These Men Fear Disgusting Sex (ewww...)

Those reprobates over at Sex Is Disgusting Records have pumped out 50 copies of this, a little tape from the guys in Fear Of Men (You can grab it here). Its their debut release - and a solid one at that. The Brighton four-piece waver between the sunny shimmy of Best Coast and the darker psychedelic groove of Warpaint, and manage to hold that balance without falling into the pit of inanity, mediocrity or pretension. In fact, its still steeped in reverb and echo, the basics of the guitar lines harking back to simpler times - yet there is a heightened sense of amiable pop knowledge coupled with a distinct lack of Self in these tracks that denotes the distinct possibility that these guys will break free of any name tags (which I have inadvertently done here, haven't I?) to be able to stand on their own. Definitely ones to watch.

You can travel down to Brighton to see Fear Of Men support Former Ghosts this Friday at The Green Door Store. Expect them to sneak into London on occasion as the year progresses, picking up some sweet support slots on their way...

Fear Of Men - Phantom Limb

Interview - Freddy Ruppert of Former Ghosts

4th interview, woo! So after the admittedly more coherent than expected craziness that is the brilliant Mark Sultan, we delve into the makings of New Love, the hotly anticipated second album of Former Ghosts AKA Freddy Ruppert. He took time out on his heavy touring schedule alongside Xiu Xiu and Zola Jesus to take us through his motivations, the interesting process behind creating a Former Ghosts album, his love connection with local label Upset the Rhythm, and to give a heads up on bands he thinks we should be getting our kicks from.

Sonic Masala - Congratulations on the recent release of your new LP New Love. Its been a warm favorite here at Sonic Masala for the past month since we received it. Before I make some calls on what I think, how was the process of writing it for you as opposed to the genesis of first LP Fleurs?

Freddy Ruppert - Thank you. The general writing process was essentially the same. I would write the song then send it to the people I would collaborate with and then they would send me back their parts and then I would piece it all together into a cohesive unit. One difference is that I did collaborate with Yasmine Kittles in the same room, which was new to me, as all other collaborations have been done through the mail and through e-mail due to the geographic location of everyone else and because of busy schedules. Also, the first record kind of came together really haphazardly as most of the songs were written and recorded as fast as possible to be posted on my personal blog. Whereas this record didn't have such an intense time constraint, it was more of just a frenzied response to myself with a feeling that there wasn't really an audience for it.

SM - A lot of hype surrounded this release. Did you feel any of that clichéd ‘second album syndrome’ pressure, or even a certain level of expectation to provide a certain style of release?

FR - I think the only pressure I felt was that I would just end up remaking the first album all over again. Maybe I did that. Maybe I didn't. I'm still singing about the same exact things. Still obsessed with love and romance. Still approaching pop music from the same lense. My biggest fear was just releasing a second album that was exactly the same as the first.

SM - Personally I think that New Love is unnerving in its honesty and yet its coldness, almost stand-offish in nature, actually finds affinity with the heartbroken in all of us (ahh…). It’s such an alluring listen, with such a see-saw of juxtaposing sounds and emotions. Was there a deliberate stance on creating such a sound that swung back and forth from warmth to distance and back again?

FR - I don't think the bipolar nature of the record was really deliberate but more just came out of naturally being in that state while recording/writing these songs. As anyone can attest to when they are involved in stormy apocalyptic relationships you swing back and forth between "fuck you and fuck this" to "wait, no i'm in love with you, hold onto this". I think this bipolar feel in this record comes from it being more about myself and my own ideas of what love is supposed to be whereas the first record was more directed at someone. I think the whole reason I am even creating music is to just relate to other people on some kind of human nature level- otherwise I'm completely lost as to why I would do this. Sometimes I get e-mails from people stating "thank you for putting out this record, i'm going through such and such, and it let me know that I am not crazy and alone in feeling these things" and for me my response is always like no, thank you for letting me know that I am not crazy and alone in feeling these things!

SM - Let’s talk about the conception process. You’ve stated in the past when bringing together Fleurs that you had always wanted to work with Jamie on a different project, and vice versa, but it took so long to find a common ground. How was it bringing the group (also including Nika here) together again for New Love?

