Giving Up the Ghost

Giving Up the Ghost

ASIN: B0000A5A14

Track Listings

1. Glassy-Winged Sharp Shooter

2. Aquafresh

3. Convex + Concave

4. Circle Limit

5. Bygones Be

6. Dump Truck

7. Easy Virtue

8. Clear All Wires

9. Bet

10. Underbrush

11. Sacred Secret

12. Giving Up The Ghost

Editorial Reviews
From the Artist
"I've always been interested in anything that deals with rhythm and improvisation," says Walter. "Anything that combines is satisfying to me. It doesn't necessarily have to fit into one genre or another. This new record is definitely an attempt to bring in some modern influences."

Product Description
On his new record, "Giving Up the Ghost", Robert Walter has added a new talent to his recording lineup. Known for his work with such jazz/soul/funk giants as Mike Clark of Herbie Hancock's Headhunters, legendary James Brown and P-Funk sideman and songwriter, Fred Wesley, and George Porter of the Meters, this time out Walter enlisted another player for his latest album -- the studio. "I collect records. I'm into recordings," says Walter. "From doing home recordings, I started experimenting with different sounds, and I decided I wanted to do something more interesting than just record the band. On this album, I tried using the studio as an instrument. It's involved in the music and an important part of making this record what it is. I move things around, change elements. On some tracks, there's no soloing at all, and all of the solos are downplayed in favor of creating a mood, a sonic texture." Joined by Joe Russo and George Sluppick on drums; Greyboy Allstar Chris Stillwell and Black-Eyed Pea Mike Fratantuno on bass; Will Bernard (of TJ Kirk fame) on guitar; percussionist Chuck Prada, and long-time partner Cochemea Gastelum on alto sax and various woodwinds, Walter explores new territory, incorporating elements of electronic music and dub reggae into his traditional R&B and jazz roots, all powered by the flavor of his vintage Fender Rhodes and Hammond B-3 organ. The result is a new hybrid that's distinctly Robert Walter, which is to say, the sound combines just about every form of music into a driving, syncopated groove that will move fans of jazz, soul, blues, roots rock and, yes, those ever-in-motion jam band dance fanatics.

Giving Up the Ghost

Tracks:

Giving Up The Ghost
Phreque
Sly Old Fox
Nico Superstar
Don't Spoil My Song
Push
Speak My Language
Two Boys And A Wheel Barrow
Drive
Drowning & Waving
Limey

Customer Reviews:

Boy, This is REEEEEEEALLY Awful!.......2005-08-03

But unless you like long droning songs with no meaning, Van Halen in the delivery room, or a psycho pretending to be a psycho killer--and the killer part is up for debate too--this is your guy. Jay is talented and writes warm, beautiful songs that have coherence. Spike doesn't even like America, and yet he won't leave. I wish he would, and I wish he'd take all his post-Jay collaborations with him!

A True GLJ Record.......2005-03-16

Buy this album as quickly as you can! What Jay tried to do with the horrific "Kiss of Life", Michael succeeds with this album! He has taken GLJ in a brand new direction, quite bravely and without any fear. You'll enjoy listening to the Real GLJ on this album. This one is right up there with "Promise", "Immigrant", "Love Lies Bleeding", and "Exploding Girls".

