Darling Chemicalia’s EP Ghost Sketch has been gaining a small but rapid group of admirers around the Sacramento music scene for some time now. The brainchild of singer/songwriter/ Ian Bone, this is clearly a personal labor of love and it shows in that every song is crafted with care and unconventional production choices. Unlike a lot of avant-garde music though, Ghost Sketch never comes off like an experimental jam session or some foray into artsy concept-album nonsense. There are legitimate songs here, but they never sound glossy or poppy enough to be completely accessible either. The EP successfully straddles the line between shoe-gaze, electro, art rock, and lo-fi basement pop in a way that seems entirely natural rather than forced.

Opening track “Hospital Song” features off-timed finger plucking mixed with Bone’s haunting reverb-soaked vocals, which is followed by shoe-gaze pop gem “I Check Out Everyone” emphasizing propulsive drums, banjo, xylophone, and barely recognizable lyrics surrounded by walls of sound and wailing guitar solo. “Kingdom Contagion” has a woozily drunken vibe with acoustic guitar, tambourine and keyboard complimented nicely by Bone’s high-pitched tenor. “When You’re Dead” is a demented campfire song complete with handclaps, shouting gang vocals, and warped kazoo, while “Much” joins moody electronic flourishes and twinkling piano with digital blips and spastic Apex Twin-style techno. “Zombie” is a minimalistic acoustic number that features some the album’s most fluid songwriting and is followed by “Ghost 2”, in which Bone quivers the line “the ghost is in our hearts” over a repetitive acoustic riff which eventually erupts into a spaced-out instrumental with synthesized drums and dueling banjos. “Nightmare Song” and “The Devil Will Come” both follow similar musical templates as the previous tracks, mixing drawn out vocals with off-kilter guitars, tambourines, and digitally manipulated snare kicks. The EP closes with “Oxycleon”, where Bone’s vocal delivery is similar to Deerhunter’s Bradford Cox as he croons behind gloomy synths and airy guitar strumming.

What ultimately sets Ghost Sketch apart is the way in which the music refuses to follow trends while also avoiding self-indulgence. The melodic territory is certainly strange and fragmented, but it also avoids some of the sprawling excesses of many other independent artists operating under the mainstream radar. The songs don’t overstay their welcome either, with each track clocking in at under 4 minutes except for “I Check Out Everyone” and “Ghost 2”. With rumors of a new Darling Chemicalia full-length in the works, it will be interesting to see if Bone can expand on many of the ideas laid out in this EP. The only downside here is that some of the songs near the end, particularly “Nightmare Song” and “The Devil Will Come” seem to repeat themselves musically, lacking a singular identity separating them from the rest of Ghost Sketch’s sonic landscape. Still, this is creative and interesting stuff that deserves a much wider, if distinctive, audience.

-Jericho Cerrona @ symbioticreviews.com