Ghostly International US 黑胶唱片和CD

Review: Brijean is the combination of percussionist and singer Brijean Murphy and multi-instrumentalist and producer Doug Stuart channelling their collective experiences into fresh rhythms. They debuted their first Ghostly album back in 2021 and since then have left the Bay Area. This new EP finds the pair at their most intimate, working through grief and exploring a new range of moods and styles across effervescent rhythms and colourful chords that bring rich and vibrant feelings to the fore. It's a captivating and creative record that might be their best yet.

Review: Seth Haley begun has career as Com Truise with a bang, releasing two superb albums on Ghostly International in as many years. Curiously, it's taken him five years to conjur up album number three, the typically spacey, melodious and intergalactic Iteration. As you'd expect, his usual musical reference points - Vangelis's Blade Runner soundtrack, early synth-wave, skewed lo-fi boogie, late night radio instrumentals - are all still much in evidence, as his is passion for dusty old synthesizers, cheap drum machines and ear-pleasing melodies. In effect, it's business as usual, though when the music is this cheery, tuneful and atmospheric, it would be churlish to complain.

Review: Second time around for Com Truise's acclaimed debut album Galactic Melt, which has now reached its tenth birthday. Now presented on rather fetching black and orange "swirl" vinyl housed in a similarly deluxe sleeve (there's spot-varnish aplenty), the remastered album has never looked and sounded so good. It always sounded great, of course, with the American producer effectively defining his now trademark sound - all eight-bit synthesizer sounds, sun-bright melodies, dusty drum machines, arcade-ready electronic motifs and feelgood aural references to 1980s musical culture. Highlights include 'VHS Sex', 'Aircal', 'Hyperlips', 'Glawio' and pulsating closing cut 'Futureworld'.

Review: Some seven years after his last full-length excursion, Fort Romeau has finally got around to delivering a new album. Beings of Light is every bit as gorgeous and picturesque affair, with the Chester-born producer adding waves of attractive synthesizer sounds, colourful electronics, cascading guitars, dusty samples and loved-up riffs to sturdy deep house beats. The album's multitude of highlights include bluesy, post jazz-house number 'The Truth', the tech-tinged late-night wonkiness of 'Power of Grace', the sturdy and druggy after-hours chug of 'Ramona' and the dreamy lusciousness of title track 'Beings of Light'.

Review: Galcher Lustwerk is one of those artists who has a completely diehard fan base. And for good reason, he is an idiosyncratic producer who collides myriad different sounds. Rap, funk, blues, beatboxing, techno, electro and bass are all fair game to him. His fist ever mixtape was a stream of sonic consciousness that has never before been released on vinyl. But now Ghostly International step up and press it to two 12"s, with both black and coloured green versions as well as a CD version available. It was a fine announcement of his arrival back then and still stands apart today.

Review: Galcher Lustwerk is one of those artists who has a completely diehard fan base. And for good reason, he is an idiosyncratic producer who collides myriad different sounds. Rap, funk, blues, beatboxing, techno, electro and bass are all fair game to him. His fist ever mixtape was a stream of sonic consciousness that has never before been released on vinyl. But now Ghostly International step up and press it to two 12"s, with both black and coloured green versions as well as a CD version available. It was a fine announcement of his arrival back then and still stands apart today.

Review: A Pale Fire, Goldmund, Mint Julep and Helios are just a few of the pies that American composer and multi-instrumentalist Keith Kenniff has their fingers in. The latter, an ambient project started in 2004 with 'Unomia', has received critical acclaim, their formal music training and unique approach to the genre garnering quite the following in the late 2000s. Since then, Helios has been consistently putting out projects, all the while still working on Goldmund and more - 'Espera' feels like it's what Kenniff does to unwind from his busy schedule. It's a deep sigh, a breath of fresh air as a sunbeam bursts through the clouds. Single 'Intertwine' is heavily inspired by the lo-fi hip-hop boom of the 2010s, the gentle rolling percussion, swaying synths and muted snares are meditative and nostalgic. 'Lineoa' takes a more upright approach, a spacious composition and orchestral elements cradle a gentle guitar riff, as blown-up flutes and uplifting strings evoke Eric Barones work on 'Stardew Valley'.

