This lures you in this one.
I’ve been listening to this track for some time now but keep returning. It’s a song that slowly hypnotises- it catches you while you’re sleeping. Throughout its few narcotic minutes, odd sounds squeak and rhythms skitter erratically- but they build something of curious emotive resonance.
At first there’s a strange choral warble that almost feels like the beginning of some broken, splintering Disney soundtrack. I see animals marching (though that probably says more about me). Then come those sleepy, layered vocals and things take on a hazy, dream-like quality. Voices echo and catch in sedate but emotive melodies whilst the rhythms build and break: there’s almost a drum & bass feel to the textures that develop- in strange contrast to the gothic tones lurking in that heartfelt voice- but these disparate elements still coalesce seamlessly. When the song comes to its fractured conclusion, processed beats firing off like cap guns, you get a sense of the bass’s importance in the mix- it’s heady and oppressive stuff but works brilliantly.
This is nocturnal and claustrophobic but it’s also beautiful; the sonic equivalent of a late night bus ride home, strung-out and woozy staring at the surreal wonder of the strobe-lit neon passing you by. It’s a departure for Callum Folds, the Nottingham resident, poet and writer who records as Ghost Orange – moving away from previous lo-fi acoustic aesthetics to these new minimalist, electronic soundscapes; but this feels like a direction that has opened up a whole new world of possibilities. It’s damn fine stuff indeed.
I look forward to hearing the entire e.p upon release. Until then, Happy is well worth taking the time to get to know. Let it slowly lure you in.
Written by M.A Welsh (Misophone)