Team Ghost

Team Ghost are a trio from Paris, France that sound an awful lot like M83 for a good reason: front-man Nicolas Fromageau co-founded M83, along with Anthony Gonzalez. Nicolas left after the 2003 breakthrough Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts and eventually went on to form Team Ghost with Christophe Guérin and Jean-Philippe Talaga in order to write music for his own project. But therein lies the conundrum of Team Ghost: why leave one act to return and sound just like them? You Never Did Anything Wrong To Me is the band's debut EP and were it released as a white label you'd swear it is, well, exactly what it is. Released by the shoegaze enthusiasts at Sonic Cathedral (the London label that "celebrates itself"), Team Ghost use the same cascading electronic dream pop model Gonzalez does with M83. There really isn't much of an argument to separate the two: "Lonely, Lonely, Lonely" is built of intertwined, John Carpenter-style horror synths that ascend to a gorgeous peak without climaxing, only to yield to the crunchy, treated guitars of the swoony "A Glorious Time." "Echoes" follows similar ground, fluttering with undulating synths, and "Colours in Time" creeps into darker, gothier territory, swelling into a chasm of fading electronics. However, notwithstanding Fromageau's prior experience, what You Never Did Anything Wrong To Me proves more than anything is that M83's first two albums were definitely products of a partnership. Though it's still too early to determine whether Team Ghost will ever rise to the excellence of an album like Saturdays=Youth, this EP is a strong start. As they say: two bands are always better than one.