. By far my favorite season of the four, A City Half-Lost is an album that enhances the richness of the current state outside my window. And that’s pretty impressive considering that I barely understand the majority of the lyrics.
Hailing from Germany, Dancer Vs. Politician is the project of Sanni Baumgaertner. In the late 90’s she moved to Athens, Georgia and has for the last three years traveled between her two homes, performing and recording in both places. Though now settled in Athens, the previous dual citizenship can be heard in her lyrics as she sings in English as well as German. The music itself is sweet indie-pop, richly layered with strings, horns, accordion, glockenspiel and Sanni’s soft voice. Amongst her influences, Sanni lists Velvet Underground, Azure Ray, Belle & Sebastian, Tom Waits, and Neutral Milk Hotel, which gives you a pretty good inkling of what her sound is like.
- Rocksellout.com
Discography
Dancer vs. Politician: "A City Half-Lost"
Nikki Sudden: "The Truth Doesn't Matter"
"Suddenly Yours" A Tribute to Nikki Sudden (Sunthunder Records)
Jeffrey Butzer: "The Garden of Scissors" (will be released on Lona Records in March 2009)
Photos
Bio
DANCER VS. POLITICIAN is the musical project of German native Sanni Baumgaertner. She moved to Athens, Georgia in the late 90s, where she started performing in different bands around the Southeast. She plays accordion, guitar, and musical saw. Her lyrics are in German and English.
After traveling back and forth between Athens and Berlin for the last three years, playing shows in the US and Germany with bands in both places, DANCER VS. POLITICIAN toured the US in the fall of 2008 to promote the release of their album "A City Half-Lost". The tour was supported by TEAM CLERMONT's national press and radio promotion campaign. Sanni Baumgaertner is currently being backed up by a three piece band, featuring keyboards, samples, glockenspiel, viola, drums, and bass.
Produced by Matt Yelton (The Pixies, Frank Black), Andy Baker (The Glands, Azure Ray, Shannon Wright), and Sanni Baumgaertner, the album "A City Half-Lost" features a number of Athens and Berlin musicians, among them members of Phosphorescent, The Olivia Tremor Control, The Glands, and Five-Eight. It was recorded over a period of two years in Athens, Georgia, and Berlin, Germany. STOMP AND STAMMER calls it ..."A WONDROUS MASTERPIECE, LIKE A NICO ALBUM PERFORMED BY GHOSTS AND ANGELS. FIND IT, BUY IT." (Stomp and Stammer, April 2007).
One of the tracks on the album, the Nikki Sudden song "Ratcliffe Highway" is featured on the Nikki Sudden tribute album "Suddenly Yours" on Sunthunder Records (Spain). Sanni Baumgärtner also appears on Nikki Sudden's last album called "The Truth Doesn't Matter" and has recorded with Vic Chesnutt, Bill Doss (Apples in Stereo, The Olivia Tremor Control), and Jeffrey Butzer (Lona Records).
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