Black Casino and the Ghost – ‘Hoboland’
Black Casino and the Ghost, what a name, and one I recommend you remember as although the London four-piece have quite literally ghosted into the rock and roll spectrum as of late, judging by the trajectory of their deliciously haunting artistry, the band may just be around to permanently torment the spirits of crowds and critics for a good while yet.
‘Hoboland’ is a magnificently strange and morally menacing offering in the band’s musically schizophrenic full-length debut record Some Dogs Think Their Name is No, in which Elisa Zoot, Ariel Lerner, Gary Kilminster, and Paul Winter-Hart have put down to bouts of isolation, dealings with disorientation, languishing in lust and “how to fly a plane through turbulence without spilling your coffee” (the latter I can only interpret as sheer infuriation).
Perfectly embodying the band’s self-analysis, Hoboland’s opening subjects our ears to the violence of Kilminster’s Wolf Mother-esque plodding bass, a natural tone setter that the ensuing track lives up to, as before we know it, Zoot’s shrill cry of “nicotine days and nicotine nights, it might be a phase I’ll just wait and sit tight” batters the walls of our biological drums and drives the tune into further aggression and animosity, both emotions are then duly emphasised by the incessant pounding of Winter-Hart’s kit and Lerner’s warped spurts of BRMC style guitar playing.
Despite the aforementioned references (the cruel necessity of many music journalists’ reviews), Black Casino and the Ghost should be deemed a truly unique outfit and certainly something to savour. Let’s hope this lot has started as they mean to continue.
You can stream the song below.
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