Music Review

09 January 2009 22:32 BST

Black Ghosts: Black Ghosts

Southern Fried, out July 7th.

In a nutshell...

Dark electro-pop that is neither black nor ghostly enough.

What's it all about?

Simon Lord, ex- Simian frontman (guitar-wielding beat combo half of the Justice vs Simian's ubiquitous dance floor killer We Are Your Friends) pairs up with Theo Keating, him of big beat kings the Wiseguys and resident spinner at numerous nocturnal shindigs.

Their self-titled debut is the sound of the duo pouring their love of Hammer Horror, the occult and casio synths into an 11-track electronic pop hoe-down.

Who's it by?

Mr Keating's background is drenched in late nights, big beats and dance floor sweat. Mr Lord's indie roots in the ape-like psychedelic troubadours, Simian, are tainted by the influence of his family's dabblings in the occult and sonic wizardy. His grandfather played the oboe on the Beatles' epochal A Day in the Life and contributed to the Star Wars theme tune.

Since the pair started making beautiful dance music, they've made regular apparitions at various rave caves and festivals ensuring that dance floors at discotheques across the land have been dripping with dread.

Both have dabbled in side projects. Lord providing vocals to his old chums James Ford and Jas Shaw in their new guise as Simian Mobile Disco. His studio partner is rumoured to be masquerading under the guise of Fake Blood, a producer of full-on beefy break beat.

The pair recently unleashed a mixtape featuring the ex-Wiseguys man on the decks and his vocalist partner adlibbing over tracks by Boy-8-Bit, Armand Van Helden and the Ghosts themselves.

So is it any good?

Mr Lord's silky vocals and big choruses fit the clubby grooves on certain tracks like a corpse in a coffin but the whole doesn't exhume the full breadth talent on display.

Anyway you choose to give it balances chrome-clad rave synths with disquieting vocal while album closer Face and Repetition Kills Me (featuring the dulcet tones of one Damon Albarn) make up for some of the stodgier mid-tempo missives found elsewhere.

Next time turning up both the ghetto-tech and goth could help the pair truly wake the dead.

7/10

Lewis Bazley