//bio and press//
Ghost of Chance are an experimental rock band based in New Haven, Connecticut. The group's distinctive style is characterized by subtle time signature changes and sonically open experimentation set to surrealist lyrics. Ghost of Chance's sound takes its influence from 1960s psychedelica, '70s glam, math rock and post-punk while maintaining the shimmer of classic pop sensibilities. All of this adds to the unique yet familiar sound that Ghost of Chance have cleverly cultivated. Engaging the audience with a nervous energy and the desire to communicate, Ghost of Chance share a sense of imperativeness with great pop predecessors like the 13th Floor Elevators and John Cale -- sincerity combined with pop knowledge.
Ghost of Chance began as a collaboration between Jayson Munro (The Striders, Noisette, Deluxe) and George Moore (Duvet Cover, Noisette) in 2008. The two sent back and forth demos and ideas for a project that had no name and really no direction. After awhile the two came up with the name, based on a William Burroughs Novella, and a direction. The group's first album was crafted and recorded in the sweltering confines of an attic apartment during the summer of 2009. Moore and Munro re-recorded demos and created several songs in the studio, attempting to embody the chaotic spirit of the novella.
After completing the band.s first album, Moore and Munro started the Ghost of Chance live band. Their live set consists of Jayson on guitar and vocals, George on guitar and keyboards, Dave Corsak on bass, and Mark Niciu on Drums. The live band brought new dimensions of vibrancy and controlled chaos to the mystical contours sketched out in the recordings. In addition to bringing formal music training to the bass, Corsak, a virtuoso in the manipulation of sonic machinery, deftly tweaks amplification units to vacillate between bass tones and raucous cosmic frequencies. Niciu, schooled in the venerable tradition of Slanted and Enchanted-era indie scrawl, animates Ghost in a pugnacious frenzy of percussive power.
The group.s second album, A Simple Beast, began as an effort by Munro to write a series of songs about the wild desolation of Chernobyl after the tragic 1986 nuclear disaster. As time went on, Munro adhered less directly to the specific concept but continued to write songs that conveyed the eerie combination of vacancy and unchecked wilderness found in Chernobyl today. Moore, working in his own modest home studio, wrote two songs that similarly capture this aura. The album.s title, A Simple Beast, references the inscrutable animal beings that have adapted themselves to Chernobyl.s poisoned landscape.
The group is currently in the process or mixing their third album, "Be My Void," which is scheduled to be released July 2012. Prior to this release, the band will be sporadically releasing singles off "Be My Void."
press clipings
[Ghost of Chance's] latest is a song called .Krunk Juice.. In all honesty, there.s not much very krunk about it other than the name, and chances are that even a few well placed Lil. Jon style .YEEAAHHHS. would do little to change this fact. But then I realized that just maybe, with its dreamy feel, echoing, reverb-drenched demeanor, and the bizarre melodic tangent that it wanders off on nwr it.s end, that this song represents your brain on krunk juice.April 14th, 2012: The JangleBox Blog: Krunk Juice
April 12th, 2012: CT Indie: Krunk Juice
April 12th, 2012: Hartford Courant: Krunk Juice
A relentless beat frames an ominous bassline and jangling guitar that sounds somehow distant, like it’s bleeding through the wall of a room down the hall.April 10th, 2012: Surviving the Golden Age: Krunk Juice
April 9th, 2012: Striker Bill Blog: I Feel Fine
The first one to be made available is a song called .I Feel Fine,. which in comparison to much of their other material is one of the most rollicking things the band has recorded to date.March 20th, 2012: Beehive Candy blog: I feel fine
"Seriously this is a fine and fresh rock song that more than suggests we are on to a class act here."March 16th, 2012: Words about "I feel fine" in spanish! Janglebox Blog
March 13th, 2012: 32ft per second: I Feel Fine
"[...] Ghost of Chance release a single aimed straight at the heart of college radio from 20 years ago. "I Feel Fine" represents a bit of scratchy and jangly pop from the four-piece until the disparate parts break away, [...] It feels inexorable, this progress toward a refrain. The drums seem to grant themselves greater agency, running away under Jayson Munro's tweaking and insistent vocal. [...] Ghost of Chance manage to eliminate any useful descriptions of time."March 10th, 2012: Life is noise
".I Feel Fine. has a slightly Built To Spill feel to the lead guitar, as well as ticking quite a few obligatory indie rock influence boxes"March 9th, 2012: Posted on La Grieta blog
March 8th, 2012: TheCloudDrops post I Feel Fine on their youtube channel
March 8th, 2012: MyOldChannel post I Feel Fine on their Youtube Channel
March 8th, 2012: Mention on indietoday.net
March 8th, 2012: Hartford Courant Review of "I feel Fine"
"It' s a fast, jangling tune, with a bright guitar part reverberating in what feels like a cavernous, dark space that washes over Jayson Munro’s vocals, which take on an insistent, almost urgent cast as he repeats the refrain. The song has a classic feel that calls to mind alt-rock in the late ’80s and early ’90s: edgy, a little twitchy and definitely compelling."March 8th, 2012: CTIndie review of "I Feel Fine"
"It is effortlessly original while still citing so many inspirations. It sounds modern and feels very retro, somehow."March 6th, 2012:Castles In Space Reviews "I Feel Fine"
"A little bit Felt, a bit early R.E.M. A bit mid period Cure. A smidge of C86 and a touch of American Music Club. Retro, but facing forward. I love it."
