That Ghost – Young Fridays
This album is really, really basic and really, really good. Guitar, drums, bass from time to time, and some bloke singing. Ryan Schmale, who to all intents and purposes is the band has all sorts of self-releases to his name already and, at the grand old age of eighteen, this is his label debut. His first proper full release, I suppose you would call it.
Knowing that, you’d never expect the sounds that issue forth from your speakers on pressing play. This sounds like the work of a veteran indie band to me – you know, members mostly in their thirties, been growling away since listening to the low-fi indie of the early 90s US scene, that sort of thing. It’s part of that line between The Velvets, Pavement, Yo La Tengo, Luna and that kind of thrum-based, basic indie rock. I wouldn’t put him quite at that level yet, obviously, but then it would be a bit harsh to compare an eighteen year old to the major giants of US indie.
A friend of mine is a drummer and refers to his instrument as ‘the pots and pans’, and in this particular case that is almost exactly what they sound like. Add the crackly, distorted guitar and echoey vocals and, well… eighteen, are you sure? There are times when things lag a little. After the terrific Top Shelf there comes a one-two of songs I am not particularly smitten by, and some kind of instrumental variation might be a little welcome here and there just to break things up a little, but in general I would call this an excellent debut. I’ll be interested to see how he develops.
That Ghost – Top Shelf
That Ghost – A Song About a Bird I Know
