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Ghostly Essentials Rarities One: Nine tracks from the DJ box

Last update: Reading time: 1 minute Tags: Ghostly, Ghostly Essentials Rarities One, Mobius Band, Mp3

It is time for a new musical discovery: the cool, free Ghostly Essentials – Rarities One (email address required), a lovingly compiled collection of rare recordings from the Ghostly label catalog.

Some nice DJ gems, but read (and listen!) for yourselves:

  1. Aeroc – “Daisy Chains”: A beautiful, relaxed piece with a bell-like, sparkling synthesizer and plucks in the background. If smoothies were made of music, this is what they would sound like.
  2. Audion – “Bend Her”: Something completely different. The beat rolls along, pretty straight, a hundred times heard like this. Then slowly chopped-up vocals are mixed in, a hihat is added, not much else happens. It then suddenly transitions into…
  3. Ben Benjamin – “Desk Has Been Tabled”: My favorite on the album. The synth sparkles, the echo sparkles back, accompanied by a cool beat. Everything is assembled into complex, constantly changing structures, with a rhythmic element being added again and again, changing the character of the piece, stepping back or being overlaid by the next melody.
  4. Matthew Dear – “Don’t Go This Way”: A whimpering choir competing with a much more dominant male voice.
  5. Michna – “Quadruple Gold Dipped”: A rhythm-driven piece that beautifully demonstrates the range of a simple collection of just a few beat and vocal set pieces, garnished with some spacey laser effects.
  6. Midwest Product – “Belgian”: Somehow ominous, I think. A nasty synthesizer sound slowly dissolves into a driving beat before returning just as ominously, waiting for resolution that finally returns in the form of the beat. A constant change, constant ups and downs. Like a dark shadow in the disco.
  7. Mobius Band – “The Loving Sounds Of Static (Junior Boys Remix Instrumental)”: I just love the Mobius Band. The echo effects are world class, flowing into my ear canal and getting stuck there. A relaxed beat, and a break in between for a change. Do not good dishes always consist of few ingredients?
  8. Outputmessage – “Mettle”: My second favorite on the album. The chopped beat reminds me somehow of Aphex Twin, only much softer. “Mettle” means courage, and that is what the piece sounds like. Brisk and alert, it culminates in a beautiful finale in which layer upon layer of sound piles up, only to slowly subside again. What remains is the naked beat.
  9. The Sight Below – “Blown”: Some pieces you love just for the way they start. Like this one. Cinematic! Then a heartbeat that gets louder and louder. Not much else happens. Hypnotic.