Ghostkeeper

Calgary, AB's Ghostkeeper certainly aren't suffering from a dearth of musical ideas, since many of the 11 tracks that make up their third album are packed with hairpin turns and dizzying structures, with some cuts sounding like several songs jammed into one. This eclecticism isn't always a good thing, however, as these quirkily jumbled passages sound, at times, as if they were slapped together at random, making the first half of Horse Chief! War Thief! an exhausting, disorienting listen. "Luella" is a particularly notable offender, jumping erratically from pop dippiness to avant-electro blips to bluesy rock riffs. It's difficult to latch onto anything for long, which is a shame since Ghostkeeper eventually tame their restlessness on the LP's eerie second half. The reverb-kissed production is wonderfully roomy and dark, and late album cuts "Gospel Slinger" and "The Children" set a chillingly doom-filled atmosphere. These haunting successes make the disc's messy experiments all the more frustrating.