Ghost Box (Expanded)
by SUSS
phetti
phetti
I had the bucket list opportunity of seeing the Northern Lights from my home town this summer. Big Sky was playing from my truck as I pulled over to witness their beauty. This song will forever have a special place in my heart, so it's only right I own a copy.
Favorite track: Big Sky.
Charlie Moonbeam
Charlie Moonbeam
Ambient washed-out instrumental space-country music for the ages.
Ride 'em into the sky, space cowboy. Favorite track: Laredo.
Ride 'em into the sky, space cowboy. Favorite track: Laredo.
Elysian Fields - KXCI 91.3 FM
Elysian Fields - KXCI 91.3 FM
This album is a monument to what I believe the next decade to be. Genreless music finding its natural level. I will be featuring this album live on KXCI-FM in the next few weeks. Good stuff!
Favorite track: Laramie.
Jeffrey M Grimes
Jim Kennedy
Elies
k_reed
ixltoo
Scott Ernest
djim reynolds
Antony Robinson
northernsky
clincher
midoyle61
garrattjohn
SlayerBill
Todd
yupikwolf
sonnumber2
TJChambers
its Jonny
3cd
Willow
freejazzfoosking
mobark01
JolietJake
KoryCallaway
dice1023
roatantodd
Al Shadowchair
ryanb
adam
mattia81
Randark
md2545
jmontes807
Wim Bollen
Lim
Victor LeComer
the.schmidt
koyl
Fredric
John Beatty
Jonder
Matt
sez.whoo
cliveb
MAX
cmromney
Simon Harper
waltorious
eddie_d
Steven Dean
ragaw
ote-cy
victorb
trashdaddyz
brooklynboy
Swami RALF
Chang Drunk
Anu Kirk
mondaymatinee
Destin LeBlanc
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Wichita
00:00
/
05:40
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Streaming + DownloadIncludes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.Purchasable with gift cardDownload available in 16-bit/44.1kHz.
$9 USD or more
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Compact Disc (Expanded Edition)
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital AlbumCD is 6 panel Digipack
Includes unlimited streaming of Ghost Box (Expanded) via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.Download available in 16-bit/44.1kHz.Sold Out
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1. |
Wichita
05:40
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2. |
Late Night Call
04:46
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3. |
Big Sky
05:31
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4. |
Rain
04:11
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5. |
Laredo
04:21
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6. |
Gunfighter
04:38
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8. |
Steam
07:29
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9. |
Salt
04:12
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10. |
Laramie
05:27
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11. |
After The Storm
06:24
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about
Originally self-released on February 2nd of this year, Northern Spy is now proud to present this fantastic album on CD for the first time, with four never-before-heard bonus tracks. This is Ghost Box (Expanded).
What would it sound like if ambient pioneer Brian Eno had produced the Western film scores of Ennio Morricone? We’ll never know, but we’re now a step closer thanks to Ghost Box, the debut album by SUSS, a quintet whose members have worked in various capacities with Lydia Lunch, the B-52s, k.d. Lang, David Bowie, John Cale, Ed Sheeran, Wilco, Norah Jones, The War On Drugs, Burt Bacharach, the Nickelodeon network, The New Yorker, and countless others.
More than a literal reconstruction of an imagined collaboration between Eno and Morricone, Ghost Box opens a door onto a world where ambient music and country-western make for natural bedfellows. That world, as it turns out, is the one we already live in -- it just took someone to make the connection. For multi-instrumentalist, cowpunk pioneer, and digital media entrepreneur Bob Holmes, that connection has been hiding in plain sight for decades.
The catalyst behind SUSS, Holmes views electronic acts like Boards of Canada and shoegaze icons like My Bloody Valentine as more recent avatars of the “high lonesome” vibe that we typically think of strictly in terms of traditional roots music. In that light, you can trace the melancholic sprawl of classic titles by both of those acts back to Hank Williams. And in reverse, what is twang if not a form of ambience?
Ghost Box, then, embodies “ambient country music” not as novelty or mashup, but as the organic offspring of forms that, in a sense, were already conjoined. One of the album’s charms, though, is that the rest of SUSS didn’t necessarily see it that way. So it required quite a bit of stabbing in the dark for Holmes on mandolin, guitarists Pat Irwin and William Garrett, pedal steel player Jonathan Gregg, and synth looper Gary Lieb, to arrive at a blend that felt natural.
