By Will Yannacoulias
Released today, Kill The Baby is the fourth EP from Saskatoon rapper Ghost Note. Six tracks of Art Rap/Alternative Rap in the vein of Tyler, the Creator, Open Mike Eagle, Milo, and Rory Ferreira, Ghost Note’s abstract stream-of-consciousness writing explores themes of identity, mental health, alienation and doubt. “Being over emotional and ruining my future is my bread and butter at this point" Ghost offered. "I find form and structure terrifying, I’m either desperate to follow a formula or fearful of doing anything derivative.” That conflicted duality gives Kill The Baby an exciting, unorthodox weirdness rooted in a familiar foundation.
“Kill The Baby is a panicked, fearful EP,” Ghost told NSMZ, “brought about by a pisspoor summer, and a debut album that didn’t end up dropping. The EP has songs on it from over a year ago, so it’s been a piecemeal project. It was amassed, finished and polished in August. I was supposed to put out my debut record Call Me this summer, but it didn’t end up happening, and this was a response to that.”
Ghost’s vocal delivery is narrative, adding context to each track as they move between a sleepy drunken confessional, a sarcastic sing-song and a frantic plea on the edge of cracking. The music is all in service to the mood; sparse arrangements carried by uneasy chattering percussion and haunting, disembodied keyboard melodies. Ghost wrote the songs, composed and sampled the music, produced, mixed and mastered the EP, with input from only two other sources. “Tony Gravyboat is an old friend from Ontario” Ghost explained, “I talked him into contributing a feature on the opening track, and Kaelin MacKenzie at PAVED Arts engineered the project.”
Ghost Note has been focused on the new EP and the lead single "Monologue", but their ambition hasn’t wavered from the album that was back-burnered this past summer. “Call Me is my big goal project" they shared. "I really want to do it right, put in the time and money it deserves. I’m hoping to release it next summer, with a couple more EP releases between now and then."
"Monologue" and Kill The Baby are available on all streaming services today.
Great!!!