Ghost - 93 Feet East, London, 21/5/2007

  by Daniel Cressey

published: 18 / 5 / 2007

intro

Over in Britain to promote their ninth album 'In Stormy Nights', Daniel Cressey watches durable Japanese group Ghost perform a hypnotic set of swirling psychedelic rock

With the stultifying mediocrity that defines the average gig it is sometimes possible to forget there is a reason we go to venues where they charge us £4.00 for a pint of watered-down beer and where our feet stick to the floor. It is sometimes possible to forget that there are bands out there that simply take your breath away. Sometimes you can forget this. Tonight is not one of those sometimes. Influenced by Floyd, Dylan and other American rock bands Ghost founder-member Masaki Batoh created a group that seems to shift and change as regularly as their swirling, hypnotic music. Any band can start on their first song utilising a strange junk-like contraption that sounds like a set of bagpipes crawling off to die. It takes a rare band to take this noise and work it into a soundscape that makes you wish all bands started off with such a contraption. Moving into more traditional song-writing Ghost still manage to harness their leftfield leanings into a psychedelic rock set of outstanding quality. Add in a few spaced out jams and a bravura recorder solo and you are in a special place indeed. And then, after a final, shattering finale the band return to the stage to give us more. The venue manager who prevented Ghost from performing their encore will be in no doubt that he has earned the enmity of an otherwise ecstatic crowd.

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