Ghost Heart – Sweet Release

If you listen to a lot of pop music and really L-O-V-E IT, then you may not like this new release.

There are no over-the-top fancy loops, big chord changes signaling an anthem or even an Auto-Tune hook on the release of  “The Tunnel,” the debut album from local band Ghost Heart, featuring members Tim Broderick, Cedric Canero, Justin Gray or Troy Reimink.

What you do get is one of those recordings that I personally enjoy for its stripped down approach to repetition often found in many of the synth rock or hotel lounge soundtracks that litter my CD collection.

Since they are on Friction Records, which carries a diverse array of local acts I enjoy, I approached this release with a sense that I would sort of know what I was getting.

Boy, was I in for a shock.  

What I did discover is that Ghost Heart performs very accessible, yet mind-expanding rock songs that synthesize electronica, American folk, samples, tribal percussion, shoegaze guitar sounds and layered vocals to produce an effect that is at once joyously communal and deeply personal.

The band’s sound has been described by the Detroit Metro Times as “a little of Animal Collective and Vampire Weekend, only with more heart.”  

Band member Troy Reimink is used to the comparisons, adding that one time “a person said we sounded like the Decemberists having sex with Grizzly Bear in front of a poster for ‘The Lion King.’ That was awesome.”

What really stood out for me was the subtle nod to Native American drumming, gently propelling the entire release through organic and electronic means.

Ghost Heart created this recording with the best possible engineer, Tommy Schichtel at the analog-friendly Goon Lagoon Studio in Grand Rapids with a wonderful collection of recording objects from the past, including the natural warmth of a two-inch tape machine for laying down the tracks. (Significant names in the music industry are catching on, like a member of Guided By Voices who has insisted on using our studio for his last release.)

The result of using Goon Lagoon is a CD that plays like an album and instantly warms the room with its sound.

The band will be at Founder’s Brewery Company on Saturday night for the new release and will be joined by acts Heavier Than Air Flying Machines, Ghostlady and Radiator Hospital.