These Ghosts - Still The Waves

The band comprises Calum Duncan, (Vocals, guitar, keys) Nick Yager, (Bass, keys, backing vocals) and Harry Hall, (Drums) all of whom grew up in the Suffolk and Norfolk grasslands. They’ve gained a reputation for slow, mesmerising pulses of ethereal electronics. Playing together since college, the trio revealed their debut album You Are Not Lost, You Are Here in 2010, and following the separation of members throughout university, the band relied on Skype and Whatsapp for much of the groundwork of this, their second LP. The process has taken two years from start to finish, beginning with producer Jonny Cole laying tracks the band sketched together via the internet at The Mill Studio, Suffolk and ending with a release from London based NX Records – a joint venture between Accidental Records and Goldsmiths Uni.

The outfit float a line between math rock, early Radiohead and electronic soul, with sonic nods bowing to Berlin’s Modeselektor, Sigur Ros and Bon Iver. It’s all very pleasant, soothing, rasping and hypnotic. The band manage to keep a hold of an identity whilst simultaneously not, in essence, doing anything drastically different to a host of other British indie groups; the shimmering guitars, pastel shades of electronics and an apparitional vocal style are also all utilised by the band’s contemporaries, but the Norfolk newbies keep a staunch signature and identity air tight.

Opener “Young Blood” sets the atmosphere heavy with melancholy from the of, with slowly churning guitar repetitions, rasps of snare and floating vocals doused with fragility. Towards the record’s centre, lead single “Coat OF Feathers” again stays stringently attached to minimalism, repetition and tenderness. Built around reverbed patterns of guitar and the bands penchant for sorrow and ethereality, Duncan sings "You look upon yourself with such disdain/Your children will be picking through your sad remains.” At the tail end sits “Lament”, an electronic, heavy track which - like much of the material - seems to take vocal queues from Foals’ Yannis Philippakis circa “Spanish Sahara”, sees the album at its most inspirational, adding washed synths and heavily reverbed vocals in favour of guitar.

Although the record holds wisps of brilliance, there is at times a sense that they began to run out of ideas - it becomes increasingly harder to differentiate tracks and it never really gets off the ground. Although it’s not a troubling listen - delicate and full of composure – a little more variation in their sound would help the blood pump a little faster when in its company.