space ghost: back from reality
Francisco Espregueira
For us Space Ghost’s music, has always offered a way to step outside the everyday chaos. The Oakland-based producer returns with a record that touches us deep. Titled perfectly as Back From Reality, the project is his first solo LP since Private Paradise (Pacific Rhythm, 2022). The album is inspired in the world of late-’90s and early-2000s video games like Spyro, Crash Bandicoot and Ape Escape, with their menu screens, virtual landscapes. Written over five years, the album grew from Space Ghost’s routine of finishing his day job and returning home to make music, turning that time into a space of his own. Released on his own Peace World Records, the feeling of the whole project logs us off again.
The eleven tracks blend ambient, downtempo and deep house rhythms. Cuts like “System Reset” an “VGM” imagine alternative PS2 startup an stage selection screens. Elsewhere, “Sugar Cube” and the title track drift through the kind of empty, late-night spaces that inspired the record’s cover, photographed by Space Ghost around Oakland’s port. There’s a personal side to this nostalgia, too. The producer has described driving around the city after work to test his new tracks, listening for whether their emotional pull survives outside the studio. Across Back From Reality, the connection between tracks create a quiet space for listeners to get lost. Amid global worries, the album offers a needed pause to simply breathe. We’ll keep stepping back with this one for years to come. Available on vinyl, yes, yes.
“One of my favorite things to do after writing songs, is to drive around Oakland listening to them. It’s almost like the final test for the songs, to see if their emotion holds up.”