Guilty Ghosts: Top Prize Fighter
Creating a moving piece of music is hard enough to begin with. Creating a moving piece of music without words is a different beast entirely. Continuing in the tradition of Max Richter, Mogwai, Emeralds, Mark McGuire and GY!BE, Brooklyn’s Guilty Ghosts (Tristan O’Donnell) will tug at your heartstrings without uttering a single syllable. You could pigeonhole this guy as ambient/drone, but his stuff’s not that simple; leaving no sub-genre unturned, he does everything from downtempo hip-hop (“Renée”) to sweeping walls of sound (“Grand Illusions”) This smattering of influences is almost always tied together by the crisp clatter of a drum machine.
While O’Donnell has no shortage of wonderful tunes on his bandcamp, “Top Prize Fighter” (From Enigma Variations) packs a particularly hefty punch. Built around a deeply affecting guitar line, it’s the track that most closely echoes Explosions in the Sky and early 4AD (both of which he lists as influences). It’s not as cinematic as Mogwai or as flat-out epic as GY!BE, but its somber undercurrents and slow unravel are something to behold.
Enigma Variations is out on WORDS+DREAMS- get it here
Guilty Ghosts- Top Prize Fighter