Two Point Five Stars and Falling.......2004-08-26

I'm not sure why I'm opening myself to multiple negative feedbacks and angry e-mails but here goes: GIVING UP THE GHOST, like I said in a previous review, is a bit too ponderous and fails to attain the level of success of LOVE LIES BLEEDING. Too much seems to be going on here. That is, too much effort to get an edgy and amorphic sound that ultimately topples this release. The title track is the very proof of this. A good rocker that takes 3 minutes of transcendetal meditation to get to the punch (yes I understand the ideal of dual concepts in one song)and then goes on about 2 minutes too long to that pursuit. I like the song and if not for the fact of the many mood shifts it would drag on. But to be honest I thought it was two songs when I first casually listened to it. My main gripe with it is that it's the opening song. "Phreque" would have been a better opener and "Giving Up The Ghost" a mid-to-later track. That said, "Phreque" and "Sly Old Fox" are queer little songs but move along nicely into the hypnotic "Nico Superstar," which is by far the best song on the album and one of Michael's better ones. "Don't Spoil My Song" takes an odd turn into some amalgamation of Radiohead meets Rage Against The Machine and I think it's for the worse. The music isn't such a put-off but the lyrics are a bit tacky. "Push" continues in this vein of excess and reminds me too much of Van Halen in the main "riff"? The interlude is simply gaudy and pretentious and deserving of a Van Halen comparison. That's seemingly what they were looking to do. I hope not. GOD I HOPE NOT! But sadly it seems obviously true. "Speak My Language", the Morphine cover, seems a bit too punkish for Michael's style and sounds more like Bono in one of his "let's make a million dollars a minute routines" than something edgy. "TwoBoysandaWheelbarrow" piles on the afforementioned excess. "Drive" doesn't save the album or turn the momentum at this point, it just is. Commonstock that is. Nothing original or pressing. "Drowning and Waving" keeps the ball rolling towards oblivion and "Limey" drives the spikes into the coffin. Apparently he thought it was Jim Morrison's tomb, but it feels less and less like poetry as the time dwindles away and more like protest art. Protesting what? Art itself? Perhaps.

Caveat Emptor: This isn't Gene Loves Jezebel.......2003-07-14

Warning - this is NOT the same people who created such great albums as Discover, House of Dolls, or early goth greats. The "band" is really only 1/5th of GLJ, namely Michael Aston, who split in 1989 and someone through crafty legal moves has taken over the GLJ trademark from the other four members of the band. This is like Keith Richards somehow gaining sole rights to the Rolling Stones moniker, and touring and recording under that name without the others. And the musical results are commensurate: stripped bare, song-less noise. You'll be stupefied and shocked and want to run out and overdose on heroin. If you want real GLJ, check out Discover, House of Dolls or Heavenly Bodies instead.

Michael Aston Does It Again!!!!!!!!!!.......2002-02-05

I have been a Gene Loves Jezebel fan since they played the Ritz in New York in the 80's. I feel both brothers are talented. Michael Aston lyrics, experimental music, and voice are haunting. I would highly recommend this cd along with his other solo projects. It is a shame he is such an underrated artist. True talent lies bleeding.

Average customer rating:

Giving Up the Ghost
Windsor for the Derby
Manufacturer: Secretly Canadian
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

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Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music

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ASIN: B000A0GPF4
Release Date: 2005-08-16

Tracks:

Dirge For A Pack Of Flies
Empathy For People Unknown
Praise
Shadows
The Front
Giving Up
The Light Is On
Gathering
Science
Every Word You Ever Said

Average customer rating:

Um...Robert?
The pure funk . . .
Pretty Good
Give it up for Robert Walters

Giving Up the Ghost
Robert Walter's 20th Congress
Manufacturer: Magna Carta
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B0000A5A14
Release Date: 2003-08-19

Tracks:

Glassy-Winged Sharp Shooter
Aquafresh
Convex + Concave
Circle Limit
Bygones Be
Dump Truck
Easy Virtue
Clear All Wires
Bet
Underbrush
Sacred Secret
Giving Up The Ghost

Album Description

On his new record, "Giving Up the Ghost", Robert Walter has added a new talent to his recording lineup. Known for his work with such jazz/soul/funk giants as Mike Clark of Herbie Hancock's Headhunters, legendary James Brown and P-Funk sideman and songwriter, Fred Wesley, and George Porter of the Meters, this time out Walter enlisted another player for his latest album -- the studio. "I collect records. I'm into recordings," says Walter. "From doing home recordings, I started experimenting with different sounds, and I decided I wanted to do something more interesting than just record the band. On this album, I tried using the studio as an instrument. It's involved in the music and an important part of making this record what it is. I move things around, change elements. On some tracks, there's no soloing at all, and all of the solos are downplayed in favor of creating a mood, a sonic texture." Joined by Joe Russo and George Sluppick on drums; Greyboy Allstar Chris Stillwell and Black-Eyed Pea Mike Fratantuno on bass; Will Bernard (of TJ Kirk fame) on guitar; percussionist Chuck Prada, and long-time partner Cochemea Gastelum on alto sax and various woodwinds, Walter explores new territory, incorporating elements of electronic music and dub reggae into his traditional R&B and jazz roots, all powered by the flavor of his vintage Fender Rhodes and Hammond B-3 organ. The result is a new hybrid that's distinctly Robert Walter, which is to say, the sound combines just about every form of music into a driving, syncopated groove that will move fans of jazz, soul, blues, roots rock and, yes, those ever-in-motion jam band dance fanatics.

