Ghost In Light CD Release Party

Ghost In Light are having a CD release party this Saturday, January 20, to celebrate the release of their wonderful new CD, After Fox Meadow. The show is at Lucas School House and will also feature Gentleman Auction House and Ryne Watts. The night promises to be one full of great performances. GAH are always entertaining and G(i)L put on an intense and hypnotic show. I have never seen Ryne Watts live, but I like what I've heard of them on record.

Ghost in Light's take on post-rock is highly atmospheric, employing an army of effects pedals and displaying a mastery of dynamics, and often veers into slow-core, nearly ambient, passages. The band's sound evokes everything from Sigur Ros to Explosions in the Sky to Jeff Buckley to Hum. This EP is the first of two EPs the band plans on releasing in 2007 and and features more upbeat tempos and louder guitars than the band's debut album, Dead Eyes and a Traveling Mind.

In a word, the new EP is Great. The EP starts out strong with the driving "Faces" and manages to get better with each and every song, culminating in with the best three songs as the last three on the CD. For as good as the CD is, I really wanted the band to extend out out some of the instrumental passages, such as the end of the slow-building, Sigur Ros-esque "Demonolith". Other songs blend together to form what other song-suite-favoring bands such as Explosions in the Sky might mash into one song; "Hypoxia2" serves as the perfect prelude to "Jovian Chorus". The muted trumpet of "Walls of Jericho" paints the perfect picture of ducking off a busy city street into a cold and dark alley and following the music in the distance. The song steadily builds into a swirl of pounding drums, hypnotic guitars and lushly swirling vocals.

You'll definitely want to check out the show and buy a CD this Saturday at the Lucas School House.

MP3's:
Ghost in Light - Faces
Ghost in Light - The Snow is Soaking My Shoes
Ghost in Light - Demonolith
Gentleman Auction House - Everyone Has Taken Their Hat Off But You
Gentleman Auction House - A Hospital or Heaven
Ryne Watts - 3 Months
Ryne Watts - I'm Sorry, Son

Update: Annie Zaleski has a feature on Ghost in Light in this week's Riverfront Times. You can read it online here. I found her description of "Demonolith" perfect: "The twinkling percussion and ebb-and-flow chords on 'Demonolith' is the desolate soundtrack to driving aimlessly on pitch-black freeways at night." That description sums up my feelings perfectly, especially considering I first listened to After Fox Meadow (twice) on a dark and cold drive in the middle of nowhere on Christmas night on the way to see Ms. Dividing By Zero and family in Bonne Terre, MO. I just wanted to keep driving and keep playing the CD over and over...

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I also want to give a major "hats off" to Annie Z for vigorously and consistently giving recognition and attention to local music since she started as music editor at the Riverfront Times, especially considering she has not lived in St. Louis for long. To that end, she is starting a new feature at the RFT focusing on reviewing local bands, every week. This is what she has to say about it and how you can get involved:

"So in the name of self-improvement in terms of the music section, I've decided to implement a new, weekly column in the clubs section that focuses exclusively on local CD reviews. We don't always have space to run a page of reviews in the proper music section, and I'm always trying to fit in as much local stuff as possible. Look for the first installment in the January 25 issue of the RFT.

What this means for bands: I need your CDs! Demos! Half-formed noodlings! Please send them care of Christian Schaeffer to the Riverfront Times, 6358 Delmar Boulevard, Suite 200, St. Louis, MO 63130. And clearly mark packages as local, so they don't get lost in the weekly mail avalanche."