Blue Wolf Reviews

Tag: ghostly

  • Loving Spirits at the Vintage Teashop

    Loving Spirits at the Vintage Teashop

    Loving Spirits at the Vintage Teashop is book 2 in the very quirky series Ghosts of Rowan Vale where Aunt Polly, along with her modern family live, and have done so for many generations.

    Rowan Vale is a beautiful tourist village which has been carefully restored to days of yesteryear, where people can come to sample the past through the many shops that grace the township; Shona Bannerman is the manager of the Vintage Teashop which has been managed by her family for more than eighty years.

    The difference with Rowan Vale is it has a village full of Ghosts who live there and have done so for many years, some for centuries. The new owner of the Village, Callie Chase has a gift that allows her to see and talk with all the Ghosts in residence, whereas others can see some or none at all.

    Callie comes up with the idea to have a theme weekend set during the War years which while agreed to by the current day villagers, is met with scepticism from the ghostly residents, but the decision to proceed is accepted by all, eventually.

    Aunt Polly is a very popular figure around the town, having passed away in 1948, she was murdered, thinks it is a great idea and when Shona Bannerman nee Deakin, her niece asks if it will distress her, she says it will not. The murderer was never caught and if Aunt Polly knew who it was, she has carefully locked that memory away, not to be disturb at any cost.

    When a stranger comes to town asking questions about the men held there as Prisoners of War a change begins to take place within the close-knit Deakin family and other members of the community.

    Max is good looking, well dressed and in some distress about what he perceived happened to his beloved grandfather while he worked in Rowan Vale. He and Shona meet, and she finds there seems to be some sort of attraction between them, which she finds surprising as she has no inclination at all to invite another man into her life after the shattering end to her marriage.

    As the past starts to give up its secrets, a decision must be made as to how much of the past should be revealed and how much harm it will do to the living with the retelling of crime committed more than seventy years ago.

    Entertaining and most enjoyable Loving Spirits at the Vintage Teashop is the prefect excuse to spend the afternoon on the couch reveling in a well written, cozy mystery which will keep you guessing

  • Ghost Stations

    Ghost Stations

    Once again the dark and mysterious men of Marconi Union have created an album that takes the electronic music genre to a level that is as unexpected as it is somehow or other, expected.

    Drone mixed with scratch, pulsating rhythm added, louder and more varied in texture, deeper and richer in essence, all created from simple sounds placed together to blend and mix into an exotic emotion, specifically  relevant to other worldly images, emotions and presence. The fact the title of the introductory track is Sleeper is also significant and can be construed in whatever manner appeals. Is the person asleep, is the person of another time, place and space, placed in this environment as a ‘sleeper’, and therefore the music is open to interpretation.

    But in a somewhat unusual occurrence, they have added in their words, ‘real playing to add to the feel’ with guest artists in Giorgio Li Calzi on trumpet and Andy Dobson on clarinet, introducing yet another element to the composition.

    The music is perfection; measured and solemn on occasion, misty and dreamy on others, discordant and grating as well, but always underpinned with the hint of experimentation that pushes boundaries, setting out to challenge as well as to entertain.

    Does Marconi Union have any specific musical direction? That would be a hard one to answer as each of their recent albums takes on the vibe of the moment, once again setting out to be perfection in sound, and surpassing constructed or contrived expectations. How best to describe their music other than seriously out there, is no easy task, because as always with this style of music, it is one that will either appeal or not, depending on the emotional space of the listener at the time. Designed to rasp or resonate, you will either love it or hate it.

    Listening closely to Ghost Stations you have the definite impression of derelict spaces, places where time has moved on and the human element has long since dissipated, abandonment, and the eerie essence of ghost towns.

    Alternatively, there is the feeling of travelling through space on a voyage into the great unknown, where every fibre, every emotion, every feeling is challenged, but allows a way forward into the unknown.

    Superb!