Ghost's founder Masaki Batoh disbanded the group in the spring of 2014 after a seven-year hiatus, but wasted no time in forming the Silence a few months later. The band comprises former Ghost-mates Okano Futoshi on drums Kazuo Ogino on keyboards. The latter (who arranged and produced this recording) then recruited bassist Jan Stigter and flutist and saxophonist Ryuichi Yoshida. Batoh's music comes full-circle on The Silence. While his last solo album (Brain Pulse Music) was a gentle, holistic series of improvisations on ...
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Ghost's founder Masaki Batoh disbanded the group in the spring of 2014 after a seven-year hiatus, but wasted no time in forming the Silence a few months later. The band comprises former Ghost-mates Okano Futoshi on drums Kazuo Ogino on keyboards. The latter (who arranged and produced this recording) then recruited bassist Jan Stigter and flutist and saxophonist Ryuichi Yoshida. Batoh's music comes full-circle on The Silence. While his last solo album (Brain Pulse Music) was a gentle, holistic series of improvisations on traditional Japanese instruments and electronic music based on a machine of his own creation, here collaborative partnership and formal songwriting from established sources are the M.O. Recorded, mixed, and mastered completely to analog tape, the sound on this record is absolutely stunning in its warmth. These nine tracks include seven originals and two audacious covers that cross through the terrains of dreamy pop, psychedelic folk, and spaced-out rock. "Lemon Iro No Cannabis" commences with a crescendo of rolling snare and wafting Baroque organ before saxophones, electric guitar, and a rumbling bassline slide in to create a hazy, Baroque pop melody, tastefully hued with lush piano and flute. The striking beauty in "Gotter im Exil" pays indirect homage to the songwriting of Alan Sorrenti (circa Aria), Syd Barrett and Kevin Ayers. Speaking of the latter, the version of Can's "Tango Whiskeyman," illustrated with harpsichord, upright piano, acoustic guitars, and minimal drum kit, boasts an arrangement that walks a tipsy line between early Soft Machine, Tom Waits, and Brecht/Weill cabaret, with a skronky tenor saxophone solo that carries it out. "Jewels in Tibet," a lovely ballad worthy of Tim Buckley, reflects the tenderness and unflinching vulnerability in Batoh's vocal. A nearly seven-minute reading of the Celtic standard "Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair" crosses through vanguard folk, airy chamber jazz, and driving psychedelic rock. The instrumental "Triptykon" features abstract Eastern modes woven through gentle dissonance toward open-ended English folk. "Nana No Open Back Banjo" is trippy with a tranced-out bassline and elliptical drum patterns. A reverb-drenched glissando guitar plays serpentine lines as Batoh sings chantlike into the elastic drift. It picks up steam as Doors-esque organ and flute float up in the center. His stinging guitar break is backmasked. "Pesach" is a punchy drum and guitar groover, its dark intensity tempered by skittering breaks. Throughout, The Silence doesn't rush, it slowly emerges; it doesn't bludgeon the listener with cluttered instrumentation or sonics, but it is seductively heavy due to spaciousness in the mix, warmth, and colorful imaginative textures. And while it's true that this date bears Batoh's signature as a multi-dimensional musical traveler, it also portrays the sound of a band whose members psychically lock into one another in order to explore inner space. [The album is also available on LP. Given the completely analog tape process used, this may be the preferable format.] ~ Thom Jurek, Rovi
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Add this copy of Silence [LP] to cart. $30.44, new condition, Sold by Importcds rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Sunrise, FL, UNITED STATES, published 2015 by Drag City.
Add this copy of The Silence to cart. $39.62, new condition, Sold by newtownvideo rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from huntingdon valley, PA, UNITED STATES, published 2015 by Drag City.
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