Customer Reviews:

Um...Robert?.......2005-11-08

I can't possibly hate on Mr. Walter in these musically depraved times, but uh yeah, Giving Up The Ghost kind of sums it up. The Ghost being the funk that Mr. Walter was helping to keep alive. The 'Giving Up' on keeping it real and organic, in favor of bowing to the Yamaha's eletronic sounds and effects.

Robert's beauty is Rhodes, Clavinet, electric paino etc - stretching out in the studio with a wall of keys in front of him, freaking on each one like a mad scientist. Ain't no need for this dude to synthesize.

This album isn't all bad. The grooves are tight and the rhythm usually has bottom. But I'd definitely recommend starting at the 1st 20th Congress Album or his first ever solo record with Gary Bartz.

The pure funk . . ........2005-01-30

. . . one is almost tempted to say the "ur-funk."

What if one could produce the essence of funk? What would it sound like? My own view, arrived at through not a little struggle, is that it would sound exactly like Robert Walter's 20th Congress disc, Giving up the Ghost.

When I say "not a little struggle," I'm confessing a ham-handedness toward this music that borders on incomprehensible. Bottom line: I don't generally like funk. It's not the music I would naturally gravitate toward. More than that: It's music I would normally avoid.

Nevertheless, intrepid sampler of varieties of musical soundscapes that I am, I felt obligated to explore funk. Yes, I'd heard Karl Denson, the Greyboy Allstars, and some others. But I'd never seemed to fully connect. And, truth to tell, I didn't initially with this disc either. I bought it, listened to it, disdained it, set it on the shelf, and only came back to it just recently.

And was blown away by it.

Whereas I just couldn't access its pure funkadelic grooves the first several listens, somehow, serendipitously, I COULD when I came back to it. Maybe I had a few too many. Maybe I'd slipped into some maudlin judgment-suspension mode. (Yes, I'd had a few too many.)

But I really don't think that was it. By some near-miracle of suspended suspicion, I'd achieved proper hermeneutic access: I could listen to this marvelous music without prejudice, without preconditioned bias. And I thereby discovered its magnificence.

Make no mistake. Robert Walter is a man who knows his antecedents: Melvin Sparks, Fred Wesley, and Mike Clark. That he has transmuted their collective influence into something uniquely and brilliantly his own proves his worth as the reigning funkmeister.

Ignore at your peril.

Pretty Good.......2004-04-05

It grows on ya...If you don't like it at first give it a few spins. Real catchy melodies and great solos. Keep on groovin' Robert.

Give it up for Robert Walters.......2003-11-13

While listen to Robert Walter's latest CD, I have to keep checking to make sure it's him. When listen to "Bygones Be", I think I have my Greyboy All-Stars's CD in (it sounds like Karl Denson playing the flute). "Bet" sounds like it should be on a Soulive CD. "Sacred Church" makes me feel like I'm listening to a gospel group. Occasionally, I felt like I was listen to a Todd Rundren album. Still, all the songs are strong and flow well. My favorite is "Aquafresh". The only songs I don't care for are "Convex + Concave" (I know it's a hard song to play because each hand is doing something different, but I just don't like the effects of the keyboard. It sounds kind of creepy-like something Magazine would play-and Robert Walters is much better than David Formula of Magazine) and "Circle Limit"-because of the keyboard sound. Still, Robert jams on the keyboards. I also struggled to try in figure out whether I was listening to a guitar riff or a keyboard riff on "Dump Truck". All and all, I'm in awe of his sound (he's got a great backing band with Cochemea Gaselum and Chris Stillwell). The only keyboard player that blows Robert Walters away is Jools Holland, but he makes the mistake of trying to sing. If you like Robert Walter's, buy this CD-it might be his best.

Average customer rating:

Giving up the Ghost

Manufacturer: Declasse Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD
ASIN: B000EOOZGW

Product Description

Solo acoustic concert recorded September 9, 2001. Songs include: 1. Angelyne 2. The Day I Died 3. Blues For Susan 4. Valley Of The Dolls 5. I Hate You My Friend 6. Ostrich Blues 7. It Ain't So Bad 8. Long Drive Home 9. This Land Is Your Land 10. Where's Bob Dylan When You Need Him? Produced by Chris Johnson.

