The Black Ghosts – The Black Ghosts Review
Posted by Alex Dowson on 07.15.2008
The other band formed from the ashes of UK electro-rockers Simian release their debut album this month. There’s a lot to live up to. So how does the final product sound?
Debut albums are tough, everyone knows that. The pressure for any band to establish a real presence and identity right off the bat is palpable, and the Black Ghosts of all groups know what pressure is like. They’ve wound up as the next big thing in a string of dance and electronic acts associated with electro-rock patriarchs Simian. These connections, a veritable Six Degrees of Simian, link acts from Beyond the Wizard’s Sleeve, to Simian Mobile Disco, to Justice, all in a great big mess of next-great-thing hype generation. As a part-time DJ and full-time music junkie, I first encountered the Black Ghosts while perusing the great blog-house capitals of the World Wide Web: Palms Out Sounds, BigStereo, and the like. A quick search through my iTunes library shows the Black Ghosts remixes and non-album singles I’ve accrued. My first taste of their synth-peppered sound came with their cover version of Olivia Newton-John’s Lycra anthem “Let’s Get Physical.” Now, on their debut album, the Black Ghosts try to make their breakthrough among a crowded field of influences and imitators. In that context, I have to approach my review with my opinions of the two elephants in the room: The major releases from the Black Ghosts two most prolific cousins, Justice and Simian Mobile Disco, widely seen as France and England’s ambassadors to the new wave of dance music, respectively.
†, also known as Cross, the debut album by French electro-house mavens Justice, blew the doors down on dance music last year. Quite simply, it was the loudest album most listeners of pop music had ever heard, and it did so without resorting to the ear-damaging heights of acid house or Detroit techno.
Nearly conversely, Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release, by Simian Mobile Disco, named after the four common tweakable perimeters of analog synthesizers, took a fittingly more classic approach to dance music, filled with arpeggiated 80’s synths, vintage drum machines, and house-friendly guest vocalists.
If Justice are the rebel rockers of the electro-house scene, and Simian Mobile Disco are the retro standard-bearers, then who are the Black Ghosts, and how does it reflect on their debut?
Upon inspection, this reviewer would say that the Black Ghosts are the affable indie-pop stars-in-waiting of the burgeoning scene. I might even go as far as to say that if I were to compare their debut to another indie album, The Black Ghosts is similar to the legendary Belle & Sebastian’s Tigermilk.
So, I’ll approach The Black Ghosts as a pop album.
To put it simply, the Black Ghosts are simply better at pop songcraft then their more famous peers. They often branch out into more experimental sounds than just typical four-on-the-floor anthems—The first track, “Some Way Through This” features an Oberheim-esque synthesized brass bassline and a yearning string section, as a hip-hop beat accompanies the bluesy vocals (on that note, the Black Ghosts can sing, and sing quite well, but I’ll talk about that later) to create a final product that recalls both Santogold’s “Creator” and Kanye West’s Can-cribbing “Drunk and Hot Girls.” It’s bombastic, but not punishing, a claim that cannot be attached to Justice’s string-laden latest single, “Stress.”
As the last cacophonic strains of “Some Way Through This” end in a remarkably “A Day in the Life”-like fashion (Black Ghosts member Simon Lord’s grandfather actually played Oboe on that impeccable Beatles cut,) the hip hop stylings of the first track give way for the more typical disco-rock strains of the propulsive “Any Way You Choose It.” Damn it if it ain’t catchy, though. The overdubbed vocals and driving rhythm of this track have been stuck in my head for days, and I’d certainly peg it as a contender for best single-worthy track on the album. Here, an overdriven electric guitar snakes over a beat pounded out on woodblocks, while climbing chords are hammered out on an old piano and a rubbery analog synth-bass struts along underneath the whole track. It’s like the Rapture, but with a vocal coach. Imagine if these post-punk/disco bands stopped listening to James Chance and the Contortions and started listening to classic disco and Ibiza house tracks… The tunefulness of the Black Ghosts is paramount to their inherent enjoyableness.
As I mentioned earlier, Simon Lord of the Black Ghosts has been blessed with one of the most soulful and expressive voices in modern disco, and it does wonders for him on the next track, “It’s Your Touch.” A phased Wurlitzer and a bongo beat bring the 70’s into the equation in a way that Aussie dance-rockers the Cut Copy were desperately grabbing for on their own debut. Again, it’s the pop sensibilities of the band that really make this record shine. It’s obvious to the listener that these songs were written as songs, not as beats. This song sounds like Giorgio Moroder could have produced it for Donna Summer during the height of disco. It’s not game changing, and it’s distinctively not groundbreaking, but “It’s Your Touch” is just a great pop song, and that’s pretty refreshing in the world of forgettable dance music.
Next, we move to the big first single. On “Repetition Kills You,” Damon Albarn (Blur, Gorillaz, all around classy Brit) lends his disaffected vocal stylings to a more typical synth-rock tune, and to be honest, I find it falls rather flat. The “Ba, ba, ba” background vocals and 4-note bassline (now there’s some repetition that could kill me) both scream “car commercial song” to this reviewer. Fitting, perhaps, that fellow dance-rockers Goose had their song “Bring It On” featured in a spot for Mitsubishi, and Justice’s “Genesis” is making the rounds in the new Cadillac ads. I feel that The Black Ghosts as a whole album statement falters when this song is taken into account. It’s surprising to this reviewer that a song on which he would place the unfortunate distinction of “filler” would be chosen for not only a headline-making guest appearance, but that the song would also be the leadoff single. Perplexing.
