Lusitanian Ghosts are a multi-national project mainly based in Lisbon that play using ancient Portuguese instruments to create some rather stirring indie songs. The album was recorded at the legendary Clouds Hill Studios in Germany.
This ep opens with Soul Deranium that has a good strummed acoustic indie feel to it, made using Chordophones and other ancient instruments, as we try to work out if a Soul Deranium is a good or bad thing, well in this tune it sounds like a good thing.
Never Less Than Lonely has a blue mood to it, with sadness for what's been lost, as the song gets going and the more electric chordophones come in, it has a real early 70's junk shop glam feel to it.
All The Sounds has a rather cool chordal feel as the drums help drive this on like an early Waterboys or Hothouse Flowers song, although Neil Leyton's vocals go a bit Jim Kerr in places without being too overblown.
Exotic Quixotic is a great song title and this opens sounding like the sort of bucolic neckerchief rock that Slim Chance played, but filtered through watching the sunset over the Douro, while sipping vintage port, while musing on the positive message, to be a creative person rather than a destructive one.
Older And Colder has some slow resonating drums played with the hands and almost harp like chordophone to back this song of ageing and trying not to watch time passing by it feels very elegiac.
Living One Life (Just Ain't Enough These Days) Has a cool laid back strummed intro to another song that recalls The Hothouse Flowers as this story of premature departure due to rock & roll excess and other predilections unfolds.
For The Wicked has a sort of yearning in the vocals set against the rather pretty building and falling backing of this tale of the fight against the mismanagement of resources.
Lisbon Calling is not a Portuguese re-working of London Calling but instead points a finger or two at the local council and government mismanagement of the city's gentrification and digitization and all the backhanders while channeling The Waterboys.
She Couldn't Jump is a song of redemption for a woman who was contemplating taking that leap into the void, but somehow managed to find a way back, hopefully she also found help dealing with the problems that lead her onto the precipice.
The album closes with Live The Flea a slow intro into the action at the local Flea circus, or a tribute to the teen with the rat in his mouth, this is a slow and thoughtful song that eventually builds into a bucolic psychedelic freak out ending.
Find out more at http://lusitanianghosts.net/ https://lusitanianghosts.bandcamp.com/releases https://www.facebook.com/lusitanianghosts
