Released independently and given away for free, Ghoul’s debut EP will confuse a lot of people, and god love them for it. When a mostly unknown Sydney group releases something like this on the sly you have to ask a few questions about the ‘local scene’, because the 21 minutes contained here brutally outstrips a lot of the middlebrow aural humus that it competes for listeners with in Sydney, at least in terms of ambition.
It isn’t a comfortable listen though. Following a short intro M-O-O-N begins with a luxurious pastel synth melody, running its course for a few bars before crisp percussion marks the arrival of Ivan Vizintin’s vocals. At this preliminary stage you hear his voice chopped up and slung upon the spacious ambience and you don’t suspect anything untoward, but wait for Serbian, where Vizintin suddenly dons a tuxedo, lights a cigarette, and starts crooning. It’s a striking left turn away from the pop ambience that precedes it: the drowsy blues-rock accompaniment is pleasant and convincing but also quite jarring.
Fuck Math and Corn Cob Dub steer the album back on course, showcasing the gossamer dream pop that Ghoul excels at. The group’s penchant for polymorphous tribal percussion is at times reminiscent of Animal Collective, yet Ghoul never let their textures outgrow their songs, and despite most tracks clocking in at just over two minutes the group is remarkably good at applying a sense of lyricism and pop architecture to their tunes. ‘A Mouthful of Gold’ is a surprising debut from a band refreshingly disinterested in formula and convention. Let us hope they grace us with more surprises very shortly.
Shaun Prescott
‘A Mouthful of Gold’ can be downloaded free from www.myspace.com/ghoulsydney
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