Ghostkeeper is one of the most exciting bands Canada currently has to offer, and also one of the most difficult to pin down. Using a conventional guitar and drum palette through the lens of rock music, it’s jittery and anxious, but also straightforward and focused. Immediately one is reminded of Pavement, but maybe some sort of version of the band from an alternate dimension where they are forced to create music for despotic overlords (but are still clever enough to write the songs as satire against their ruler).
Which is of course ludicrous. But this is the sort of grand, mythological storytelling that you can expect on this album. There doesn’t seem to be an overarching narrative here, but there is definitely some thought put into these songs — I can’t even do it justice. All I can do is offer this section of the press release; it offers more insight into this Polaris-worthy album than I can provide:
“The one great and fierce Horse Chief! War Thief! Sorcerer and leader of the debaucherous, war crazy, and all consuming band of phantom horses. As living horses they were raised and trained by the most violent of warriors, they witnessed and conspired to the most horrific acts. When their masters betrayed them to their deaths, they were unwilling to leave this earth peacefully. They returned as gigantic spirits with explosive vengeance, stampeding across the land, swallowing anything and everything in their path.” (Saved by Vinyl, savedbyvinyl.com) Devin King