Ghastly City Sleep - Ghastly City Sleep
I remember some time ago when I came back from a summer holiday on the Adriatic sea, standing in a CD shop and browsing through a CD rack deciding what to do with the last of my Kuna's. I picked up an album by a band by the name of M83, and was rather surprised by how fantastic it was when I listened to it on my return to Blighty. It's often albums for which you have no musical bias which provide you with the most entertainment. To this day, I still enjoy kicking back with a glass of wine after a hard day at 'work' and listening to that album.
'Ghastly City Sleep' appear to be another one of 'those bands'. I got an email the other day asking to review this band. I'm really happy I accepted.
I'm not going to go into specifics about their sound, because I fear that they'll be lumped into a broad genre containing the likes of 'Sigur Ros' and bands of that ilk. I hate 'Sigur Ros', just a personal choice mind. I certainly don't feel the same way about 'Ghastly City Sleep'.
Beautiful melodies, atmospheric instrumentation and well thought out, minimalist vocal parts all go towards creating a musical package that is both a breath of fresh air and incredibly innovative.
Their 4 track EP 'Ghastly City Sleep' is a creation of wonderment. 'Ice Creaks', currently doing the rounds on their myspace site; www.myspace.com/ghastlycitysleep is a fantastic example of what makes this band fantastic to listen to. Beautiful, well thought out vocals backed by clean guitars and drum brushes is a fantastic opener. Hushed beginnings, leading to a startling crescendo and emphatic finish, lead to comparisons, in my case anyway, to the instrumental behemoth 'The Earth is not a Cold Dead Place'. Well, with stunning vocals as well.
'Hushing Wait', the second track, leads on from the first. Another dream like eerie mix of vocals and instrumentation. Although 'Ghastly City Sleep' are unquestionably 'chill out', this song in particular is incredibly uplifting. This is where 'Ghastly City Sleep' seem to get it so right. The music market is flooded with stuff like this, but vary rarely do artists pull it off as well as 'Ghastly City Sleep'. The combination of synthesisers and live instrumentation seems to provide an incredible balance, which has left me feeling slightly cheated as they've only provided me with four tracks.
'Suchness', quite simply, is a stunning track. It combines everything that is great about the other 3 tracks on the album and elevates itself to a pedestal high in the sky to look down at all other cheap imitations of songs of this ilk. Beautiful and persuasive, this song evokes real emotion within the listener. It's an absolute pleasure to listen to. Slow and methodical at first, it showcases everything 'Ghastly City Sleep' are about: Intelligent sampling, well though out melodies and harmonies and fantastic production for a band not able call upon the big guns of the production world. Like 'Ice Creaks', 'Suchness' builds and builds until it reaches its final climax at the end. A wonderful song, with a wonderful ending.
I suppose every EP has to have a slightly weaker track. In pretty much every respect, this one does not. However, should I have to choose one, it would be 'Subtle Disaster', only because the other three are really fantastic and this is just rather good indeed. It's more of the same really, and the end of a 30 minutes of beauty.
This EP holds no real disappointment for me. How could it? Up until Tuesday, I had no idea who 'Ghastly City Sleep' were. I'd really advise you to go out and buy this musical masterpiece, available on Robotic Empire Records. Beautiful, fluent and subtle, M83 will have to take a back seat at 'wine time' for the foreseeable future.