With the ongoing challenge of testing the waters outside my musical comfort zone, and after missing The Black Ghosts at the Future Music Festival, I decided to discover why the band were on the lineup for that oh-so-popular festival this year, and why they deserve the popularity that they have attracted.

Very quickly it occurred to me though why it wasn’t hard to see why. The Black Ghosts: Mixtape combines some of their own material like Some Way Through This, Face and Anyway You Chose To Give It with other more familiar artists that slide away from typical standard offerings and delve more into the realms of electronica, techno, electro, minimal and indie music. Track selection is quite varied indeed.

Tracks like the soft electro touch of FIL OK – Wink Wink (Touché Mix) were first to impress me, along with twisted tracks such as Alter Ego Fuckingham Palace. For more great mainstream tracks with a difference, The Black Ghost’s own mix of Gossip – Listen Up and Armand Van Helden Je T’aime (Switch Mix) had me back on familiar surroundings and shifted me back towards my general comfort zone. Also worth a mention though, the cruise control inflicted, free flowing track of The Black Ghosts’ Something New, which also did its best to capture my aural senses and let my mind drift off into deep thought.

But it’s the masterpieces of diversity that really display the overall picture of this album, from the tech infused Fake Blood Mars to the electro infused Bonde Do Role Marina Gasoline (Fake Blood mix). Or even Lord Skywave Something, with again a very delectable electro twist. Also not forgetting to mention The Whip Muzzle #1, another classic indie/electro styled track which also delivered a full onslaught of charismatic bass lines and rhythm filled vocals. The album then concludes with two varied mixes of The Black Ghosts’ Anyway You Chose To Give It with personal preference going to the former of the two (the extended mix).

Sometimes jazzy, sometimes very edgy, sometimes very meaningful in many, many ways. Mixtape is an album that denies all the rules and opens up a world of amazing diversity which offers something for all lovers of electronic dance music.