mitchell saulsberry with revolving accompaniment of friends.

Ghostly International and Spectral Sound. Of Art & Artifice since 1999.

From their demos I can already hear a structured and controlled band expressing an empowering strength of feeling with bold directness.  

There is attitude in these songs but they sound coolly detached whether describing a road accident or the choking influence of mass-industrialisation.  

The songs are performed using progressive structures and smart repetition in equal measure, and are delivered with confidence.  

This is adept post-punk with more than a shade of a faster and more pissed off Psychedelic Furs, shimmering more than angular.  There is aggression, but not the distilled juvenile anger that you get in punk music, more a developed blend of frustration, ennui, and desperation.  

The sound is near panic inducing – will drag your heart rate up and get your brain going, thoughts scuttling in time to the drums, feelings set turbulently in accord with the synth swells, head moving with the guitar riffs.  The vocals are a voice in your head, not sinister but not entirely friendly.  

Tides make you remember your own traumas through their abstracted narratives, be it the end of a relationship or fear for society at large. 

A soundtrack for the last days. 

- Written by Omar Majeed (GRAVITY ZINE)

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