Modern Noir Cloaked in a Blanket of Neon Twilight by Beyond the Ghost

“In the neon-lit streets of 1950s Las Vegas, a grizzled detective toils on what he knows to be his final case: the brutal murder of a Marilyn-lookalike singer, found strangled and stabbed in her dressing room…” thus the album, Neon Twilight is offered to us, the newest installment from talented concept designer Beyond the Ghost. “Concept Designer” seems a weak term to utilize, however, it is used in this manner as a means to try and describe the overall talents of composer Pierre Laplace. Beyond the Ghost’s discography with Cryo Chamber is one of constant reinvention and exploration, convergences upon differing paths, ranging the thematic styles of steampunk, futuristic post-apocalypse, near-future dystopias, and even modern noir - the latter of which is the subject of the newest album, Neon Twilight. Harnessing moods and an aesthetic palate taken from film noir and gritty murder mysteries, Neon Twilight is the tale of one man’s obsession with a brutal murder of a young woman, and the inexorable madness that begins to consume him.

As the album begins, and you inspect the artwork of the album, your mind is propelled into a dreary world of low-hanging clouds, almost perpetual night, and the horizon of neon lights on the Strip of Las Vegas. A cheap incandescent light bulb casts a sickly, jaundiced blanket of illumination upon the table below, with the slumped figure of a tired, middle aged man inspecting the crime scene photos of a grizzly murder; nursing a bottle of whiskey in his left hand, and a forgotten cigarette ashing to a gnarled finger in the full ashtray a few inches away. This is the ambient soundtrack of mood and grit; of dingy back alleys and seedy strip clubs, where our protagonist haunts the shadows, looking for any clue to solve the murder of the young woman. The vague narrative, along with mentions of descents into madness give this album a horror feel, or at least “horror adjacent”, much like the works of certain film directors such as David Fincher and David Lynch. 

Musically, this is a relaxed, neo-jazz ambient excursion into atmospheric palates - never once does this album try to take center stage in the mind of the listener, but rather, it is meant to be played in the periphery of the imagination, allowing the mind to wander to the neon-ridden gloom of this darkly-envisioned Las Vegas. Subtle pads wash with touches of saxophone and finespun cues of electronica, each song perfectly blending with the next to give the music a cohesion that lasts for the entire musical journey. 

Neon Twilight is a true testament to the talents of Beyond the Ghost, and will definitely entertain fans of noir, and also fellow Cryo Chamber artists such as Dead Melodies and God Body Disconnect. You can purchase Neon Twilight in CD Digipak and digital formats on the Cryo Chamber Bandcamp page.