Idol Tryouts Two:Ghostly International

Artist: Various Artists

Date Released: February 7, 2006

Label: Ghostly International

Produced By:

Tracklisting: Disc 1, Avant-Pop:
 * 1) Solvent - An Introduction to Ghosts
 * 2) Matthew Dear - Send You Back
 * 3) Outputmessage - Sommeil
 * 4) Skeletons & the Girl-Faced Boys - Fit Black Man
 * 5) Kill Memory Crash - Press + Burn
 * 6) Dabrye - Magic Says
 * 7) Mobius Band - Electronic Piano
 * 8) Daniel Wang - Berlin Sunrise
 * 9) Charles Manier - Bang Bang Lover
 * 10) Benoit Pioulard - The Depths & the Seashore
 * 11) Solvent - Spin Cycle
 * 12) Lawrence - Wasting a Fall
 * 13) Mobius Band - The Loving Sound of Static (Junior Boys RMX)

Disc 2, SSM:
 * 1) Loscil - Umbra
 * 2) Deru - Straight Speak
 * 3) Sybarite - Sanctuary
 * 4) Cepia - Ramp
 * 5) Cepia - Hoarse
 * 6) Kiln - Isthmus
 * 7) Greg Davis - Amaranthine
 * 8) Lusine + David Wingo - Locks
 * 9) Aeroc - A Little Something
 * 10) Christopher Willits - Colors Shifting
 * 11) Terre's New Wuss Fusion - Love on a Real Train (Risky Business)
 * 12) Twine - Gliding In On
 * 13) Tim Hecker - Sundown6093
 * 14) Richard Devine - Murman

Review: It was inevitable that some form of disco would reappear on the musical map with another diabolical plot to take over the world. Little did I think that Ann Arbor, MI's Ghostly International label would be the medium it used to catapult itself out of its current home in the farthest depths of hell. Ghostly's second installment in the renown Idol Tryouts series features two distinctive discs of forward-thinking music from a roster of artists and producers that is just about unparalleled in today's electronica scene. Disc 1, Avant-Pop, features a style of music that can only be described as post-disco. Utilizing bright, poppy synthesizer lines, dance-floor-ready drum patterns and the occasional gender-bending vocal styling, Avant-Pop is everything disco was, but this time around with more creativity, better production and a bit more respect. From the always prolific outings of Matthew Dear to the demented disco-funk of Skeletons & the Girl-Faced Boys, every cut on this disc is primed for the skating-rinks of tomorrow. Disc 2, titled quaintly SSM, takes a back-seat to the previous disc's more upbeat rhythms and flashier escapades; instead it decides to concentrate on the more minimal possibilities of synthesizers and drum machines. Framed by warm synth pads and strategically placed white noise, the fourteen tracks of SSM range from sleepy to ethereal, with only slight hints at the latter halves of microhouse and minimal techno. This disc is a welcomed contrast to the more flamboyant outlook of Avant-Pop, and helps establish the ambient side of Ghostly as a worthy contemporary of labels like Miami's Merck Records and New York's Carpark. Mpardaiolo