It is close to two years now since Ghosts on TV last paid us a spectral visit, their music impressing us with its art-rock minimalist wall of sound approach.
They have a third studio album, ‘Iridescent’ coming up and this single, ‘CCTV’, is the first one from it.
The remit of the track is to underscore the hostility and division that seems to be present in every walk of society today. At one time that was limited to which football club you followed, but now it pervades the web sphere as I can vouch for personally, being an active participant in online chitchat.
While it offers no support to that hostility neither does ‘CCTV’ seek to assuage the angst with anything hollow and vapid.
Rather, it encourages a sense of both sadness and bewilderment as to how we ended up in this situation, contrasting optimistic musicianship – the intro sounds like it might be for the opening credits of a BBC farming documentary on tending for spring lambs after birth – with forlorn, Morrissey-style urban lyrics.”It’s time to put the world to rights” drones vocalist Ossi Björn early on, leaving you in no doubt where this is going.
Incidentally, kudos to whoever thought of mixing every synthesiser and mellotron in Helsinki with a glockenspiel. Who would have ever dreamt how well that combination might work?
The inspiration for the song came they say, from “listening to a lot of (English 1980s experimental band) Current 93, and watching series like Adolescence as well as documentaries on the manosphere.”
Adolescence is a Netflix drama set in northern England last year about a murder of a child by another child which highlighted her (the victim’s) behaviour of cyber bullying with his (the perpetrator’s) indulgence of misogyny and far-right idealism. At the age of 13.
I suppose it was trying to make sense of the world these kids are “growing up” in and I can well understand why they chose to turn those ideas into song. And they’ve made a pretty good fist of it, too.
I couldn’t understand where the title comes in. I suppose it can be interpreted as what the world looks like now to a ‘normal’ person, if there are any left. Grey, grainy, indistinct, jumpy and ghostly.
Where the people are Ghosts on CCTV.
(Continues after the Spotify link).
Ghosts on TV are:
Ossi Björn – Vocals
Anttoni Hill – Glockenspiel, Electric Guitar
Aaro Tirronen – Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar
Reko Kälkäjä – Keys
Otto Vahtola – Bass
Joona Kinnunen – Drums, Percussion
Pinja Savijärvi – Additional vocals
Having just completed a short Finnish tour they are in New York in early March then return to Finland and Estonia in April and May.
The New Colossus Festival, New York
4.3. Baker Falls, New York
7.3. Arlene’s Grocery, New York
8.3. Pianos, New York
10.4 TMW, Estonia
8.5. Tampere, Bar Kotelo
15.5. Helsinki, Kapsäkki (Official album release show)
30.5. Tallinn, Paavli Kulttuuri Vabrik.
Find them on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vtnostsohg/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ghostsontvofficial/
Bandcamp: (Direct to track): https://vtnostsohg.bandcamp.com/track/cctv
