Album Reviews |

Ghostpoet

Related Artists - The Streets, Alicia Keys, Dizzee Rascal
Related Genres - Hip Hop

Peanut Butter Blues and Melancholy Jam 8 ( 2011 )
Onetwos / Run Run Run / Us Against Whatever Ever / Finished I Ain't / Longing for the Night / Yeah Pause / I Just Don't Know / Survive It / Gaaasp / Cash and Carry Me Home / Garden Path / Liiines

Ghostpoet is the latest signee to Gilles Peterson's Brownswood label and dubs himself "a lad with a lisp with some stories to tell." The album is both performed and produced by Ghostpoet and it's got a warm selection of sounds which work well against his soft yet intelligent and excellent hip-hop delivery. The music seems far more influenced by British Grime and Dubstep, among other styles than any US rap/hip-hop we've heard recently. Indeed, when you first place the album on the decks, you'll almost certainly prick up your ears - it's not often we get anything approaching a genuinely fresh sound. Well, Ghostpoet lists some of his most anticipated releases of 2011 as including Aphex Twin, Nick Cave, Paul Simon, and Radiohead. He also lists Badly Drawn Boy and Micachu among his list of influences. The Micachu connection is quite fitting, she co-produced and sang on a track on an EP released by Ghostpoet and both share a desire to create music that really does try to ignore what every other artist is doing - to an extent, of course. He's got a noticeable accent which his laid-back approach does nothing to hide and musically the album had a melancholic, down-beat feel accompanied by some simple yet very clever lyrics. Musically you hear traces of Massive Attack, Portishead, The Streets and other, more obscure grime and dubstep artists. Falling into the alternative category, 'Peanut Butter Blues and Melancholy Jam' has enough going on to attract fans of several genres.

Lyrically we're encouraged to "live life a little bit" as a rallying cry against the drudgery of modern day Suburban existence. A couple of tracks feature an actual band, the closing 'Liiines' perhaps a sign of things to come, bordering on rock as much as it does any form of hip-hop yet Ghostpoet's own delivery ties it together with the rest of the album. 'Cash And Carry Me Home' is the highlight of the set, a tale we can all relate to and his laid-back delivery suits this lonely lyrical tale of drunken shenanigans. Production-wise this track is also a highlight featuring deep, resonating bass lines, subtle beats and snatches of brief synth lines. It's borderline hypnotism and the sound of, we hope, a major new talent arriving.

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