By Fred Sowder, June 2008

Ghostly Swim, Ghostly International

For nearly a decade, the art-meets-soundscape label Ghostly International has prided itself on being a “non-genrefied” promoter of avant-garde music. 

On this free, digital-only release, they’ve compiled a collection of electronica inspired by the late-night Adult Swim programming block of weirdness that airs on The Cartoon Network.

Starting off with a couple of instrumental breakbeat jams, this record at first reminded me of the studio production used in freestyle hits from back when I was in high school in Miami. Things get diverse thereafter, with The Chap’s “Carlos Wendy Walter Stanley,” whose word association may either remind you of A Clockwork Orange or The Shining. The song though, is pure musical aggro with a British pop vocal sensibility. Things get ambient thereafter, with Dark Party’s “Active” being anything but. Synths dominate the next track, Tycho’s appropriately- named “Cascade.”  While many of these artists may be unfamiliar to many (most hail from the Midwest), their sound is certainly identifiable. These are the types who grew up listening to Aphex Twin and Mu-ziq in their bedrooms while dreaming of becoming a serious artist on the now-legendary Warp label.

There are exceptions, however. Deastro’s “Light Powered” would not seem out of place on a Yanni or Mannheim Steamroller record. “Ithaca” by Cepia, however, sounds much more modern, with plucked beats riding on a melodic undercurrent. “Idiom” by Aeroc seems much influenced by the afore-referenced Wendy Carlos, with retro-style synthesizers and Moogs dominant throughout. Vocodered singing is actually front and center though on School of Seven Bells’ track “Chain” (Cher be damned!). Standing out most from the pack though, is “Hit + Run” by Kill Memory Crash, which would make half of the artists on the now-defunct Wax Trax! label want to call their lawyers.

Annoyingly, the tracks as they are ordered on the Web site make for a tough listen, with ambient tracks sprinkled in between the louder, more experimental stuff. (FLYamSAM’s “The Offbeat” does all of this within a single track, so there’s no avoiding it there.) The good news is that the mp3s aren’t numbered when you download them, so making your own track listing is probably a wise choice. It must be stressed that this compilation is in no way similar to the likes of Danger Doom, which Danger Mouse created with samples to great effect during his salad days. I fail to see how many of these tracks relate to Adult Swim (given, there’s probably more to it than the Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Robot Chicken that I normally watch), but Ghostly Swim is a boldly adventurous collection nonetheless.