Death Sentence: PANDA!
Festival Of Ghosts LP
SIDE A – FESTIVAL OF GHOSTS
- Here Come The Ghosts
- Public Forest
- Shadow Ghost
- Ooops! Ghost
- Mr Chip
SIDE AA – R'OUT 4,002
- Slumber Party
- Tribal Boyfriend
- Yao Yao Tou (Reprise)
- Mrs Fancy Lady Friend
- Yao Yao Tou
Festival Of Ghosts is the follow-up to 2005's well-received "Puppy, Kitty Or Both" debut (now on its third pressing!). Festival Of Ghosts is an album of two halves, the first half Festival of Ghosts is just that, songs for and about ghosts, except for "Mr. Chip", a song about a triumphant rabbit. This half is oozing with hypnotic percussive clanging, howling sax and scrambled experimentation. Opener "Here Come The Ghosts" is a haunted call to arms summoning all spirits in earshot to march in unison with Nature's heartbeat. "From public forest to the secret rainbow, bring your friends, don't wait for tomorrow!" yelps vocalist Kim West urgently on the strident "Public Forest" before the song crumbles into a swirling storm of clarinet, courtesy of Paul Costuros. Drummer Chris Dixon then conjures a ferocious cymbal cascade which dissolves leaving a reverberating xylophone to pick its melody out of the disorder, transposing "Shadow Ghost" into near traditional Japanese song. This first side of the album marks a movement towards more experimental song structure and instrumentation for the group (bells, trombone and even shoes all feature), songs run in unpredictable directions, and echo with dub delay, making for a supernatural listen.
The second half of the record consists of tracks taken from the band's 2004 tour-only CDR, remixed and remastered by Orthlorng Musork's Joshua Kit Clayton. "R'out 4,002" is the sound of hardcore with its fangs beared; songs creep and sprint, shock and enliven with their savage cacophony. "Slumber Party" and "Tribal Boyfriend" are both brutally bratty as delinquent skip-n-stamp dance numbers. Whilst "Yao Yao Tou" is a kinetic barrage of pitchshifted clarinet blurts and clattering pans, punctuated by the recital of an Indonesian folk poem, the song races at breakneck pace before dissolving into a plaintive flute trance. The reprise couldn't be more different, all foreboding gong grumble, squalls of noise, footfalls and hushed creatures.
