039. Ghost Dance - Gathering Dust

As the leaves turn delightfully to myriad shades of red, orange and yellow, my running routes begin to feel extensively barren, no longer bulked out with a fleshy green padding. This annual transformation also affects my musical purchasing and playing habits too. As the days get shorter and nights become longer, the techno gets more mechanical, looped and harder, trance becomes deeper, hypnotising but with an uncomfortable edge, all the while 80s post-punk and goth storm up the playlists.

Gathering Dust is the latest purchase in the latter category. Radiating with eyeliner and big haired charm, Ghost Dance dropped into existence during the deepest darkest depths of 1985 when Anne-Marie Hurst (née Skeletal Family), and Gary Marx (née The Sisters of Mercy) got together to write some tunes after leaving their respective bands. The history of their journey can be heard clearly throughout the LP. Expect drum machine rhythms, twangly reverbed lead guitar lines, and lots of lead like work with the bass guitar. In retrospect, this almost seems generic and clichéd, but at the time this was “the” sound to have. I only wish my own musical talents could craft something similar.

Gathering Dust was a compilation LP, collating the bands collected material thus far. Sadly though, this was to mark a shift in Ghost Dance’s sound. Much like The Banshees and The Cure, by the 90’s their releases became markedly more mainstream and pop oriented.

Anne-Marie Hurst, of whom I can’t quite decide if she’s mega-hot or not, though will give the benefit of the doubt, is apparently back in the musical game. With a new line up, she will be performing both Skeletal Family and Ghost Dance tracks with some new ones thrown in for good measure. You can find out some more info here, on her myspace. Be sure to check out the youtube video of a Deeper Blue, she still sounds fantastic, her voice aging very well. I’d be very tempted, but my bank manger is less than supportive, not to mention the fact that I now know how far up the M1 Bradford really is.

Plus it's on my birthday, and will be celebrating in kind.

Ghost Dance - A Deeper Blue by dcp84

Ghost Dance – Gathering Dust: A Deeper Blue
[Karbon : KAR XL303]
(1987)

Discogs: €20.80

023. Pet Shop Boys - It's A Sin

There aren’t many artists whose back entire back catalogue is a must. The Pet Shop Boys, even when they do things badly, do things better than most, and are thus coveted with the above. They are the exemplars of pop music, creating songs which are not overtly commercial, and yet get lodged in ones consciousness with total ease. Their music is intellectually and lyrically pitched just right, teasing you with enough meaning to draw you into the words, but thankfully not deep enough to require a unit on discourse analysis at the nearest university.

Their upcoming collaborations with Xenomania, the production house behind Girls Aloud and the modern day incarnation of Stock, Aitken and Waterman, released later this month is eagerly anticipated by myself, as two of the most exemplary organisations in pop music come together for one album. The Pet Shop Boys appearance on Girls Aloud tracks will hopefully add a needed mark of musical legitimacy for the detractors of the girl group, who deride them as just another throw away manufactured pop outfit.

Yet, despite the praise I have lavished on the Tennant/Lowe duo, they are sadly under represented in my collection, this 7” marking only the third release I own. In the past, I’ve always elected to consolidate the Depeche Mode offerings which, in place of pop sensibility, opted for a less accessible, introspective and altogether darker lyrical and sonic content. With new albums from both the Mode and PSB, perhaps the state of electronic music doesn’t seem as bad as I seemed to think recently.

Pet Shop Boys - It's A Sin
[EMI : R6158]
(1987)

Helen & Douglas House: £0.50