Over the past four years, Belgian-Canadian duo Ghostwoman have given us four records of jangly, shape-shifting psychedelic rock that have weaved through elements of surf-pop, indie-folk, and stoner-rock. Evan Uschenko and Ille van Dessel are keeping the ball rolling this year with Welcome to the Civilized World in September, their latest neo-psych opus for Full Time Hobby and Dine Alone Records. After teasing the release with the tracks “Alive” and “Levon” earlier this year, the band returns with a third single that sands down the clanging guitar of its predecessors and eases into a calming groove.
As van Dessel notes, the version the band set to tape was far from its original iteration. “The riff was just floating around in the air, but we didn’t really know what to do with it at first,” she explains. “We played it in different tempos because at first we didn’t want to make it as slow as it is now—we actually tried everything to not make it as it turned out to be. But after different attempts, this version and tempo felt the most adequate as a whole.”
As for the spiritual song name, she adds that it was born of a mistranslation from her native tongue. “The title comes from me translating too literally from Dutch to English while telling a story, and Evan thought it sounded cool.”
Check out the boy wonder–directed video for the track—which feels like a subdued, Mountain Time Zone take on Gummo—below, and pre-order Welcome to the Civilized World here.
