EP Review : Holy Ghost! - Static On The Wire EP
- Written by Stef Siepel
Since the end of Carthage a battle hasn’t been fought as valiantly as the one DFA is fighting for the disco genre. Through DJ sets, new bands, old bands with new albums, and by their general aesthetic, the DFA label is doing their utmost to get the underground New York vibe out there. One of the exponents of that label is the band Holy Ghost!, who have just recently finished a tour opening for DFA labelmates LCD Soundsystem. On the back of that stint they’re releasing their EP Static on the Wire with three spanking new tracks and old single ‘I Will Come Back’.
Holy Ghost! is a duo trying to make music with mostly old school synths and instruments, and the music they try to make is definitely very DFA - it is danceable, it has a New York underground disco vibe, and it is insanely catchy. Don’t expect the more punk sense some bands like LCD Soundsystem and The Rapture occasionally exhume, this is more of the understated yet catchy disco style – sometimes vintage, sometimes danceable, sometimes a little bit more restrained, but always loveable and easy on the ear. Opening track ‘Static on the Wire’ finds Holy Ghost! in a dancey yet not too exuberant mood. Synth, bass, and drums mesh fluently, and if that isn’t enough Mr. John Maclean himself picks up the guitar and gives away a bit of solo action to further demonstrate his craftsmanship as a musician.
‘Say My Name’ starts out with a slow synth, but it proves to be the more danceable of the first three. The third track is previous single release ‘I Will Come Back’, which again isn’t a complete party affair much like the first track. With ‘Say My Name’ the chorus is bigger, and the drums really make it throb forward. The fourth and last track on this EP is ‘I Know I Hear’, which is arguably even more fantastic, and it is more ‘vintage disco’ than the first three - a quality which immediately qualifies it more for the dance floor. What all tracks do embody, however, is a sort of warmth, a quality absent in so much of today’s music.
It is no wonder that they place ‘I Know I Hear’ as fourth though, because the first three are more in line with the rest of their oeuvre, the fourth slightly deviates from that with its “sha-la-la sha-la-la sha-la-la” line - one which admittedly might be construed as cheesy by some. The band exhumes disco, but never Donna Summer-like belting. It is perhaps a less camp version of Hercules and Love Affair, again from the DFA stable. It might not have Antony on vocals, but it does have John MacLean on guitar, so that ain’t too shabby either I reckon. Four catchy, easy-on-the-ear tracks, sometimes danceable to boot, and all four songs are filled with a certain warmth: there is just no reason not to get this.