It's hard to think of a better way to revive Duophonic Super 45s, the label run by Stereolab's Tim Gane and Laetitia Sadier and manager Martin Pike, than new music from the artists who released music for the imprint back in the day. Along with providing an outlet for Stereolab's limited-edition releases, the label also cultivated many acts who dug into the band's niche of experimental electronic pop in more specific ways. One of those was Dymaxion, a New York-based post-rock group that, as their Buckminster Fuller-worshiping name suggested, brought a more playful and retro-futuristic take to that style than most of their contemporaries. The group's main sonic architect, Jeremy Novak, struck up a friendship with Gane that led to their collaboration as Ghost Power. The duo's self-titled debut album is a perfect continuation of the legacies of everyone involved. Fans of Gane's post-Stereolab projects will note that Ghost Power is more light-hearted than his work with Cavern of Anti-Matter; kicking off with "Asteroid Witch," a bold and bubbling concoction of beats, synths, and sci-fi zaps and rattles that first appeared on a 2020 limited-edition 7", the album finds him and Novak mixing and matching sounds with gleeful abandon. "Lithic Fragment," with its comically booming tympani, brassy fanfares, and whooshing electronics, could be a collaboration between the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and Spike Jones, while "Inchwork" improbably combines the sardonically chugging guitars of Chairs Missing-era Wire with bristling beats and glockenspiel. On "Zome Primer," the duo mash up harpsichord-laden chamber pop and a slinky rhythm with results that approximate a lo-fi DJ Shadow track, while "Vertical Section"'s tightly interlocking keyboards evoke the Ghost Box roster as much as Gane's own work. However, each of Ghost Power's tracks have enough drive and momentum to not seem overly quaint, whether it's the mod mystery of "Grimalkin" or "Opsimath," one of the moments when Dymaxion's love of cartoonish sounds comes to the fore. "Astral Melancholy Suite," a 15-minute epic that spans what sounds like an army of evil toy robots to an eternal drift in the cosmos, shows off the breadth and depth of Ghost Power's considerable skills, all of which make the album a real treat for fans of Gane's and Novak's other work. ~ Heather Phares, Rovi

1		Asteroid Witch
2		Panic in the Isles of Splendor
3		Lithic Fragment
4		Inchwork
5		Zome Primer
6		Grimalkin
7		Heavy Bubbles
8		Vertical Section
9		Opsimath
10		Astral Meloncholy Suite

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