Thursday, July 31, 2008

Ghostly International


One record label worth keeping a close eye on is Michigan's Ghostly International. Formed in 1999 in and around the Detroit area, in Ann Arbor to be precise, the label is living proof that all is not lost in the electronic scene on the other side of the Atlantic. The fusion of electro, indie, rock and experimental electronica mean that this label is very much at the boundary of the innovative direction of modern independent music.
Probably Ghostly's most famous signed artist is Matthew Dear, whose excellent electro-pop album Asa Breed , complete with Johnny-Cash-esque vocals, grabbed many headlines upon its release last year. Dear also produces some of the world's finest minimal techno under the name Audion, which makes the whole thing altogether more impressive. You can download Audion's stomping track Billy Says Go, which was dropped by Ellen Allien at Melt, at the bottom of this page.
Other exciting artists to appear on the label include MidWest Product, the stomping electro of Kill Memory Crash, Osborne, whose self-titled recently released album has received air time on none less than The Small Hours,* and the classically-trained minimal techno purveyor Kate Simko.
Ghostly also has a sister label, Spectral Sound, with, apparently, "releases as diverse as acid house workouts to glitched-out dub tracks, the Spectral Sound imprint strives to find the perfect balance between retro and future, art and dance".

You can see their full list of artists here
Here is a quick video documentary on the label:

Audion - Billy Says Go.mp3
Osborne - Downtown.mp3
Ghostly MySpace

* Note the importance of the Oxford Comma to this sentence.

No comments:

Post a Comment