Ultimately a collaboration between two artists on either end of the dance spectrum; Theo Keating, who in 1999 had a ridiculous amount of commercial success as one half of The Wiseguys with the hit single 'Ooh La La' (remember that Budweiser commercial?) and Simon Lord, who achieved critical acclaim a few years back as part of the dance troupe Simian (ultimately made famous by the Justice remix of 'Never Be Alone'). Rather than working together on the project, Keating and Lord recorded a vast amount of material before even meeting each other face to face. The Black Ghosts seem to be an attempt to attack the indie/dance crossover market (see; LCD Soundsystem, Hot Chip, The Postal Service and Simian Mobile Disco - who interestingly enough are a splinter group of aforementioned Simian) by mixing up Lord's insular lyrics with Keating's cinematic electro beats. With the song structures developed in the style of a 'band situation' i.e. verse, chorus, verse and the music steering more to electro than indie, I suppose you could call these guys the English Postal Service. They did, after all, develop their music independently. Whatever the setup the main question is - does the collaboration ultimately work?The answer is a confusing one. On the first listen I was left totally cold. In fact, I remember thinking to myself "that was a pile of shit and I never want to listen to it again". For me dance music must have a beating heart and a soul. It should make me want to get up and shake my arse whilst I'm in the kitchen making beans on toast. But because the lyrics throughout the record tend to veer towards the darker side of life, you're left feeling maudling. So, even when musically the songs are thumping and building to a crescendo, you're dragged down by the subject matter leaving you unsure whether to dance or reach for the anti-depressants.Repeated listens though do unveil a few gems, especially on the first half of the record. 'Any Way You Give It' is a nice slice of electro, with a great synth bass line and Lord's vocals sounding reminiscent of Thomas Mars from Phoenix. In fact there seems to be a Phoenix influence running throughout the albums 'smoother' sounding songs, take 'It's Your Touch' and 'Something New' for example. The album highlight is also on the first half of the album; 'Repetition Kills You' featuring a certain Damon Albarn on guest vocals (no wonder it was chosen as the lead single) - think Hot Chip meets Gorillaz. The track is pretty much the only time throughout the eleven tracks that it's 'fun' to listen to.The second half of the album is for the most part totally forgettable - 'I Want Nothing' and 'I Don't Know' are basically rehashes of the synth line from 'Anyway You Give It' mixed in with some ill fitting lyrics. 'Full Moon' brings an acoustic guitar and double bass into the mix but ends up sounding like something an A-Level music student could come up with.

There are enough singles on here for the band to have a moderate amount of success with, but the fact that it lacks the killer hooks and heart stopping moments that I personally look for in dance music, I have to come to the conclusion that it is simply average. Nothing more, nothing less. 54%Links The Black Ghosts [myspace]