Black Ghosts

Frightening fact (1): ex-Simian Simon Lord watched Hammer Horror movies from an early age and resided next to cemetery in a house plagued by poltergeist activity and pagan imagery.

Frightening fact (2): ex-Wiseguy Theo Keating’s Dad invented the Bio Activity Translator, a musical device that produced a low electrical hum when fastened to plant stems. Obviously, an odd pairing, so is it any surprise that together they create sinister pop noir?

The Black Ghosts’ ‘Some Way Through This’ is a ballad with a macabre twist - it provides a flagrant portal to the dingier parts of love’s psyche. Floating atop a trembling spine of Portishead orchestral strings, this louche requiem is hauntingly melodramatic – “If this house was on fire would you tell me your desire, if my hands were round your throat would you tell me what I need to know”.

With the addition of a few dark remixes and a video containing prostitution, theft, suicide and murder (acted out by stop-animation Lego) this single is implicitly disturbing. It’s like Tricky and Hot Chip meeting in the dead of night to make love on the grave stones of their former lovers - David Bowie, Datarock and Tiefschwarz.