Hearts of Black Science - The Ghost You Left Behind

When people think about the musical output of Sweden, two things usually come to mind: death metal, and ABBA.You can clearly imagine my surprise, when I learned that Hearts of Black Science were from Sweden. The band plays a well executed style of electronic indie-pop. A heavy current of downtempo electronica can be heard throughout The Ghost You Left Behind, and a lot of the glitchy drum patterns sound similar to Telefon Tel Aviv. The only two acoustic instruments utilized are guitar and voice, but they are integrated with the electronic elements of the band’s sound flawlessly. Some of the instrumental sections of the album sound like Scottish instrumental band God is an Astronaut jamming out with electronic legends Boards of Canada. The vocals act as an extra instrument, and add to the overall spooky vibe of most of the bands songs. One track which stands out is “Driverlights” which uses a distorted guitar riff as its centerpiece. The song has tons of energy, despite the relatively slow tempo, since the atmospherics and live guitars meld together in a smoldering, slow-burn .The Ghost You Left Behind is good enough to overshadow some of the horrible death metal and glam-pop that has come out of Sweden over the years, and that is a truly good thing.