The hypnotic video for Syntaks ’ “Blue Sunshine”—a gorgeously lumbering standout from the Danish duo’s debut, Ylajali—is an all-to-appropriate analog to the pair’s approach to music-making: a wash of color, fleeting glimpses of half-remembered imagery both heavenly and apocalyptic, and vertiginous shifts in scale superimposed over its creators’ faces. Syntaks’ Jakob Skott directed the clip, and his clear love of its subject matter (his musical collaborator and romantic partner, Anna Cecilia) is apparent throughout.
Culled from Mux Mool’s EPs, mixtapes, and beat vaults, the Viking Funeral EP collects five choice Mux cuts into one concentrated blast of music, an introduction to Brian Lindgren’s dazzling take on homespun electro hip-hop and a preamble to his upcoming full-length opus, Skulltaste.
Viking Funeral contains everything that Mux Mool does best, making it a fine road map to Lindgren’s cracked universe. “Teal Trim” starts things off right with a tight, incisive beat, mixed to cut through a fog of hard-panned synths and distorted melody lines. Mux’s live edit of “Ladies Know” is a hard-to-find instrumental version which foregrounds the track’s bitcrushed drums and dirt-crusted vocal samples. Next up is “Drum Babylon”, a highlight from Mux’s song-a-day project Drum EP, and “Goblin Town”, a mischievous interlude featuring a choir of deep-voiced goblins, singing about their hometown. The Viking Funeral EP closes with its lone track with vocals, “Death 9000 (Prof & POS Broadcasting Version)”, in which the MCs have their way with one of Mux’s more sinister beatscapes.
At first blush, Mux Mool ’s “Lady Linda” seems an unconventionally low-key choice for the first single from the hyperactive producer.‘Lady Linda’ (from Mux Mool’s upcoming debut full-length Skulltaste) doesn’t come roaring out of the gates—rather, it takes its time, shifting from foot to foot like a trench-coated figure in an alley, clutching a bone-dry breakbeat and a pocket full of vintage keyboard tones. But as the track progresses, the underlying sophistication of Mux Mool’s homespun hip-hop begins to take hold and “Lady Linda” reveals herself, blossoming with lush Detroit strings and a melancholy melody.
January 2010 not only marks the emergence of a new year and a new decade—it's also a bookend on the first ten years of Ghostly International. Naturally, we're feeling a little reflective.
Since our humble beginnings, Ghostly has become much more than a label (or labels), and while the sky's the limit for our ambitions, music remains at the core of our being. As a tribute to the brilliant artists who have inspired us during Ghostly's lifetime, we present Ghostly's 110: Our Favorite Albums of the Decade.
Ghostly's 110 represents a combination of our staff's individual favorites and an eclectic assortment of albums that have been instrumental (pun intended) in forging the path Ghostly has tread. The list sticks to artist albums (no compilations) and non-Ghostly/Spectral releases (we love our artists, but you knew that anyway), and it's presented in semi-alphabetical order by artist for your reading convenience
For a collective of obsessives, whittling this list down was a painstaking labor of love. We hope it inspires you to make new discoveries and unearth some old favorites of your own. So, without further ado, we give you Ghostly's 110.
‘Oh Love’ may be Gadi Mizrahi ’s first single for Spectral and a teaser for his upcoming She Don’t EP, but it displays all the confidence, focus, and ingenuity of the roster’s most seasoned vets. Of course, Mizrahi is no dance-music novice, and he brings just the sort of dark, sexy, devilish spirit to “Oh Love” that he’s brought to underground Brooklyn parties for almost a decade now, as half of DJ/label/promoter Wolf + Lamb.
“Coastal Brake” is designer-slash-producer Scott Hansen’s third single as Tycho, and it’s almost certainly his best yet—a sweet slice of dream-beat that glides over the ocean surface like a high-speed waverider. “Coastal Brake”’s vintage synthesizers set the pointillistic scene, blipping and popping around a near-Balearic rhythm like melancholy drops in a river, rising and falling and building to a shimmering climax. It’s not quite dance music—more like Tycho’s soft-focus take on the escapist beauty of house.
‘Tis the season for coming together with your fellow man to revel in warm melodies, crackling ambiance, and gentle rhythms at New York’s Le Poisson Rouge. The Ghostly International Holiday Concert is this Sunday evening (10pm), and with the help of our friends at Wordless Music and Moodgadget records, we aim to deliver the year’s most cheerful, non-denominational winter celebration (apologies to Santacon).
While many of Matthew Dear's 2009 singles under his Audion alias showcase a newfound obsession with restraint, understatement, and barely there dynamics, “Push” runs in the exact opposite direction and never looks back.
A classic Audion track in the “Mouth to Mouth” mold, the aptly named “Push” traffics in unapologetically anthemic builds, precision calibrated to make’em go crazy on the dancefloor. Relentlessly chugging rhythms, buoyant blips of keyboard, room-swallowing low-end swells, and wave after wave of ecstatic climax. Sometimes, a great track is as simple as that.
Audion is currently wrapping up the US leg of his Hecatomb tour, finishing on December 5 as part of Ghostly's Ten-Year Anniversary concert at Art Basil, Miami.
