Former Ghosts: catharsis through dark, noisy synthpop

December 9, 2014 9:14 PM

If you enjoy dark electronic/dance-type music, and you're interested in "dry, haunted synthpop jam(s)" that "sound like what might've happened to Joy Division if Ian Curtis had bought a Casio and a four-track and fired the rest of the band," you might enjoy Former Ghosts, who consist of Freddy Ruppert (This Song Is A Mess But So Am I) with Xiu Xiu’s Jamie Stewart, plus Nika Danilova (Zola Jesus), and Yasmine Kittles of Tearist. Former Ghosts only have two albums to their name, Fleurs (2009 - official video: Hold On; fan vid - Mother) and New Love (2010 - official videos: Taurean Nature, New Orleans).

Bonus freebie: Parenthetical Girls - Careful Who You Dance With remix EP, featuring remixes from Tearist, Xiu Xiu, Dat'r, and Former Ghosts.

And if you missed it in among all the links above the break, Freddy Ruppert has put all his tracks from his time as This Song Is A Mess But So Am I on Bandcamp, and you can find a ton of Xiu Xiu on Bandcamp, all free to stream and available for purchase.

posted by filthy light thief (7 comments total)

Excellent post. Excellent music.

In addition:

Freddy's latest is just out on cassette on Red for Colour Blind records: http://redforcolourblind.bandcamp.com/album/krait

Also, extra hijack, he covered a Whitman song and Whitman covered New Orleans on this split single: http://folktalerecords.bandcamp.com/album/split-3 That one is personally important to me because I played cello on it (the whitman cover of new orleans)
posted by nutate at 9:22 PM on December 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

I need to listen to this tomorrow, but thank you for the link to the Parenthetical Girls freebie, which I hadn't heard about.
posted by immlass at 9:33 PM on December 9, 2014

I like Former Ghosts; nobody else makes the first throes of love sound quite as bleak and abject as they do. I guess this could be seen as one of an infinite number of possible Goth revivals.

I haven't heard Zola Jesus' new album, though the last one, with its soaring choruses, struck me as a cross between Lene Lovich and U2.
posted by acb at 3:11 AM on December 10, 2014

"sound like what might've happened to Joy Division if Ian Curtis had bought a Casio and a four-track and fired the rest of the band"

Damn. That's exactly what they sound like.
posted by Fuzzy Monster at 6:14 AM on December 10, 2014

Wow, thanks for the recommendation! Definitely enjoying the Former Ghosts!
posted by wyndham at 1:22 PM on December 10, 2014

If you really need your heart torn out, older Xiu Xiu really fits the bill (for me, at least). For example, Fast Car (yes, a cover of Tracy Chapman's hit) exudes a certain kind of ache I cannot describe.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:32 PM on December 10, 2014

Wow. I'm so late to this game (slow to catch up on metafilter) but thumbs up for former ghosts. You can still find his albums on vinyl at the UK amazon. Even with shipping, it's easier than the US amazon and since they're new I'm guessing Freddy still gets some coin. Just got New Love a few days ago (4 years late).
posted by Smegoid at 10:49 PM on December 14, 2014