San Francisco – The farther we progress through the second decade of the 2000s, the more apparent it is becoming that we are living in a time of transition. Things we wouldn’t have dreamed possible are happening, both good and bad: diseases are being cured, Donald Trump has a terrifying shot at securing the U.S. presidency, and our entire lives are being digitized, including everything from bank accounts and movie libraries to family trees and the likenesses of dead celebrities. I never thought that I would one day able to watch a movie on a cell phone, let alone use one to pay for groceries. Music was one of the first cultural aspects to be converted to binary code, and now it can be found anywhere, whether it is on streaming services, YouTube, or downloadable mp3s. Our ability to access the millions of songs on the Internet grows exponentially with every passing day, as new technological breakthroughs are being reported more frequently than ever. However, as we inch closer to the future, some music enthusiasts are backtracking, seeking out vinyl LPs and cassettes to add uniqueness and nostalgic variety to their collections. Many artists are keen to this trend, but not only in regards to the formats on which they release new music — many are taking cues from the sounds of the past, infusing them with modern technology to create a hybrid form of nu-retro sound.
New York deep-disco/synthpop duo Holy Ghost! is no stranger to this older sound. They’ve been mixing disco beats and 80s-inspired synth structures into energetic dance-pop since the twosome’s eponymous debut was released in 2011. We last heard from Nick Millhiser and Alex Frankel with sophomore LP Dynamics, which was released almost three years ago, in the fall of 2013. It expanded on the duo’s initial release with lengthier tunes and driving repetition. While Dynamics failed to reach critics in the same vain as Holy Ghost!, it was a strong, disco heavy album, and the songs featured on Dynamics translated beautifully to the stage.
Nu-disco is very in right now. Apart from Holy Ghost!, the trend is seen popping up all over the place: Skylar Spence’s 2015 debut LP Prom King brought a healthy dose of illustrious strings and bright, bouncy electric guitar riffs reminiscent of Nile Rodgers and Chic, and Daft Punk has been toying with the genre for years, the most notably on their 2013 love letter to disco (and complete 180), Random Access Memories. Even buzz-worthy newcomer Låpsley, a 19-year- old producer and singer from the UK, has infused disco into one of her tracks, the bittersweet “Operator (He Doesn’t Call Me).” With Holy Ghost!’s newest EP, Crime Cutz, the duo is back at it again… but this time, they’ve brought a whole new set of ingredients into the mix.
Crime Cutz “was an attempt to do something that was sort of rhythm ear candy,” notes Millhiser in a press release. “Simple. Angular. Funky. Physical. Fun.” If I were to choose five adjectives to describe this EP, those would certainly be near the top of the list. At just twenty-two minutes, spanning four tracks, Crime Cutz feels both familiar and refreshing at the same time. Each track takes on its own sonic identity, but there is an underlying heartbeat that pulses throughout the album. The rhythms may change from track to track, but that same “thumpa thumpa” remains the foundation upon which this EP is built. In a recent interview with NPR, the duo talked about the inspiration for the album, which resulted from a purchase of hundreds of Russian dance songs from the 70s and 80s that had never before made their way to the U.S. The Soviet synths were not designed in a way that could properly emulate the French and American disco (which was the supposed purpose of the songs), but that didn’t bother Frankel. “They ended up making something cool in its own way,” he told NPR. “I guess that’s kind of what Nick and I do… We find a sound we like, try to make it and fail, but in the process we make something new. It’s incredibly exciting.”
Crime Cutz, for any true Holy Ghost! fan, will be new and exciting. The duo’s signature breathy vocals are featured throughout, with a few instances of falsetto and filtered singing peppered throughout, hovering somewhere between the styles of Chromeo’s Dave 1 and the modern soul vocals of the band Jungle. The lyrics are mostly nonsensical, but so are the lyrics to a lot of disco and dance tracks, so it’s not really noticeable. These aren’t songs like “Wait & See,” that are easy and fun to sing along with, rather they are constructed more to be enjoyed on a sonic level. The real star on the EP, however, is the instrumentation. The four tracks are dominated by waves of 80s-inspired synths that glisten and cascade over one another.
On the EP’s opener, title track “Crime Cutz,” vibrating house beats serve as the undercurrent for twinkly synth strokes that drip down and leapfrog over one another, reminiscent of early Simian Mobile Disco. At seven minutes, it’s the album’s longest track, and the lengths of the following songs decrease gradually as the EP progresses. The following track, “Stereotype,” opens with a drum beat that is eerily familiar to Michael Jackson’s “The Way You Make Me Feel,” as if it was compressed and sped up to match the song’s overall aesthetic. The vocals again take the back burner to the arrangements boasting electronic chimes and resounding piano chords, but they do feature an enjoyable, George Michael-esque quality that fits perfectly with the music. “Compass Point” is a homage to the now defunct Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas, where such artists as David Bowie, The Talking Heads, and Grace Jones once recorded in the 70s and 80s. This song is similarly synth-heavy, with shimmering bursts of electronic tones erupting like some sort of glitter volcano around the drums and saxophones that permeate the track. The vocals are more insistent on “Compass Point” than on the other tracks, toying with muffled reverb and wacky distortion amongst multiple voices. The EP closes with “Footsteps,” the most musically eclectic piece on the album, mixing all sorts of electronic production with recurring vocals and even some acoustic-sounding guitar, all coasting over a hybrid house/bossa-nova beat.
Crime Cutz has an interesting story to tell, but it’s not told through words. Rather, Nick Millhiser and Alex Frankel have elected to let the music do more of the talking. It speaks to both the past and the future, to the strange and the familiar, to modern digital society and analog nostalgia. Like a contemporary visual artist studying the greats of the Renaissance, as well as the some of the forgotten masters, Holy Ghost! seeks influence from both the well known and the obscure, and Crime Cutz is the duo’s captivating collage. Nothing has been said in regards to any plans for a third LP, but if this is the direction Holy Ghost! is headed in, I’m happy to follow.
Crime Cutz is now available via DFA Records. Holy Ghost!’s only current tour dates as of yet are appearances at the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago and the new Panorama Music Festival in New York, both happening in July. For more information visit the Holy Ghost! Facebook page.
Corey Bell
Latest posts by Corey Bell (see all)
- Jagwar Ma’s ‘Every Now & Then’ is Quite the Ride - July 31, 2017
- 2 New Bands at Voodoo Music Festival Day 3 - November 4, 2016
- 5 New Bands at Voodoo Music Festival Day 2 - October 30, 2016
