Gespenst - The Saint [2011]

Once in a while I come across the albums that seduces me from the very first notes. Some of these get a lot of attention at the beginning and are later reminded still with some pleasure every now and them. The others are impossible for me to reach 10 full-record plays a day, but touch me so deeply that every listening session becomes special and well-cherished. Undoubtedly Gespenst’s The Saint belongs to the second group.


As their pages say: Gespenst are two brothers from Kuala Lumpur who are obsessed with music and very much influenced by modern post-rock bands, heavy soundscapes and ambient sounds.
This January they released a short album The Saint that with a bit of luck, further great records and fan-support can guarantee them an important position in post rock world.

The opening The Saint presents high level post rock since very beginning – shaking and staggering riffs, ambient background and main melody switching from keys to guitar. Lesson well learned – a small explosion in the half of third minute and shapely ending put the level pretty high for rookies;) Immortal is introduced by charming, delicate riff that gets subbed by original, a bit oriental drum and resolves seemingly in many different ways, each led by another instrument, that yet manage to compose well-fitting entirety.

I can’t tell for sure what kind of keyboard instruments were used in Little, but this minimalistic duo with spoken part just takes my breath away. In fact it could as well last half of the real time and be a beautiful piano piece, but guys decided to expand it by adding drums to the second part with a surprisingly (or not) huge success.

Compared to complicated beginning and almost peaceful Little, Ghost seems almost ascetic with its simple, movingly sad melody and classic post rock vision. Yet it’s so overwhelmingly beautiful that it’s impossible to forget it, especially in the version with additional strings that increases a feeling that you just discovered a fair Mono follower... no, not follower, a band that can continue the task, develop post rock and lead it into totally new areas.

Finishing Epilogue welcomes you with a spoken part of poem and carries to an end in atmospheric passages focused on vibrating keys accompanied by subtly coming drums and less noticeable guitars of a very cello-like sound.

I must say that The Saint keeps surprising me with every play and so it touches me even more as I get to remember more and more motives. Unless I decide to overdose, I guess I should get delighted by it for many more months and years. Coming down to earth - I spoke of the record as it is presented on bandcamp, but you can get more songs from soundcloud.

If your heart isn’t closed on fragile beauty and loves something more than intensive screaming and guitar-raping, please try and fall in love.