FR - I've always been a crazy dictator when it comes to the creative process of Former Ghosts. I think maybe even more so on this record. Jamie had just put out Dear God I Hate Myself and was gearing up for a year of relentless touring. Nika was putting out numerous EPs and touring like crazy as well. Both of them were extremely busy with their own respective projects. So I think both of their contributions on this record are less than they were on the first. I brought in Yasmine Kittles because I was obsessed with her voice and the way her voice was so different from Nika's. So most people’s contributions on this record were kind of frenzied responses before they were leaving for some insane long tour on the verge of releasing their own huge albums.

SM - How collaborative is the Former Ghosts process?

FR - It is collaborative in the sense in that I like working with people because it brings out certain emotions that I cannot bring out, or forces me to approach things in different ways. It is collaborative in the sense in that I'll create something and I can feel the desperate need of someone else to fully give life to it. But the project is not collaborative in the sense that I am a complete control freak and a total dictator in the creation process and the path and direction Former Ghosts takes and what Former Ghosts is about and what Former Ghosts presents itself as.

SM - Since Fleurs’ release Nika’s Zola Jesus has stormed her way into the stratosphere in terms of her popularity and her growing confidence in her medium. Did any of this influence Former Ghosts, the second time around?

FR - No. Just that she was even more busy and both "Chin Up" and "Only In Time" basically came together over instant messenger!

SM - This may be an oft asked question, but how did Nika become a Former Ghost?

FR - I had the first couple of Zola Jesus 7"s and I really liked her voice and what she was doing so I sent her an e-mail asking her to sing the ending part of ‘This Is My Last Goodbye’ on Fleurs. She said she would love to so I sent her my demo version, got her version back and I was so blown away by it. I asked her if she would want to collaborate on more things and that is where ‘The Bull and the Ram’ and ‘In Earth's Palm’ came from. We both agreed that we should continue to collaborate with each other because we both feel like we get something rewarding for ourselves out of it. I really respect what she is doing and she is also a really close friend of mine.

SM - New Love also sees the addition of TEARIST ‘s Yasmine Kittles, as you’ve previously mentioned – what does she specifically bring to your vision for these songs, both in the studio and on the stage?

FR - I had been seeing Yasmine's band Tearist play around Los Angeles for quite awhile and we’ve become close friends and I really loved her voice. I love the female voice in general and I felt like the contrast between her vocal style and Nika's vocal style would be really interesting on the record and what the record was trying to express. There is just such an understated soft beauty in Yasmine's voice, and with Nika there is an overwhelming powerful beauty. I think for me it was more the contrast between everyone's voices on the record. On stage, depending on what the line up is for Former Ghosts that night, the energy completely changes.

SM - You’ve chosen Upset The Rhythm to release the album, as you did with Fleurs. We here are massive fans of UTR – what draws you to put out stuff with them?

FR - Upset the Rhythm are a completely amazing record label. Chris is just such an amazing person. I got to stay at his place for a week and just being around him is super inspiring. His love and energy for new music and all kinds of new music is really inspiring. Chris is also crazy enough to let my crazy self do whatever I want with Former Ghosts and working with him has been so easy. No contracts. No business bullshit. Just a really old fashioned punk approach to running a record label. I love what he does.

SM - How do you feel about the constant Joy Division/Ian Curtis comparisons (and sometimes jibes) that are aimed in your direction? What then would you say is a more accurate reflection of your influences?

FR - As far as the Joy Division/Ian Curtis comparisons - yea I get it, I have a deep voice that is inspired by 80's British music. I don't think that Former Ghosts sounds like Joy Division. I mean, in highschool I grew up listening to a wide variety of stuff- glitchy 90's Warp records IDM, 80's British goth/post punk, synth pop, industrial/EBM, industrial/avant garde- I think Former Ghosts is more of an amalgamation of things I listened to in highschool which was a lot more than just Joy Division. But people always need some kind of frame of reference and they will usually always go for the easiest most obvious thing that other people can relate to as well as well as whatever current genre hype words are being thrown around/revived/invented.

SM - A couple of simple questions to round us out then, if that’s cool. We posted a while back on your Welcome To Old Love mixtape, especially the remix done by Friendzone. So you do work with or embrace the work of others. What acts that are currently doing the rounds do you find most interesting or exciting, maybe even stimulating you creatively?

