Ghost Wave – Ages (Arch Hill) CD REVIEW

July 31, 2013

GHOST-WAVE-BGHOST WAVE RE-VERSION the Flying Nun sound for 2013, intentionally or coincidentally, and Ages, the New Zealand quartetโ€™s debut, will probably sound compelling to those who werenโ€™t here the first time, while providing a dash of nostalgia and a sprig of herbaceous freshness to those who were.
But where many of the early Flying Nun bands drew on the Velvet Underground (and other hip โ€˜60s and โ€˜70s legends) for their aesthetic, what comes through strongly on Ages is a pronounced pop influence, albeit from the same time capsule. The guitars on โ€˜Horsemouthโ€™, for instance, bear an uncanny resemblance to The Monkeesโ€™ โ€˜Pleasant Valley Sundayโ€™, and itโ€™s this more commercial aspect of pop at its peak that Ghost Wave seem to be enamored by.
Thankfully, despite traces of The Kinks, the group avoids any obvious Britpop references, and the sound always retains a guitar-driven rawness that the rather excellent production/engineering utilises to good effect. This album could easily have been ruined by too much compression, but thankfully, thereโ€™s plenty of texture in these surging dirges and chunky riffage.
ghostwave_lp_coverTheyโ€™re not earth-shattering, and thereโ€™s nothing here thatโ€™s anything like as good as, by comparison, the recent Popstrangers album. But Ages impresses, nevertheless. What it most closely resembles to these ears is the Great Unwashed, that great post-Clean-pre-Clean group that only lasted long enough to shake out a couple of killer EPs. Thereโ€™s a similar reliance on the strength of unmodified guitar graunch and simple rhythms, and a similar approach to vocals and melody, mixing them low and treating them like afterthoughts, and thereby, funnily enough, accentuating them in a different way. Itโ€™s the architecture of these sonic shapings and scrapings that make them interesting. GARY STEEL

Music = 3.5/5
Sound = 3.5/5

Avatar photo

Steel has been penning his pungent prose for 40 years for publications too numerous to mention, most of them consigned to the annals of history. He is Witchdoctor's Editor-In-Chief/Music and Film Editor. He has strong opinions and remains unrepentant. Steel's full bio can be found here

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Give a little to support Witchdoctor's quest to save high quality independent journalism. It's easy and painless! Just donate $5 or $10 to our PressPatron account by clicking on the button below.

Authors

WIn a Wiim Ultra Network Music Streamer with Witchdoctor.co.nz
Panasonic Fire TV Be Mesmerised with next gen AI TV
Advance Paris - Designed with French flair. Amplifiers, Streamers, CD players and more www.pqimports.co.nz
Previous Story

BOSE Founder Dies

Next Story

Aoife Oโ€™Donovan – Fossils (Yep Roc/Southbound) CD REVIEW

Latest from Music

The format wars suck

GARY STEEL has been thinking about vinyl vs. streaming vs. compact discs (etc) and just wants it all to stop.
Go toTop