fredag den 3. juli 2020

Now Sleep - Ghost Stories



A (not too old) label covering experimental drone-music has just spawned a new and interesting debut release. A completely fresh and new electronic-based drone-ambient act called Now Sleep. The album is inspired by the works of none-other-than the great and true master of the classic ghost story, MR James. Limited to 50 cassette copies, while being over 50 minutes.

The first track called Goodbye The Last Song On The Radio sets the mood in a thick fog of uncertain mysticism. Stone frozen moments on a dark frosty night. Distant screaming sound from a train hitting the brakes, echo-treated horns, slowly-built melancholic tunes, and human voices being heard somewhere in the mix. Interesting ear candy going on here. 

Second track Some Don´t Know What They Are taps more electronic melancholia into the ears. Interesting mixed-up cut-up samples of male and female voices talking, saying ´I don´t feel´ and ´Real´ and ´That´s sad´. Atmospheric and cool dub-techno wipes in the background with an interesting and monotonous synty-key being chopped up as well. The voices getting lovely distorted later on, very experimental-cool if you ask me.

The third track I Am Lost... gets... creepy and actually... scary! Someone (male-voice I think) moans, weeps, and screams in pain. Not in your voice, but from the deepest basement of the house. A lovely and haunting and moody piano-melody works on this later on, as well as something which reminds me a bit of something from Aphex Twin´s Selected Ambient Works vol II. A REALLY goosebump of a track, MR James would have been proud if he listened to this. It just sounds... beautiful, sad, and incredibly tragic at the same time. 

Fourth track The Haunting of Paul Dacre has this hypnotic electronic pendulum pulse-sound. Something forever touching the strings on some violin-like instrument. Something ghost-like voice moaning again, sounding a bit more disturbing and perverse than the previous one. Doesn't feel like a sad ghost track, more or a malicious spirit who wants to do harm. Sounds like something being... entrapped and desperately wants to get out! Sofar the most disturbing piece on the album. 


Fifth track They Mostly Come At Night (No!... Not the bloody Aliens people!) is a track which explores drone harshness. A nerve-grinding sound-instrument which takes you back... to your old dentist while being on laughing gas. Icy synth drops, campy 60s horror-movie dialogues, and heavenly windy drones also being present.

Sixth track As The Shadows Has Limbs...  Feels like standing in a deserted empty house... where the walls can speak. That kind of feeling when you are alone but do not feel... completely alone. Something in the mist is there, something in the... very air being present. I like (myself) to discover abandoned buildings, and this track takes me back to a labyrinth-like cellar of an old industrial building. I went as far as I bloody could, but all of a sudden... I stopped and returned (It was that INTENSE!). Same feeling this track gives me, being strangely calm but brutally intense at the same time. The interesting clattering of metals and a mysterious human voice ends the track nicely. 

Seventh piece We Are In The Walls, Always is the shortest track on the album. A surreal treated-piano-treat lifts you up a few inches of the ground. Slightly reminds me of Throbbing Gristle´s eerie ambient piece Beachy Head.

Eight track The Dead Travel In Fog And Sound. Not the darkest track on the album, more of a lighter feel here which balances the album nicely. Anyone being happy for Brian Eno´s Discreet Music would enjoy this. Lovely piano parts and lovely ambient-drones starts the track, weird glitch-like sound-effects pops up in the dreamy fog-sound. Once again, I think about EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon).

Ninth track Peace For Snow Cricket returns to the sound-formula which you heard on the second track Some Don´t Know What They Are. Which I don't mind, cause it sounded good. Love the xylophone here, a very relaxing piece to end this album. 

A GREAT thorough album with a lot of goosebumps and sadness inside, whatever the artist himself wants you to fell, he actually succeeds in this which makes the album... kind of frightening real in a paranormal sort of sense. I will highly recommend this album for anyone who is into ambient, drone... and ghost stories. Perfect in the background while reading MR James... if you dare!!.. 


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