FR - I think all of these "newer"/more recent acts are really exciting and great and influence me as well as are doing something important and also having a distinct vision of what they want to do and accomplish. I'm usually attracted to artists that have a really distinct vision in how they present themselves:

Friendzone

Continues

Nicole Kidman

Felt Drawings

No Paws No Lions

Dva Damas

Tearist

Whitman

SM - Finally, what is sonic masala?

FR - Something really, really tasty. Sorry, I can only think of food when I see masala.

New Love is out now through Upset The Rhythm.

Former Ghosts - New Orleans

Gig - Xiu Xiu/Zola Jesus/Former Ghosts @ XOYO, 01.11.10

First time at XOYO for Sonic Masala, as we line in the cold we wonder what we have in store...


Former Ghosts - New Orleans

Herding into the downstairs area that seems amply set up for club nights, first on the stage is Former Ghosts. Main man Freddy Ruppert comes across as nervous as he and Xiu Xiu frontman Jamie Stewart set up, necking frantically a couple of beers before launching into some material from new album New Love. Stewart's manic guitar here heightens the ominous nature of these cold electronic driven tracks, whilst Ruppert's vocals echo the Ian Curtis comparisons that have been thrown at him in the past. The lyrics are plaintive and emotional - none moreso on standout track 'New Orleans', where he gyrates on the spot whilst lamenting that "it's all my fault/that I fell in love in the first place" - a great, great pop song, albeit for a forlorn, smashed up heart. Exit Stewart, enter Jesus - Zola Jesus, who sings two tracks here. The first is 'Chin Up' from the new album, and to highlight how much this sounds like a ZJ-lite track, the second song where Ruppert duets with her is much more affecting. The crowd ebbs and flows here, and when she leaves the stage you can feel an edgy anticipation in the room - how will Ruppert fare solo? Fairly well as it turns out, although he does have some major technical difficulties that he does his best to overcome. Ruppert really feels these songs - he is in danger of hyperventilating after most tracks - and even with the slight disruptions and the bigger 'cameos', Former Ghosts is very much his beast.


Zola Jesus - Tower

Zola Jesus is next up, and she starts her set with a shroud over her head, her back to the crowd, crouched in front of a speaker. The diminutive youngster doesnt take long to get rid of the veil though and launches into what must be one of the strongest vocal-driven sets Ive ever seen. Her voice is not just unique, but iconic - her trancey goth pop would be nothing if not for the power that emanates from within. She has charisma that showers the front rows, and her frantic movements - at one stage prowling back and forth across the stage like a cage tiger, furtively looking for a lapse in concentration so that she can leap out and maul a hapless onlooker; at another she climbs a speaker, her hand in her peroxided hair, her gaze set out in the ether. Taking tracks from Stridulum and Valusia, she, like Ruppert before her, knows and feels these songs. She opened the set with a cryptic statement about how she wrote these songs herself, and thats how she would perform them - yet the fact that she is backed by loops and a tape machine actually does her an injustice, as her voice overpowers the icy tones outlaid. She would benefit from a live element to the sound, which I feel would push her songs - and that amazing voice - even further into the stratosphere. As it stands though, once she leaves the stage, it feels like a vacuum out in the crowd - she has stolen our energy and life force and we are left wanting.


Xiu Xiu - Razor Scooter

Which could be part of the reason why Xiu Xiu were such a letdown to me. Dont get me wrong - Stewart and partner Angela Seo are accomplished and incredibly engaging performers - but I really felt left out in the cold on this one. My verdict after much thought is that you need to be aware of their back catalogue to fully immerse yourself in the Xiu Xiu experience. Because it is exactly that - an experience. Every song has some frenetic to and froing - singing, crooning, yelling, percussive blasts and dings, and the use of a wide array of peripheral 'instruments'. Yes, there are a lot of toys here - they fill a large plastic container - but for every effective sound effect, whistle blow and cymbal smash, there seemed to me to be two or three quirky use of sound that came across as redundant. Imagine if Cursive's Tim Kasher fronted a streamlined Nine Inch Nails format, with 'comedian' Carrot Top as executive producer, and that is Xiu Xiu. Not that I hated it - Stewart and Seo were manic performers, and impressed with the emotive lyrics and disjointed melodies - I just felt that there were some tracks here that could have done more with much, much less. In the end, I left the show more bewildered and bemused than elated. As I said before - maybe I just didnt get it.

