Hand Plant – Gone Ghost EP

Disco Bloodbath should be a readily recognisable name for anyone reading this blog who also happens to reside in London – club night, DJ duo and now a record label, Disco Bloodbath Recordings, which welcomes Hand Plant‘s ‘Gone Ghost’ EP as its second release (following on from Damon Martin‘s ‘That Ain’t Right’ a couple of months back). Hand Plant comprises one half of Disco Bloodbath itself, Ben Pistor, and Sam Watts, more commonly known as the similarly musically minded Maxxi Soundsystem.

It’ll come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the discerning brand that is the Bloodbath that the quality control of this EP is high and perfectly pitched at the forward thinking dance floor that still very much likes to get down. ‘Gone Ghost’ is something of a marvel and a record that refuses to be constrained by genre. It’s tempo and initial sparseness suggest deep house, but it’s marimba top-line and bongo percussion speak of tropical disco leanings. It’s deep, pulsing, brass-like bass notes however (which we’d say linger in the memory more than anything else) carry a much darker, techno sentiment. It’s very much a record that plays with light and dark, melody and gloom, heads and feet. Overall lightness pervades, but ‘Gone Ghost’ takes you to some very murky places en route.

The remix comes courtesy of on-the-rise Jamie Blanco, a talented DJ and producer from London, fond of the 303, the 606 and the 808. Giving things a lovely acid squelch and hitting hard with the drum machines and 4X4 rhythms, Blanco’s remix is one which bangs ‘Gone Ghost’ into a slightly more peak time template. Check out Jamie’s Soundcloud where you’ll find a whole host of other acid infused delights including an incredible ten minute take on ‘Vogue’.

The final track of the package is the sinister ‘Arpy’, it’s title giving some hints as to what is on offer. Beginning with a bass line that owes a debt to Blondie‘s ‘Heart Of Glass’ (a trick we’ll all remember worked very effectively on Todd Terje‘s ‘Ragysh’), ‘Arpy’ then unfolds into a menacing web of arpy-as-fuck synths, distant dog barks and touches of doom including planes flying low overhead and Gesaffelstein-esque flourishes. Definitely rugged, quietly brutal and veering towards evil, it’s the musical equivalent of Stanley Kowalski.

Listen to all three tracks below, then get your mitts on the vinyl over at Phonica, the only form the EP currently exists in. On the way from the Disco Bloodbath stable is their third release, the more tradiontally disco-centric ‘The Green Man’ by G&S, which we may well write some words about in the near future. Until then descend deep into the electronic gore that Hand Plant has put on offer…

Hand Plant – Gone Ghost