17.4.13

Album review: Rituals by Team Ghost

Published by Press Association

RELEASED 18 MARCH

VIDEO: Team Ghost — Curtains (official video)



Co-founded by Nicolas Fromageau (formerly of shoegaze outfit M83) in 2009, French five-piece Team Ghost straddle the realms of electronic, ambient and guitar music in the manner of an inexperienced fisherman casting his net wide.

But it works. The thrashy rawness of their debut album Rituals evokes My Bloody Valentine’s glorious mess, tempered by – and sometimes embellished with – dark shades of synth and distortion a la Mogwai.

This opulent, multi-layered sound redeems the band’s lyrical shortcomings, which prevent Rituals being the complete package it would otherwise be.

France may not be a bastion of alternative rock, but a few notable practitioners of the genre exist among our Gallic neighbours – and this lot are worth a punt.


8/10


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