by Emma Bauchner (@EmBauch)
Ohmme’s sophomore album finds the Chicago-based duo further honing their formula. The strong musical chemistry between Sima Cunningham and Macie Stewart is at the heart of the band’s sound, manifesting in tight vocal harmonies and imaginative guitar work. Fantasize Your Ghost is essentially an album of rock songs, but Cunningham and Stewart push the boundaries of what that means, often finding ways to seamlessly lapse into more experimental territory. Cunningham and Stewart, who have been making music together since 2014, have roots all over the Chicago scene, having worked with everyone from Jeff Tweedy to Chance the Rapper to Tomeka Reid. This diverse array of musical experiences and influences is present in their music, but makes for a surprisingly cohesive sound. Their combination of catchy pop hooks, guitar shredding, and improvisational instincts feels both compellingly familiar and wholly original.
The songs on Fantasize Your Ghost are often built on simple, ostinato-like riffs, on top of which Cunningham and Stewart layer interwoven vocals, percussion, and unique guitar stylings to create something greater than the sum of its parts. Lead single “3 2 4 3” is an excellent example, opening with an echoing bass harmonic before breaking into a krautrock-like guitar and drum pulse with subtly uneven four-bar phrases—the last bar’s missing beat goes by almost unnoticed. “Looked in the mirror the other day / Caught my reflection / My mouth had moved a different way / The muscles were straining,” they sing in unison. Ohmme’s lyrics have a cryptic, abstract quality despite often being quite literal; the chorus of “3 2 4 3” consists of just one line: “Different today, but I’m the same”. As the song unfolds, Cunningham and Stewart add in more harmonies and instrumental flourishes, and at the song’s climax use multi-tracked vocals to unleash a wall of vocal harmony. They make use of a colorful assortment of sounds, yet never stray too far from the grounding that the ever-present riff provides.
“3 2 4 3” is one of many highlights. Trance-like opener “Flood Your Gut” finds its groove in the layering of two distinctive guitar lines. Cunningham and Stewart, who have evidently been singing together for quite some time, use their expertly-blended vocal harmonies to add to the track’s hazy ambience. In the chorus however, they break that atmosphere, punctuating their heavily syncopated words with quickly moving guitar and bass lines. The sharp contrast between verse and chorus injects the song with an intriguing sense of unrest. “Ghost,” from which the album derives its title, has an art-punk vibe with a dance-ready bassline. “I’m sick of looking at the stupid look on your face,” they state plainly in the chorus, crystallizing the song’s playful energy with an outrageous guitar solo. “The Limit” is an unconventional pop song where Cunningham and Stewart’s kinetic vocal harmonies take center stage. The interplay between their voices makes the song feel deceptively melodic, when in fact the meandering melodies of its verses are quite unusual.
The sounds on Fantasize Your Ghost range from quiet introspection to sing-song melodies to noisy cacophony, yet feel remarkably even throughout. Cunningham and Stewart have a powerful artistic bond, which is as apparent in their well-executed blending of ideas as it is in their perfectly-entwined vocal harmonies. Albums like Fantasize Your Ghost prove that there’s still plenty of thoughtful originality in the realm of indie rock.