March 5th, 2012:Review of videos on Striker Bill Blog:
"A Simple Beast was released in November and thoroughly demonstrates the band.s penchant for writing uncluttered, haunting bedroom-style dream pop that.s tinged with melancholy."
February 28th, 2012:Review of "A Simple Beast" on Sonic Masala
"It's all a little quirky and surreal, and at times reminds me of a more languid The Unicorns (oh how I miss those guys!). It's all levels of pop, filtered through cracked genre lenses, and spat out with laconic chagrin. Tracks like 'Pilot' and 'Red Garbs' lift the spirits, and they are the songs that'll grab ya. And you may recognise another HFTB recipient in the mix - Jayson Munro from Deluxe is one of these Ghosts!...."
February 15th, 2012:Hartford Courant writes about Ghost of Chance's three video release: Eric Danton's Sound Check
January 11, 2012: Review of A Simple Beast: Record Journal Music Blog
November 29, 2011: Ghost of Chance's first release was featured on alleveryone.blogspot.com
November 27th, 2011: Pilot featured on Insomnia Radio
November 3, 2011: Review on CTIndie.com
December 14, 2010: Review in New Haven Advocate:GOC creates a minimalistic atmosphere from the start with the song Carthage.The mellow vocals deliver narrative-style lyrics, over electronic drums, acoustic guitar, and dreamy organs (sounds like a Mellotron throughout the record, I could be wrong). The record has a carefully crafted atmospheric layer of instruments with steady reverb. It seems like a lot of care went to producing here. All the guitar effects are tasteful and purposeful. The recording itself sounds great.
Records RIYL list includes Modest Mouse and Built to Spill and, maybe, live with a bassist and drummer, those comparisons might ring true. But this record, with drum and bass low in the mix, quirky time changes, big, wide reverb-wash and Mellotron patches aplenty sounds more like late-era, John Lennon Beatles. “Dreams” and “The Breath” are sonic reminders of “Julia” and “Across the Universe.” There’s a quote of the crazy guitar line from “She’s So Heavy” on “Vaporized Philanthropic Autopilot,” and “Livin’ Life to the Fullest” delights in mixing three- and four-beat bars. Random sounds, handclaps, pre-recorded voices, odd percussion and backwards tape sounds pop in and out. In short, it sounds sort of like The White Album, and that’s not a bad thing.
November 22, 2010: Ghost of Chance named as one of CT Indie’s “12 Local Bands To Be Thankful For” onThe New Haven Register.
Sept. 25, 2010: Review on One Base On An Overthrow blog:
February’s most recent CD is from New Haven’s Ghost of Chance, and even though the vocals at times veer a bit too close to Smashing Pumpkins to be considered safe, the CD on the whole is an impressive bit of work. I think CT Indie nailed it with their Lilys/Teenage Fanclub comparison, so I won’t bother going any further. The opening track I’ve posted below, “Sir” (not to be confused with another fine opening track, Lotion’s “Dear Sir”, I guess), starts out quietly and ends quietly, but there’s a fairly messy ride in between. Word is that Ghost of Chance are on one of the final bills next month at the soon-to-be-shuttered Popeye’s Garage, along with The Field Recordings, so you know I’m planning on checking that one out.
Aug. 3, 2010: Review on Hartford Courant’s SoundCheck blog by rock critic Eric Danton:
The quartet says it draws from ” ’60s psychedelia and ’90s indie and alternative,” with “hints at math rock and post-punk while maintaining the shimmer of classic pop sensibilities.” Although all of that is certainly true, it’s really just a complicated way of saying the band plays catchy rock ‘n’ roll with some unexpected twists and turns. … the group delivers a bracing blend of well-constructed songs on what is certainly a welcome introduction.
June 21, 2010: Track reviews on CT Indie blog:
… Jayson Munro does some solid early ’90s guitar work that could be bookended by anything from the Lilys to Teenage Fanclub. … ‘Sir’ is definitely my favorite of these two preview tracks. … The track closes by going outdoors with found sounds, including some summery chirping. Makes me think the song just floated off out of the careless hand of a little girl like a birthday balloon.