Creases is the latest soft ambient-folk melody from Nottingham’s ghost orange. They have been releasing music on Bandcamp since 2020 and are unafraid to take risks while evolving their sound. Their latest string of three singles follows the full-length experimental electronic album “Above All, I Have Seen Dogs Die”. After listening to that album, their latest single, “Creases”, may sound like it was made by an entirely different artist. Yet to date, their songs all share a similar haunting quality evident in the vocals. Their latest single is no exception.
The song starts with harsh noise before descending into something completely its opposite: an acoustic guitar with soft keyboard chords and a light lo-fi hum in the background. Later in the song, a synth lead comes alive, and along with the warm backing pad, they add a different element to the internet indie folk aesthetic. The reverbed vocals repeat the line “creases” in a spider-web-like fragility in the style of Grouper, but more in your face. Still, “Creases” is by no means one-dimensional or easy to define. It is something that could only exist in the post-internet age.
Fans of ambient, indie folk, or even the wave of the 2020s slowcore re-emergence may find solitude in the latest single from ghost orange. In the same way, the folk artists of the 60s took influence from each other; “Creases” is an example of artists taking more influence from the internet than ever and following its state of mind. With artists like ghost orange continuing to release music alike, hopefully these types of passion-driven releases can sustain themselves. It will be interesting to see if ghost orange continues to make music in the intimate ambient-folk style of “Creases”, a promising evolution from their earlier electronic sounds, which fits them exceptionally well.
Written by C.S. Comfort
