On the road with d: The Black Ghosts

When Simian broke up in 2005, two of its members went on to form the more dance-oriented group now known as Simian Mobile Disco. Simon William Lord didn't; he ended up joining forces with Theo Keating of The Wiseguys in 2006 to form the electronic dance pop group The Black Ghosts.

The Black Ghosts - Any Way You Choose To Give It (Fake Blood Remix)

The Black Ghosts first came to my attention thanks to their cover of Olivia Newton John's Let's Get Physical. However, they really captured my attention with what I consider their strongest song, Any Way You Choose to Give It, with its catchy synth-bass line. Keating has admitted that when they were getting started that they got a bit over-excited in getting people to remix their music so there are a lot of remixes of this song floating around. The remix by Fake Blood is on the site, though I do prefer the original (Boy 8-Bit's is my favorite of the remixes, but there are a number of other good ones).


The Black Ghosts - Any Way You Choose to Give It


The Black Ghosts - Any Way You Choose to Give It (Boy 8-bit version)


The Black Ghosts - Let's Get Physical

Their lyrics are often a bit darker than the sound of their songs and that's intentional. On the choice of lyrics to put over the music, Lord's said, "Part of it is a reaction to the inane lyrics usually used in dance music, ‘oooh baby, make me dance, 1234, yeah yeah yeah, sweat, love, shake it oooh’ etc. I just see it as lazy and unadventurous, there’s no reason that lyrics in dance music can’t be more interesting and tell proper stories."

Two remixes of their song I Want Nothing and a mixtape of theirs are also on the site and worth a listen.

If you're interested in music videos, they have an interesting one in their video for their modern take on a torch song Some Way Through This that is worth checking out (the video is done all in LEGOs, which offsets the sort of dark material that the video covers).


The Black Ghosts - Some Way Through This

The Black Ghosts are releasing their self-titled album on July 8, their first full-length.

The Black Ghosts' website
The Black Ghosts' MySpace