GHOST

GHOST are a six piece band out of Japan playing a psychedelic/folk brand of music. That krautrock spirit is here as well with those drugged out vocals on the second half of the album. The music is not in a hurry. Plenty of flute and percussion with vocals in english. They had a pretty good run releasing eight studio albums from 1990 to 2007. I am fortunate to own four of those. My first was way back in 2007 with "Lama Rabi Rabi" but it would be nine years before I would visit them again with their "Hypnotic Underworld" record. Both strong albums, so the search was on for more resulting in the acquisitions of this the debut and the followup "Second Time Around".

While there is electric guitar, sax, piano and electronics I feel they are buried or sparse. This album really is dominated by percussion, flute, acoustic guitar and vocals. The standout track for me is "Ballad Of Summer Rounder" an almost 11 minute trip my friends. I should mention as well that there are some inventive moments on this record. This isn't all trippy all the time. The vocal arrangements on "Moungod Te Deum" are interesting. Almost an "aummm" style to them but different.

And how about the opening of this record on "Sun Is Tangging" where we hear this soft distant flute. Do not be fooled into either turning up the volume, or putting your ear next to the speaker. They want you to do that! There is an explosion of sound that goes on for a while and it's the loudest section on the record. Like a blast of yells, beats and more blended together and then turned up a notch hoping to scare the naive listener. Yeah it worked! Thanks a lot.

This is a special record that even triggers emotion like early on my favourite track "Ballad Of Summer Rounder". I'm looking forward to spending time with the followup next week. As for this one, it's easily a four star record in my world, and it was great to hear their beginnings, where it all started.

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