Gothic, electronic, madrigal: The distinctive vision of Lockhart’s Michael Laird swirls through a catalog of seven beguiling LPs bewitched by centuries-old traditions. His band’s first compilation, Ghosts Captured turns on an axis of pop/rock covers found on prior platters. A few pieces of low-hanging fruit aside (the Cure; fellow travelers Current 93 and Qntal; Projekt labelmates Lycia), the set list takes stylistically incompatible standards and gives them radical but reverent reinterpretations. Filtered through Laird’s pagan prism, New Order’s “The Him” transforms into a haunted hymn, while Neil Young’s “The Needle and the Damage Done” becomes a droning communion with a melancholy spirit. Unto Ashes lifts the melody from Norwegian synth-pop troop Apoptygma Berzerk’s “Kathy’s Song” and turns it into gorgeous folk, and filters the Butthole Surfers’ “The Birds Are Dying” through a choral-enhanced string section. Ethereal acoustic versions of Blue Öyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear the Reaper” and Van Halen’s “Runnin’ With the Devil” nets two more Ghosts Captured.
This article appears in November 28 • 2014.
