Asthmatic Kitty
For those who heard it DM Stith’s 2009 Heavy Ghost was a revelation. Using intricately layered production piles of his own voice and incredible attention to atmospheric detail Stith crafted a chamber-folk album truly deserving of such overused music critic words as haunting and otherworldly.
Heavy Ghost Appendices is a collection of alternate versions covers and remixes spread across two discs. It’s on the disc of revisions and covers that Stith shows that the project is more than a quick odds-and-sods cash-in. In some cases the alternate versions are dramatic reimaginings. “Pigs” adds clattering percussion and wobbly horns to the original’s delicate creep while “BMB” strips away the song’s many layers leaving only a chilling core. The covers are also all uniformly strong as Stith wholly incorporates other people’s songs into his oeuvre giving for example The Ronettes’ hit “Be My Baby” a sinister eeriness that brings the original’s needy loneliness to the surface.
The second disc is full of remixes and more uneven. Even so Heavy Ghost Appendices is a welcome sequel for those who were hypnotized by Stith last year and another opportunity for revelation for those who haven’t had the pleasure yet.
