Ghost - Untitled [Inactivist Recordings - 2011]“Untitled” offers up a selection of four forlorn yet battering fifteen minute walls from the progressive, creative & sometimes ambient focused French HNW act Ghost. For me these four ‘walls’ are some of the most troubled, hopeless & pained work I’ve heard from Ghost thus far- each track seems to plump into this deeply forlorn & at times suicidal & bitter vibe. The first track is built around a locked & chugging refrigerator like judder that’s over played by these smaller jittering static tonalities- the track makes one feel like there been slowly frozen from the outside in by emotional turmoil & pain.. It sets the tone nicely for the rest of the tracks. The second track is built around a distant looped hissing & stark noise tone that’s played over by this fairly striped crunchy judder- this track seems to pull you even further into the grim & troubled feel of the album, and one can almost see a solitary figure staring off into nothingness in a freezing & light fading small room. The Third track picks up the pace & vibe a little bit from the starkness of the last track- this wall is based around a fairly tight mixture of rumbling ’n’ roasting noise that’s played over by a muffled jittering ball bearing like tonality. The forth and last track returns to numb, stark & taut sonic territory - this ‘wall’ is built around a deep hope sucking rolling tone that played over by very subtle & controlled static grain play. The track brings to mind some teetering on the edge of a vast & seemingly bottomless abyss….a very troubled & pained piece of wallmaking. In the past Ghost work has often focused in on stark & hopeless walled noise expression, but for me this untitled CDR standards as one of the projects most profoundly hopeless & forlorn works. Roger Batty
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