Song of the Day (The Chain): Rufige Kru – Ghosts Of My Life

Day 19. From the early ’80’s Art Pop of Japan’s Ghosts to the early ’90’s darkside Jungle of Rufige Kru (an early alias of legendary Jungle/D&B producer/personality Goldie) & Ghosts Of My Life. The link, obviously, is that the Rufige Kru track samples (heavily) the Japan track.

I’m loving how this “theme” for Song of the Day is taking me in all sorts of unexpected, & welcome, directions. it’s incredible to think that we started with Sonic Youth & we’ve arrived at darkside Jungle.

Obviously, there’s no lyrics to speak of in Ghosts Of My Life, so this section is looking a little bare. As a placeholder, where lyrics would be, here’s a paragraph of Mark Fisher taking about how he feels about this tune, from the book which is named after it.

I bought any Rufige Kru record that I came upon, but ‘Ghosts Of My Life’ brought a special tingle of intrigue because of its title, with its suggestion of Japan’s 1981 art pop masterpiece, ‘Ghosts’. When I played the ‘Ghosts Of My Life’ 12″, I quickly realised with a shiver of exhilaration that the pitched down voice repeating the title phrase did indeed belong to Japan’s David Sylvian. But this wasn’t the only trace of ‘Ghosts’. After some atonal washes and twitchy breakbeats, the track lurched to a sudden halt, and – in a moment that still takes my breath away when I listen to it now – a brief snatch of the spidery, abstract electronics instantly recognizable from the Japan record leapt into the chasm, before being immediately consumed by viscous bass ooze and the synthetic screeches that were the sonic signatures of darkside Jungle.

Mark Fisher, Ghosts Of My Life: Writings On Depression, Hauntology And Lost Futures

Keep up to date with the Song of the Day (The Chain) Spotify playlist.