Review: A Pale Fire, Goldmund, Mint Julep and Helios are just a few of the pies that American composer and multi-instrumentalist Keith Kenniff has their fingers in. The latter, an ambient project started in 2004 with 'Unomia', has received critical acclaim, their formal music training and unique approach to the genre garnering quite the following in the late 2000s. Since then, Helios has been consistently putting out projects, all the while still working on Goldmund and more - 'Espera' feels like it's what Kenniff does to unwind from his busy schedule. It's a deep sigh, a breath of fresh air as a sunbeam bursts through the clouds. Single 'Intertwine' is heavily inspired by the lo-fi hip-hop boom of the 2010s, the gentle rolling percussion, swaying synths and muted snares are meditative and nostalgic. 'Lineoa' takes a more upright approach, a spacious composition and orchestral elements cradle a gentle guitar riff, as blown-up flutes and uplifting strings evoke Eric Barones work on 'Stardew Valley'. This version is pressed on a beige and blue gradient vinyl, a picturesque disc that imitates the dusk on the album cover.

Review: Dylan Khotin-Foote is the Vancouver talent who is now very much at home on Ghostly. Back in 2020 he served up his post-rave, post-techno, post-ambient fusion album Finds You Well and now comes an equally new take on drone and ambient across 11 new tracks. The artist's unique hazy downtempo is heightened here by a first ever vocalist appearance - that is Montreal-based Tess Roby who lends a subtle sense of humanity and extra soulful layer that helps bring the tunes alive like never before. Though slower than before, this is another sublime offering from Khotin.

Review: Canada may not shout as loud as the US, UK or Germany when it comes to electronic music, with the exception of Richie Hawtin perhaps, albeit frequently assumed he's American, and is actually part-British. Nevertheless, the larger North American state has a truly remarkable legacy in house, techno, ambient, and synth-y odds and sods.

It's proof the apple never falls far from the tree, given proximity to some of the bonafide birthplaces of those sounds - Chicago and Detroit. Edmonton's Khotin is indicative of the difficult to define tones that emanate from the Maple Leaf and its people. So much texture, pouring with emotion, and fundamentally born of new ideas, or at least different ways of thinking. Release Spirit, his third album on Michigan's Ghostly International, is thoughtful, intelligent, downtempo electronic stuff, crafted with love and attention to detail.

Review: This is what happens when acclaimed Los Angeline harpist Mary Lattimore enlists Slowdive's Neil Halstead fo production duties. A lush, and liquid listening experience that is as graceful as it is confident, blurring the lines between classical and ambient in a way that seems to echo centuries of traditional, almost Medieval tones and contemporary electronic adventures alike.

Lattimore's work has previously been described in terms of 'dreamscapes', and few have been painted more vividly than Silver Ladders. These are deep dive arrangements that expand and contract like breathing, allowing the artist's signature instrument to shine while submerging it in swells of refrain. Movement is constant, and yet the record feels mill pond still. Hardly par for the course, even in the fertile sonic ground she works in. Step inside and prepare to be captivated.

Review: Two years and two months have passed since Scott Hansen delivered his fifth studio album Awake and there's a strong rumour that his sixth is en route. In the meantime, Ghostly have channelled the spirits to commission nine fittingly far-out, heavily textured remixes. From the faraway jungle breakbeats and spiralling arpeggios of Nitemove's shake-up to the sparse flute flexing and smoky beats of RJD2's jam by way of warped, time-bending nuances of Bibio's take, the all-star cast deliver an all-star collection of versions. This will keep us more than happy until the next Tycho tale arrives.

Review: Released at the height of chillwave, 'Dive' was a staple of early-2010s YouTube algorithm downtempo. While relatively few people were aware of Tycho before then, the artist (real name Scott Hansen) had already been working for nearly 20 years as a musician and graphic designer under the ame ISO50, which later led to sonic-visual mastery of 'minimal' in all its forms. Something between prog, electronic and washed out, the album struck a nerve among the net-nestled young, serving as one of the earliest examples of a kind of opiate music that would go on to influence the taste of a generation.