(ghost) – Everything We Touch Turns To Dust
Everything We Touch Turns to Dust is the 4th full length album from Denver based IDM producer and electronica aficionado (ghost). According to the label blurb which accompanies – Everything We Touch Turns to Dust is “the continuing soundtrack to a narrative that has been passed on from the previous (ghost) albums and EPs Departure, A Vast And Decaying Appearance, Elas EP and his more recent ambient outing for Sound in Silence, The First Time You Opened Your Eyes“. Such imagined narratives are a staple of IDM artists as the music lends itself to both the cinematic and gaming environment. However there is also the risk that key scenarios which may exist purely in the creators head, can be absent from the listeners. Reading the backstory is arguably ‘good’ , though I prefer to use the word positive than “good”, yet having to could also be argued as disadvantageous. A double edged sword in any case. (ghost) would argue that you do not ‘have to’ listen to the work as “a deliberate apocalyptic chronicle”. If you don’t, something is lost, I feel.
In Everything We Touch Turns To Dust the still unnamed protagonist has awakened from his coma to be told by the only named character, Elas of the dystopian nature of current society. The pair of album openers ‘Identify’ and ‘Visible Self’ kick start the experience strongly. The former is a beautiful key refrain that wouldn’t be out of place in the forthcoming Blade Runner 2049 while the latter steps closer toward classic IDM turf. It’s a nice, almost heartwarming beginning after which I rather feel the album gets a bit lost in what I call soundtrack staples. Even ‘Mercked’, the tribute to the pioneering Miami label plink plonks its meandering way without too much of note happening.
The title track has more to say, much more in fact, with discernible intent and thrust before ‘What’s Left For Us’ closes the record out stylishly. By the album’s end, we’re told, the protagonist has found a place of escape in the tattered world he has ascended to. I felt this was only partially accomplished. Everything We Touch Turns To Dust is a punctual album of high quality bookends. The literature itself probably wasn’t quite up to the same standard.