Ghostlimb - Bearing & Distance

by Cosmo Lee

Jason Schmidt of Graf Orlock, evidently, is Justin Smith of Ghostlimb. Graf Orlock is an Invisible Oranges favorite; I wrote about their last record here, and the cat named after them here. There’s a bit of a “ha ha” factor surrounding Graf Orlock’s grindcore filled with ’80s action movie samples. But Ghostlimb is all business. It’s straight-up hardcore punk, melodic à la Comeback Kid or Have Heart. However, Smith’s vocals sound incredibly angry, and the songs are grindcore short – 15 in under 19 minutes.

Seven
The Force That Gives Us Meaning

Ghostlimb’s lyrics are so good that I’ll have to reexamine Graf Orlock’s. The liner notes of Bearing & Distance (Level Plane, 2008) fold out to an old map that depicts California as an island (which isn’t far from the truth). While some songs deal with travel, they’re in the context of touring. The imagery is vivid: “But in bags we sleep as dead as leaves / And each morning we’re reborn / The purest of the greenest grass lies right beneath our feet,” and, “Once I used to care about coming home / The feeling drowned out easy by the engine drone / Along the bloated longitude of a rotten globe.”

Politics are a big part of this record. “Seven” seemingly conflates the 2000 and 2004 US Presidential elections, as it mentions November 7 (2000) and Ohio (which decided the 2004 election). But it’s damning:

November screams out loud, “The seventh, the seventh”
And Ohio’s burial shroud binds up the desert
November screams out loud, “The seventh, the seventh”
And Ohio’s burial shroud buries the crescent

Like Chinatown, “Drowned in a Drought” addresses issues of water supply; “The Force that Gives Us Meaning” is about endless war, complete with a quote from the Aeneid. Personal and political come together in “Loxodrome”: “You never learned to read the maps that you carried with you / Never cared to see the world through different shoes.” This record is an impassioned, literate plea for self-determination in the face of authority, whether it be government, religion, or elders. It may be less than 20 minutes long, but it deserves your hours, if not years.

– Buy –
Amazon (MP3)
Level Plane (CD)
Level Plane (gatefold red vinyl)

– Live –
11/29 Hermosa Beach, CA @ Abalone Louge (w/Firetoad)
12/06 Lemon Grove, CA @ 3592 Main St. (w/Graf Orlock, Restrained)