Static Ghost - DEPATTERNED

Travis Stanley is the face of Static Ghost, a project that showcases its love for old school instrumental beats by curating just that. He started out in 2021 by creating his own home studio after spending his youth listening to the likes of Depeche Mode, Front 242, Nitzer Ebb, NIN, Noise Unit, Vomito Negro, Cabaret Voltaire, and so many others. So, automatically I’m giving points to this guy for being up front about what he does and why he does and then proceeds to do exactly that without any bullshit marketing terms in between. What we get from him is raw EBM exploring themes of human experimentation, abuse of power, nature of reality, the human body, the consequence of warfare, and (it wouldn’t be EBM without this one) MK ultra experiments. 

So we move onto his most recent release “DEPATTERNED”, a five-track romp through his thesis and philosophy in music making. And, as stated above, this is exactly what I was expecting from the project. The title track ‘DEPATTERN’ starts us out here and it’s all about LSD experiments. Glitched out samples, a solid EBM beat with metallic clangs and other such samples; it’s a damned good romp. The second track ‘MNDFRCTR’ treats us to a beat that’s a little more dirty, a little more dingy. If ‘DEPATTERN’ was set on the warehouse floor, ‘MNDFRCTR’ is what lurks beneath the drainage pipes. Again, a good EBM structure just set with more ominous synths, as if something very bad will happen at any moment. 

‘Subliminal Assault’ gives us more of a minimal beat featuring modern production while many of the samples surrounding it have a lofi vibe. Its fitting for what Static Ghost is pulling off here and it’s shocking he can run with it. ‘Chemical Combat’ is a punchier song, ready for the dancefloor, and reminds me of something primitive that would come from a computer in the 90s. The last song on the album ‘Corpse Code’ gives us what can be considered Static Ghost’s most bass heavy song on the album thus far with a nice thumping rhythm. 

Up until now I’ve been pretty good to Static Ghost but now’s the time when I have to strike back. My one big complaint about the album are the run-times of the songs, a frequent problem I have with a lot of industrial music. Most of these songs last around five-minutes, but that’s a minute / minute-and-a-half too long for the amount of content held within each track. For example, the first time I played the EP I began to think to myself that I had ‘MNDFRCTR’ on repeat after I heard the same thing for quite a bit; that was false. I was just entering the fifth minute of the song, right before it ended. Quality over quantity, as they say. Cut the track times down a bit and get us moving. 

To be clear just how bad I feel about the runtime on the album, on my fourth and fifth plays of the album I found myself wishing I could skip the songs after around three-and-a-half / four minutes. On the plays following that, that’s exactly what I did. 

Regardless, I think Static Ghost has a solid understanding of classic EBM. I think it would be interesting to see Static Ghost do a bit of a history lesson, moving from the roots of EBM to the various movements it went through, from the 90s to the 2000s and beyond. Incorporate some shouty vocals in future endeavors, play around, and see what works. But for now this is decent.