Starbus - Obvious Ghosts

Hear The Track Here

Might be a new name to you but not if I change it slightly to read HELLbus, for this is the band new vehicle employed by one Jon Partlelow, a certifiable Soundclick legend. He started with HELLbus and the awesome Table Fate (January 2006) - which to this day is one of my favourite tracks - and although it was being sold for moola at the time I felt I had to urge people to hear it, simply because it was soooo different to almost everything out there. The same held true for his second major outing with the justly famed Can't Stop The Daggers, and if you don't recognise that name you to brush up on your internet history. Sadly, CSTD broke up om 2009 and although I've reviewed a couple of Partelow inspired tracks since then, this is brand new..

God, i'm soooo excited...I do enjoy it when old friends come by.

The reason for my excitement is that I understand that experience really does count and you can never tell what someone you think you know is likely to come up with, and it's nice to see a musician of Jon's calibre coming back into the Soundclick fold. First and foremost Jon's songwriting was the most impressive feature in earlier guises, and its assumes greater importance with an impressive production, although its a bit sparing about the air between things, ya know what I mean? Me, I'm a firm believer in the use of reverb and echo to bring our the nuances in a track, but that unfortunately a sound much heard in today's 'indie' world. Speaking of which, wtf does indie mean anyway? To me it should say indie(pendent minded) because - to me anyway - they are the only ones I am likely to take seriously.

As always with a new one from an old face (and friend) there's always that secret dread that somehow this one will turn out to be a dud, and I'd have to say so. Thankfully there aren't many veterans who let me down and certainly not Jon Partelow (and whatever bus he's riding on). Obvious Ghosts shows both the songwriting quality and musical/production ability to fully realise a dream, and it shows in every note. You might have heard something similar to this for sure, but that's my point. This is as good as anything out there in the ****** up 'indie' world. (Ed: he even said that with sneer) Quality counts.

MUST HAVE independent minded pop