(PIAS)
Obaro Ejimiwe's
profile seemed to rise rapidly following a Mercury Prize-nomination
in 2011 for his debut album under the name Ghostpoet, Peanut
Butter Blues & Melancholy Jam,
losing out to PJ Harvey for the award. He had some releases to
his name, including work with pop experimentalist Micachu, defining
his sound with electronic production as half-spoken vocals that saw
him straddling somewhere between singer songwriter, producer and
alternative hip hop, a sound he continued to define for his 2013
follow-up Some Say I So I Say Light
alongside working with Damon Albarn and The Streets.
For his third album Shedding Skin,
his touring band have gotten a look in on this album, replacing the
electronic textures and beats of his previous album, relegating them
to a supporting role behind the drum kit and guitars. Whilst every
other songwriter is going down the vocals and beats path laid out by
the likes of James Blake, it's interesting to see Ghostpoet taking a
different path.
The whole album with the addition of a
full band feels like a bigger collaborative piece of work, drifting
into new sounds like the hints of psychedelic soul in the energetic
opening track Off Peak Dreams and dream pop creeps in X Marks The
Spot. The album is bolstered with appearances from Lucy
Rose, Etta Bond, Nadine Shah and Maximo Park front man Paul Smith
adding to the voices and characters that carry Ghostpoet's dark
narratives.
Shedding Skin creates a
personal, intimate feel, guided by Ejimiwe's
low key mellow vocals. X Marks The Spot cultivates this mood
over it's quiet bass pulse before breaking into a dream pop chorus of
paired male female vocals. The back and forth argument between the
capable vocals of Nadine Shah carries it the drama of a relationship
that's run out of steam as Ejimiwe just sounds
tired as he sings “I don't care anymore”.
The title track keeps the drums to a
minimum leaving more space to be filled by it's eerie tones and
haunted repetition of the line “You think you know me/You'll
never know me”. That Ring Down The Drain Kind Of Feeling
sustains the dark sound with it's looser late night trip-hop swathed
in murky vocals, echoing guitars and cold keys that chill like the
midnight soul of early Portishead.
Yes, I Helped You Pack's darker rock
conveys a domestic relationship crumbling with more than a little
echo of Radiohead in it's ringing minor key guitar lines and creeping
electronic echoes, an influence that seems to be weave through much
of Shedding Skin, especially
on tracks like the synth-led Better Not Butter.
Following advice given by Brian Eno,
Ejimiwe recording an album quickly,
Shedding Skin feels like it's
benifited from that approach. It's focused body of work with a few
small surprises. The more ambitious piano-led album closer Nothing In
The Way shows there are more than a few novel tricks to Ghostpoet's
song writing. It's a welcome shake up to Ghostpoet's sound that may
pay off further when performed live, imbuing his song writing with a
palatable drama as he paints vivid pictures of social ills and
disintegrating relationships.
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