The goal, in a nutshell, was to create ambient music using traditional instruments -- a kind of reverse-engineering of Holmes’ longstanding conviction that electronic music is today’s folk expression. Ostensibly, Ghost Box achieves what Holmes was aiming for, but it also accomplishes much more. As tumbleweeds continue to blow across the screen of modern fashion, musicians have increasingly yearned to connect with the mythical America that reverberates in vintage sounds.
Today, we’re practically inundated with music that evokes the hills of Appalachia, the neverending Western sky, the hallowed halls of the Grand Ole Opry, and so on. Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between reverence for these cultural artifacts and a fascination with them as kitsch. In... more
What would it sound like if ambient pioneer Brian Eno had produced the Western film scores of Ennio Morricone? We’ll never know, but we’re now a step closer thanks to Ghost Box, the debut album by SUSS, a quintet whose members have worked in various capacities with Lydia Lunch, the B-52s, k.d. Lang, David Bowie, John Cale, Ed Sheeran, Wilco, Norah Jones, The War On Drugs, Burt Bacharach, the Nickelodeon network, The New Yorker, and countless others.
More than a literal reconstruction of an imagined collaboration between Eno and Morricone, Ghost Box opens a door onto a world where ambient music and country-western make for natural bedfellows. That world, as it turns out, is the one we already live in -- it just took someone to make the connection. For multi-instrumentalist, cowpunk pioneer, and digital media entrepreneur Bob Holmes, that connection has been hiding in plain sight for decades.
The catalyst behind SUSS, Holmes views electronic acts like Boards of Canada and shoegaze icons like My Bloody Valentine as more recent avatars of the “high lonesome” vibe that we typically think of strictly in terms of traditional roots music. In that light, you can trace the melancholic sprawl of classic titles by both of those acts back to Hank Williams. And in reverse, what is twang if not a form of ambience?
Ghost Box, then, embodies “ambient country music” not as novelty or mashup, but as the organic offspring of forms that, in a sense, were already conjoined. One of the album’s charms, though, is that the rest of SUSS didn’t necessarily see it that way. So it required quite a bit of stabbing in the dark for Holmes on mandolin, guitarists Pat Irwin and William Garrett, pedal steel player Jonathan Gregg, and synth looper Gary Lieb, to arrive at a blend that felt natural.
The goal, in a nutshell, was to create ambient music using traditional instruments -- a kind of reverse-engineering of Holmes’ longstanding conviction that electronic music is today’s folk expression. Ostensibly, Ghost Box achieves what Holmes was aiming for, but it also accomplishes much more. As tumbleweeds continue to blow across the screen of modern fashion, musicians have increasingly yearned to connect with the mythical America that reverberates in vintage sounds.
Today, we’re practically inundated with music that evokes the hills of Appalachia, the neverending Western sky, the hallowed halls of the Grand Ole Opry, and so on. Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between reverence for these cultural artifacts and a fascination with them as kitsch. In... more
credits
released November 16, 2018
SUSS is: Bob Holmes, Gary Leib, Pat Irwin, Jonathan Gregg and William Garrett
All music written, performed and arranged by SUSS.
Recorded by Pat Irwin, Bob Holmes, Gary Leib and William Garrett
MIxed by William Garrett at Electracraft EAST
Laredo mixed by Pat Irwin
Mastered by Oscar Zambrano at Zampol Productions
All tracks: High Lonesome Music (BMI); Obliterati Publishing (ASCAP); PI Publishing (ASCAP); G4 Music (ASCAP)
On Northern Spy Records
SUSS is: Bob Holmes, Gary Leib, Pat Irwin, Jonathan Gregg and William Garrett
All music written, performed and arranged by SUSS.
Recorded by Pat Irwin, Bob Holmes, Gary Leib and William Garrett
MIxed by William Garrett at Electracraft EAST
Laredo mixed by Pat Irwin
Mastered by Oscar Zambrano at Zampol Productions
All tracks: High Lonesome Music (BMI); Obliterati Publishing (ASCAP); PI Publishing (ASCAP); G4 Music (ASCAP)
On Northern Spy Records
license
all rights reserved
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contact / help
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