Former Ghosts Channel Taurean Dreams...and other Ruppert Flights Of Fancy

We here at Sonic Masala are apologising. Not that you'd know any better, but I in particular am sorry that we have not been able to run a stream of Former Ghosts posts over the past few days in the lead up to the Xiu Xiu/Zola Jesus/Former Ghosts mega gig of death at XOYO tonight. Suffice it to say that there will be follow ups - a gig review, a brief album review of New Love, Former Ghosts' second LP, an interview with FG frontman Freddy Ruppert, and a look at Zola Jesus' upcoming releases. None of this has come to fruition though - the interview is still yet to be written up, the reviews tying in with said interview, yadda yadda. Its my fault - Im sorry. So Ill leave you with this track, off the new LP, and hope you garnered tickets for tonight's show. It will be amazing for sure.

Former Ghosts "Taurean Nature" Music Video from Amir Shoucri on Vimeo.

Former Ghosts Drift Away Into The Friendzone

This post is effectively two posts, although intrinsically linked by one well
executed remix.

Former Ghosts have piqued my interest ever since best label/promoters in the world* Upset The Rhythm put out Fleurs last year. The brainchild of Freddy Ruppert, Former Ghosts is a heady rush of stark industrial lushness, the coldness inexplicably emanating warmth, hence the Joy Division references made in the past. Helped by Xiu Xiu's Jamie Stewart, TEARIST's Yasmine Kittles and a certain Nika Rosa Danilova, Former Ghosts walks a murky tightrope of turbulent emotions, ultimately a deal with the devil, the progeny of which is this disturbed synth pop that has the elements of light and dark constantly at battle.

Then along comes a remix of their track 'Chin Up', coming out on their newie New Love in a month (also through Upset The Rhythm).

I approach all remixes that come into the SM inbox with trepidation, as many (OK, the vast majority) so called 'remixes' are either ho-hum or completely dire. However I decided to chance the arm of this one, and it easily showed it could go the distance...and then some. The track, already having that dark ambient charm that they have cornered with aplomb, is buoyed by additional drumming tracks, severely distorted vocals and insistent synth, creating an entirely new track that Ruppert himself endorses wholeheartedly on his FG mixtape, Welcome To Old Love, a prequel of sorts to the new album which is stellar, and here.

So who are the wielders of such dreamy magic then? Rather than being that moment in time when you realise that the person of your dreams will always be your bud and nothing more (a nightmarish and all-too-common notion), Friendzone is the project of James Laurence and Dylan Reznick. They are from the Bay Area of San Francisco, although hanging mainly in Oakland, and have put out a series of mixtapes that are influenced by their immersion in the Chicago-based footwork movement, something that I will post about shortly, as well as large dollops of ambient music. I found their mixtapes just as alluring as their Former Ghosts remix - see what you think below...

 
J+++ by birthplace

Former Ghosts tour with bloodlines Zola Jesus and Xiu Xiu in November.

*Upset The Rhythm put on the best shows in London hands down, and are amazing in their choice of eclectic music to put out. This is a London-centric viewpoint of course, but there really needs to be wider exposure on what these guys do.

Zola Christ Pose

I love being struck dumb by a beautiful woman wielding the weapon of music. It happens on a fairly regular basis for me - what can I say, Im a romanticist at heart (...ahem...) Zola Jesus is my current favourite. The pseudonym for Nika Roza Danilova, also known for her cathartic work with Former Ghosts, Zola Jesus offers moody meanderings interspersed with shimmering atmospherics, booming bass drums and her iconic voice coming out of the ether. Her Stridulum EP is a cracker, a genuine step up from her two albums The Spoils (Out on Sacred Bones) and Tsar Bomba (on Troubleman Unlimited), both out last year. Zola Jesus - the siren that will lure my ship onto the rocks...

Zola Jesus - I Can't Stand It