9.13.19 by Ryan Masteller

G-g-ghosts? Are we really going this spooky route today? The Corrupting Sea’s Jason Lamoreaux’s got a séance going up in here, where he’s conjuring specters and ghouls and not really worrying about all the havoc he’s wreaking. I think it’s time we put a stop to this. Let me call the Harlem Globetrotters. I have Curly Neal’s number in my phone. Spiderman’s too.

Oh – my bad, seems this “Ghosts” tape is more the ghost of memory, the hints of the past, wisps of nostalgia that haunt us and creep up on us at inopportune moments when we don’t want to cry out of regret or wistfulness, like when we’re in the middle of a job interview. But hopefully your interviewer won’t be spinning The Corrupting Sea – that’s for when you get home, to celebrate getting that job with terrifically introspective music. Lamoreaux is a master of his ambient synthesizer world, and here he immerses us in six lengthy pieces as washes of recollection and celebration, regret and remorse fight against each other but end up intertwining in a bittersweet fog of personal history, a mating ritual designed to confuse and distract the listener from whatever it is they happen to be doing. Like being interviewed for a job.

Which is why, in the end, you really have to PAY ATTENTION. Let “Ghosts” envelope you – but not literal ghosts and not literal envelopment, or you’ll come out the other side covered in ectoplasm. This is real choice synth work, and that should be celebrated. [*Chef’s kiss*] The Corrupting Sea continues to lap at the shores of nostalgia and enhance whatever mood it happens to be around. This is a strength of Lamoreaux’s, as detailed throughout his deep discography.

But this one’s over at Aural Canyon. Pick one up!