Ghostpoet – Dark Days + Canapés
Stunning second full-band outing from savvy, sharp-eyed London chronicler.
AFTER TWO CHARMINGLY INTROSPECTIVE OUTINGS as Ghostpoet, Obaro Ejimiwe’s agitated beats, jazzy keys and idiosyncratic slurred baritone raps got the full band treatment on 2015’s Shedding Skin. Back then you could sometimes sense the joins, papered over by a surfeit of guests, but they are fully integrated on Dark Days + Canapés: a taut, fraught dalliance with ’90s trip-hop melancholy vivified by spidery Sisters Of Mercy-esque guitar figures and a gruff cameo from Massive Attack’s Daddy G. Ejimiwe hits tender storytelling highs over the early-hours recriminations of Many Moods At Midnight and helicoptering desperation of Immigrant Boogie, yet still manages to get stuck in a shopping centre (Freakshow) and lament “the downpour drenching my chips” (Blind As A Bat). Detailed with offbeat twists and turns, it warrants celebratory Appletinis all-round. Watch the video for Immigrant Boogie...