Formed from the ashes of two Dublin outfits, Sickboy and 8Ball, Ghost Estates took the unusual but not unheard-of step of recording their debut before playing any live dates whatsoever. It was a wise move, given the experimental nature of their approach, allowing them to develop their sonic manifesto in the studio rather than out on the road.
How to describe them? The Jesus & Mary Chain meets My Bloody Valentine, with a touch of Bowie’s Eno-helmed Berlin period (Heroes, Low etc.) and a good dose of New Order will do for starters. But there’s much more going on in these dozen tracks, which combine dreamy, reverbed/flanged vocals and swirls of electronics, with heavily-processed guitars, driving bass and echo-laden drums. With no shortage of decent tunes hidden beneath the waves and textured layers of dissonance, there’s some serious songwriting in evidence here too: ‘Winter’s Day‘ comes across like a Britpop tune on amphetamines, while the acoustic, pastoral guitars that ground the lovely, mid-tempo ‘Shanty’ are warmly evocative.
‘Wake Up’ – not the song of the same name from Montreal’s finest – boasts a breathtaking melody, while the buzz-saw guitars on the fast-paced, ‘Forever Or Never’ make for an intoxicating head-rush. Elsewhere, ‘Pop Song’ is just that – a genuinely melodic thing that Brian Wilson wouldn’t kick out of bed and which in another era would grace an album by The Ramones or The Undertones. The chiming ‘Waiting For You’ and chuggin ‘Never Forget’ are just a couple more highlights on what is a thrilling, compelling debut.