Posts Tagged ‘Withered Hand Records’

Album of the day: Crumbling Ghost – Self-Titled

Posted on Thursday, March 31st, 2011

Lovingly pinched from The Sleeping Shaman: This is a band that has existed for a couple of years and over this period of time have grown in strength, confidence and appeal. Their first gig was an enviable affair for many kraut-rock acolytes when they were invited to be the backing band to Can’s Damo Suzuki. Coveting genres such as progressive rock, folk, and doom the band have since then found a way to breach inevitable obscurity by releasing this self-titled album on Withered Hand Records.

So what do we have here with this release? In the press release they liken themselves to Pentangle, Sleep, and Electric Wizard. After hearing the album I am convinced the cited influences reflect the band’s tastes rather than directing listeners to bands with applicable commonalities, instead I would point those people looking for similarities in the direction of kraut-rock monsters, Can, Amon Duul II, or closer to home Comus, Tea and Symphony, and Mark Bolan’s Tyrannosaurus Rex, believing these evoke less typical and yet more exciting and accurate comparisons.

‘The Collector’ kicks off the Crumbling Ghost affair, swaying to the might of flares and sweat, this is a song to be played in seedy clubs while burning josh sticks. Embedded dynamism is only measured by the radical changes between full on rock and more kraut orientated rock. My preference and favourite parts rest with the more experimental interludes.

As one will discover this is an album that was recorded at different times in different studios. The tales of two cities really makes this an odd collection of tracks. ‘The Collector’ has a distorted guitar sound that would be more at home on a lo-fi black metal album or a noise not music punk record.

Continue reading: The Sleeping Shaman – Crumbling Ghost – ST CD 2011.

Tags: Album of the day, Crumbling Ghost, Pete Hamilton-Giles, The Sleeping Shaman, Withered Hand Records
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