New Ghost Future Is Dead

Following last year's lush and textured debut album, New Ghost Orchestra, Sheffield's art-rock collective return with an EP featuring three new tracks by musicians from across the alternative scene.

From the off, the guitars on 'Your Reds' feel more forthright and have more of a depth to their tone than was ever truly present on the album. It's a journey through some truly gorgeous, polished hooks, pulling on the same emotional heartstrings that New Ghost are versed at tapping into.

Caroline Cawley (Dystopian Future Movies) covers lead vocals for the majority of the first two tracks here, allowing for variety in the EP's personality when Chris Anderson (Firesuite) eventually comes out of the background on 'Fountain'. This is a track which starts off sounding like a totally different act, with a beat more pure and unapologetic in its electronic nature than expected. It's an element that endures throughout the song and adds a directness to the reverberating pads and guitars that sit atop it. The vocal duet really makes this simplistic track shine.

'Every River' is an uptempo, sunny closer which builds to New Ghost's most openly raucous climax, before taking a hard turn into a beguiling passage eerily reminiscent of Steven Wilson, even down to the vocals. They've saved the most progressive part of the EP for last and it pays off with another heavy shoegaze climax.

Gareth Hughes' bass lines meander and punctuate all the right spaces across the record, and newcomer Taz Ali's (Awooga) drumming adds some fresh accents and flourishes without distracting from the record's atmospheric texture. If you enjoyed New Ghost Orchestra but wished it had a bit more guitar weight to it, then you're onto a winner here.