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Giving up the Ghost
Tim Wray
Manufacturer: Song Haus Music
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Ambient | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

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ASIN: B00000JS12
Release Date: 1999-08-24

Tracks:

Crocadillo
Middle of the Night
Giving Up the Ghost
Breaking Ground
Misha's Song
Sacred Place
Hippy Shack
Tragedy in a Western Town
Wine Like Rain
Circle of Life

Album Description

2002 release that has been featured on shows like Discovery Channel's 'Outward Bound', MTV and several nationally syndicated Ski and Mountain Bike films.

Average customer rating:

Great album...

Giving Up the Ghost
Magee Payne
Manufacturer: Big a Dist.
ProductGroup: Music
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Avant Garde & Free Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music

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ASIN: B0007LLPFG
Release Date: 2005-02-08

Tracks:

Way Away from You
Midnight Ride
Every Sip I Take
Whiskey for Your Friend
Drift Off to Dream
Never Gonna Breathe
Say Hello
Be Your Man
Bottom of the Glass
She (Fyb II)
Return of the Grievous Angel

Customer Reviews:

Great album..........2005-04-21

The songs are great, the sound is great, and they are even better live.

Average customer rating:

Giving Up the Ghost
Black Sky
Manufacturer: Giant Squid
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Release Date: 2002-10-29

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Igloo Magazine's REVIEW

Giving Up the Ghost

Manufacturer: N5md Records/Darla
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

Electronica | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000A2GUQ6
Release Date: 2007-01-01

Album Description

Stephen Hummel's SubtractiveLAD moniker encapsulates the sounds he strived at producing at an early age with roots firmly planted in the jazz-improvisation scene. The relatively recent progress of computer technology, however, has allowed Hummel to design most of his own instruments, creating a sound that is both extremely personal and unique. Giving Up The Ghost (his debut release) is about hope and the ability to keep moving forward. Loss and sadness are balanced with feelings of transcendence and fragility. 5MD. 2005.

Customer Reviews:

Igloo Magazine's REVIEW.......2005-12-03

Review by: Corey H. Maass at [...]
(02.19.05) Fairly simple beats, though well programmed, take a back seat on most of the tracks on SubtractiveLAD's Giving Up the Ghost. That means the part of the music I usually focus on is downplayed. In its place is the largess of layer upon layer of synthesizers - the depth and breadth of warm pads, lightly tapping arpeggios and leads that hit you smack in the face. There's nothing new here, but the parts that we might have heard before equal a whole that stands out on its own.

These synths invoke their own place in time. The track "Remain Removed," especially the second half, reminds me of Leftfield, with the depth that only analog circuitry (or at least emulated) can get. But the approach is more that of downtempo and IDM, with detailed hip-hop type beats and slight polyrhythm. What's worth paying attention to here is how the synth lines weave in and out, and variations on texture and tone never end.

Which naturally leads to an emphasis on melody. Each note wanders, yet fits. The wind chime intro on "Nidus" is a great example. After minutes, it's slowly followed by pads and textures, all of which eventually drops away to a clean beat and a single pad. It feels different, but it's the same place, tonally. The beats build and we are wrapped in more percussion and more synths. And again. And again. And all the while we're holding onto the same notes and all of it contributes to one persistent, shimmering pad in the background. When the wind chimes come back in, it's no surprise and perfectly placed. The song structure is simple - it's the melodies that take us from the beginning of the track to the end.

The best example of SubtractiveLAD's sound on this album, I think, is "Neostasis." Huge rolling tones that sweep around you, obscuring the simplicity of the rhythm. A kick and a snare keep you moving, but the bass, pads and occasional burst of shorter notes are the song. It's currently grey and snowing outside, and I could hardly imagine anything more appropriate. A little melancholy, a little uplifting, the thickness of the track is both a blanket of snow and a warm sweater.

Average customer rating:

Giving Up the Ghost

Manufacturer: Michele Mercure
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000CAG4EE
Release Date: 2004-04-20

Jazz Music:

Jazz Music

Jazz Music