Ghost Tracks Cluster Node | The Electro Review

Ghost Tracks
Ghost Tracks EP
Cluster Node Records
TBR: 17th April


Organic and electronic merge for this meditative and stretching calmly extended play. Ingredients of abstraction culminate in passages of musical time woven in unique and delicately textured productions. This debut EP from Ghost Tracks lights a lantern on the new directions made possible by imaginations within electronica.


Perhaps it is a moving train that can be heard, warped and in an oddly cubist vision, it begins a repeating spiral of rhythm. A horn joins the cacophony and begins to resonate with the crunch and swish that creeps alongside. Distant vocals hauntingly decorate the off white noise, tumbling with effects, an intensity is added with adjustments in pitch and tempo before a louder percussive disintegrating thump thrusts the sound into a new level. Reverberating bells and static support each others' breaking points until a fade into quiet leaves us slightly bewildered.


Injuries From Games pushes onward with metallic clangs that could almost be a distorted guitar. A rumbling sub-melody enters with a beating drum which creates a messy yet listenable mush of sonic fusion. Erratic rhythms come to a head when a tinny snare begins to keep time with the now. From the merged dots of sound comes a snaking tempo that weaves a perfect path through chaotic and mind bending apertures of waveform. Soon all that is left is the continual drumbeat and a whining consistent drone formed of several layered voices.


New sensations rise like a brewing mist as Dagger brightens the journey. A simple yet distinctive drum loop sets the scene for more ghostly vocals, this time with defined melody and a guitar pluck which wraps everything in a Celtic blanket. Mantra styled musings cause a swirling up-draft of personal energy, represented here by synths which distort and rage like ocean winds. All falls to a moment's quiet before an engine like peal of deep bouncing growls. Vocals ride like surf angels over a deliciously rich yet lightly sprinkled broken background.


The progression in Strike I and II brings the clarity further in the way a telescope brings the stars nearer. Now with more discernment of sound, less speckles of force and more gently layered escapades form a soft and dreamier side to this release. Thundering objects create a distant sound of urban sprawl while inward facing melody creates a network of restful visions. Swirls of intention and passive action draw in like clouds, nearer and nearer come the clatterings of reality, until close.


The Final number enters with a slinky synth melody that bubbles gently over silent rocks and glints of sunlight start forming rainbows as amplified high notes break the phase. A gentle effect breaks the energy down into a manageable chunk before the whole thing begins again, this time with extra sparkle. This dualistic album begins like a hurricane, drawing us into the frothing industrial ensemble before releasing its fury to the skies above and dropping us down gently in a beautifully upside-down post storm landscape.


Check out Ghost Tracks on Soundcloud.

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