The Marshmallow Ghosts

The first full-length by Graveface Records' supergroup project The Marshmallow Ghosts (who have previously released a pair of Halloween-themed singles) is an autumnal exercise in dark, spooky atmosphere. Gathering members of most of the label's roster of bands (including Dreamend, Hospital Ships and Black Moth Super Rainbow), the obvious comparison is It'll End In Tears, the 1984 debut by 4AD Records collective This Mortal Coil. While the albums share a similarly mysterious vibe, The Marshmallow Ghosts also features strong echoes of vintage Flaming Lips, the mid-'90s Elephant 6 bands (particularly Olivia Tremor Control) and some of the Ghosts' chillwave contemporaries (Washed Out, Ariel Pink, etc.). The 10 tracks alternate between ghostly instrumentals and deconstructed pop songs like the unexpectedly chipper "It Won't Be Long" and the slow-building dissonances of "The Attic." It all hangs together remarkably well, creating the sort of album that begs to be listened to as a whole. The CD version is a DualDisc, one side of which is a DVD containing Corpse Reviver No. 2 (the name of a tiki-era cocktail), a slow-moving but enjoyably ramshackle feature-length low-budget film co-directed by label head (and MGs mastermind) Ryan Graveface that features videos for each song on the album, intercut with a series of ghost stories filmed in a hearse driving around the label's home of Savannah, Georgia.