Ghost Cowboys

Here comes again the original reggae outlaws, surf and western inna Jamaican style, 100% instrumental. Comes with full album CD version including 'This Is Surf-Steady' album as bonus track.

Dust raised by a scrawny nag ridden in a Texan twilight by a hollow-cheeked rider. Ectoplasm that in the next track transmutes into a Haitian zombie who cheerfully rocks its members with the offbeat of the drum and bass. Cinematic and atmospheric, that’s the way 'Ghost Cowboys' sounds, the second full-length LP by Le Grand Miércoles.  Moving away from previous Jamaican attachments and deeper into the sonic experimentation already hinted at in ‘This is Surf-Steady’ (Golden Singles, 2011).  Not in vain we face a combo that brings together the cream of musicians who have opted for the syncopated rhythms in the Peninsula; the precise, merciless and pinpoint drumming of six bullets shot from a Colt 45, by Sputnik, grafted in the nowadays so missed Malarians, and then in Los Calaveras, The Golden Singles or Dwomo. On guitar the growling and lashing Winchester of Dr.Jau (Dr.Jau & The Peanut Vendors, Ki Sap, The Shake It Up’s, Gaia Dub Sindicat, Mr.T-Bone & The Golden Singles, etc.) On bass, driving the tunes with steady hand, the cowboy who prevents (or allows...) the guitar from overflowing into a thundering stampede, Fabiani (Pataconas, Dwomo). And rounding off this Wild Bunch, Willy (The Offbeaters, Dirty Soul Riders, Teleplasticos, Huessos) with his Hammond organ beaming glitters which reverberate on the whole like the sun in Mackena’s gold.

These four outlaws settle the score with eleven instrumental scorchers. Without respect to law and order, they strike versions as it must be done. If the title gives them away, the listening on the other hand hints at them. Enriched with the flamboyance of these committed punks who turn the sweet rocksteady by The Paragons into a Valkyries horse ride in Tijuana, which makes you desire to invade Baja California  in order to throw a party on the shores of the Pacific shaking the ass to the rhythm of "Caravan Party". And what about ‘Straight to Hell’? How to achieve that a song which already sounds like the preview to the Apocalypse, to that slow but relentless path to hell that is life, sound even more mortifying, more hopeless ? With a few drops of dub, a few stings of guitar and a few cracks of organ, that’s the way it is achieved. And what about ‘Cecilia Ann’ by the Surftones, which the Pixies electrified in an orgy of speed that sounded as inexorable as the gaze of William Munny in ‘Unforgiven’? Well Le Grand Miércoles, iconoclastic as they are, slow it down and it sounds just as surely. Their own songs, which they have, maintain the high standard of quality although you can often spot subtle inferences of other songs.

Whether that is ‘Alligator Ye-Ye’, the surf song which draws you to the dancefloor; or the gentle cadence of waves caressing your feet of ‘The Rumour’. And best of all is that 'Ghost Cowboys' can be listened to chilling out, relishing the numbness that a tequila leaves in your mouth, as well as it can be played in your car, on your way to the daily traffic jam, as your car transmutes into a convertible, with the salt of the sea on the lips and the sun behind, running quicker than dawn.


Tracklist:
Side A
1. I've Got To Surf Away
2. Western Standart Time
3. Fukushima
4. Cowboy Fantasma
5. Straight To Hell

Side B
1. Commin' Home Baby
2. Cecilia Ann
3. Aligator Ye Ye
4. Caravan Party
5. Wicked Dub
6. The Rumour