Next! “Until It Comes Again” ventures into more hip hop-esque territory, recalling at once Gorillaz, (where’s Damon Albarn when he’s actually desired?) work by retro-friendly producers Danger Mouse and Mark Ronson, and interestingly enough, goth-rock icons the Sisters of Mercy, as a Gregorian choir rises from the darkness to compliment a bouncy but dark funk/blues sound that hints at the best work of the aforementioned music makers, ending up sounding like a mashup of “Dominion/Mother Russia,” by the Sisters of Mercy, “Crazy,” by Gnarls Barkley, and “Kids with Guns,” by Gorillaz, in the best possible sense. 80’s synthesizer chords in the second verse hint at the Black Ghosts’ electro forbearers, but prove to remain just that; an homage, not a crutch. The song is a lovely little respite after the annoyances of the previous track, and helps display another one of the Black Ghosts pop-music ideals: The pop album whose tracks could all stand up on their own as singles, while still complimenting each other as well as the album a whole (See: FutureSex/LoveSounds.) In that respect, The Black Ghosts do their best—only one track, the first, clocks in at longer than 4:00.
“I Want Nothing” brings us back into pounding dance territory, relying heavily on sampled electric guitar, synth bass, and an insistent beat. Again, though, Simon Lord’s voice is an anchor to some of the excesses of electro-house—he lends a bit of legitimacy to what could be a throwaway disco single, his crooning begging comparison to some of Alexis Taylor’s work on the second Hot Chip album. Still, this is another of my least favorite tracks on the album, and it’s fitting that it’s also the shortest track on The Black Ghosts.
Although the influences one can hear on The Black Ghosts are varied and extensive in nature, I certainly didn’t expect to find myself comparing one of these songs to the Doobie Brothers, but here comes “Full Moon,” whose acoustic guitar flourishes, quiet strings, and early 90’s hip hop beat recall the Doobies’ “Black Water” if it was sampled by Arrested Development. Hints of Marlena Shaw’s “California Soul” and Diplo’s Florida album also appear here.
Out of the bayou, and into the club, “I Don’t Know” definitely recalls Italian disco legend Giorgio Moroder with its pulsating synth and 16th note hi-hat patterns. Again, it’s pretty catchy. Not life changing, but fun. I feel that the Black Ghosts suffer most when they’re constrained to the traditions of electronic dance music. Although they pull it off with aplomb, it’s those tracks that come off significantly more contrived than some of their more experimental songs on the album, and that prevents The Black Ghosts from being a truly great album. It’s a shame too, because their best moments have you pulling for them to succeed in such a crowded field of musicians.
“Something New” is just that. The electric piano returns, as does the 70’s flavor. The song still sounds effortlessly current though, and when the chorus comes in, you can’t help but tap your feet to the beat. A lone guitar plays funky, sparse chords, while Mr. Lord croons out finely composed phrases wrapped around a walking bassline and a clinking cowbell. Here, the Black Ghosts are at their best, danceable but not typical. Pop-friendly, but in that incestuous death-to-creativity way. We all love pop music, and the Black Ghosts are excellent pop musicians. As a testament to that, as I’m writing, my 11-year-old cousin is absent-mindedly humming this very tune—just after hearing it through bleed through my headphones, and he just told me that he’s only got two albums on his new iPod (both are Green Day.) The universality of catchy music is a wonderful thing.
“Don’t Cry” definitely begs comparison to either Hot Chip or the Junior Boys. With a rubbery synth hook, smooth-as-butter vocals, light cowbell, and slowly building string sections, it’s a truly lovely song. The R&B flavor of this tune is a nice refresher after the last few dance tracks. It’s definitely a more relaxed song than some of the others on the album, but is no less compelling. Simon Lord’s vocals, again, come across as a keystone feature of the Black Ghosts’ music, and the eclectic nature of the duo’s songwriting draws you into such an extent that when a sample of a bluesy electric guitar sneaks into the mix along with the string section and drum groove, you feel like you couldn’t imagine the song without all of those elements intermixed. That’s a feat that was accomplished very handily by Hot Chip on Made In The Dark earlier this year, and gives some great hints to what a sophomore Black Ghosts album could sound like.
“Face,” as in, “face the music,” is appropriately the last song on The Black Ghosts, and has the heaviest dance-rock influence of any song on the album, and while the bassline is suitably heavy and propulsive, it honestly borders somewhat on the absurd that the coveted last-song spot would come down to a song that isn’t all that great. To be curt, the song is one of the better straight-ahead dance numbers on the album, but it certainly doesn’t lend all that much to the album. Like “Flux,” the non-album single by Bloc Party, “Face” might’ve found more love on an EP, as its simple and short nature make the end of the album sound abrupt and alarming, while The Black Ghosts began powerfully and confidently. Like the selection of songs that appeared on Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter III, The Black Ghosts' tracklisting is a little suspect, and might very well have an impact on some of my more negative feelings about the album.
The 411: For its shortcomings, The Black Ghosts is a great album, and to be clear, it’s a lot more listenable than a lot of the dance music that has been released in this past year. The songs will get stuck in your head without warning, and are well suited to both the club and the iPod. I’ve got quarrels with it, of course, but The Black Ghosts is a very strong initial offering by two very talented musicians. If this 40 minutes is what the Black Ghosts can do in 2 years, I’m incredibly confident that these guys are headed for as lofty a position in the dance music Parthenon as the other Simian offspring, and may very well surpass them one day with their secret weapon: Smart pop songcraft that’ll have everyone from your parents to your lil ‘uns bopping along.
