Ghosts

The deconstruction of techno has never sounded more decrepit and decayed than on Monolake’s haunting eighth studio album, Ghosts. The title track opens with a murky fidelity and gurgling keyboard tones, immediately nodding to Los Angeles’ witch house sound before a crisp cymbal plays against a muted beat. On closer listen, a sublime bass buried under the layers holds everything together with the sporadic pulses of chirping swamp frogs. The following “Taku” starts with various spooky-sounding ambiences overlapped and reverberated under the chilling trill of what sounds like a theremin. Some stuttered beats and distorted static keep “Afterglow” rhythmic in its austere bleakness. Recordings of running water play against a ticking clock, and a distant church bell chimes to give “Hitting the Surface” a dark woodsy feel (recalling The Blair Witch Project) before beats and keyboard tones finally surface. Deeply undulating bass tones, bent windchimes, and general things-that-go-bump-in-the-night ambiance make “Unstable Matter” the most delightfully unsettling track here.