Hi, everyone. Greenthony Teamtano here, the Internet's busiest music nerd. It's time for a review of this new By Storm album, My Ghosts Go Ghost.

Here we have what is technically the debut album of music duo By Storm, who consists of rapper-songwriter RiTchie and producer Parker Corey. And in what feels like a lifetime ago, the two were once a part of a trio that originated out of Phoenix, Arizona: Injury Reserve, an independent hip hop act who stayed pretty much underground for their 10-year run, but not for a lack of trying.

At the time when they were still active, I think the three of them had just this incredible potential to blow up, but it didn't exactly happen, at least not in the way the trio may have been originally planning. But still, going back to some of the group's musical highlights now, songs like "Three Man Weave", "Oh Shit!!!", "Jailbreak the Tesla", these are legitimate underappreciated hits.

But even as the group continued to grind, receiving way less notoriety than I think they should have gotten, I continued to hope that the recognition they so obviously deserved would come soon. But then the pandemic era that changed all of our lives arrived, which also marked a tragic loss for Injury Reserve, the passing of founding member Stepa J. Groggs. But the group somehow turned this devastating change into a masterpiece swan song album with the release of By the Time I Get to Phoenix, a record that not only some incredible posthumous verses from Groggs, but is also so wildly creative and mind-bending that it redefines the boundaries of hip hop itself. The record ended up taking much of Internet music nerddom by storm that year – see what I did there?

And then Parker and RiTchie ended up calling it quits on Injury Reserve, leading to this transitional period where they formally reassembled as a duo, By Storm. RiTchie also dropped a solo record. And through By Storm, we also saw a handful of just head scratcher singles, all of which to some degree were like tough sells as a first introduction to this new era. They were not commercial hits, that's for sure.

And in some ways, were far stranger than even some of the most experimental moments on By the Time I Get to Phoenix, like the song "Zig Zag", for example, which is just this tangled web of chopped-up guitar phrases, dour chords, meditative mantras coming from RiTchie rapping, psychedelic delays, and also some rhythmic sequences that sound like an MPC falling down a flight of stairs. The whole thing culminates into a rap spirit journey of sorts. And again, while all of the teasers to this record had their respective strangely beautiful moments, they were also hard to make heads or tails of merely on their own.

But on this now complete album that, too, contains "Zig Zag", as well as cuts like "And I Dance" and "Double Trio 2", all these songs come together into a tracklist that is immensely powerful. It's a statement that, while not an Injury Reserve album, does feel like a continuation of the pioneering sounds and ideas on their last record. I mean, I feel like the duo almost promised us that, naming the final track of that album "Bye Storm".

And Parker and RiTchie make it no secret just how intensely emotional the process of fulfilling that promise is. Because I have to imagine at this point, even with a few years under their belts, to reform and rethink in a new direction, these guys on some level still have to be in a weird place and picking up the pieces of Injury Reserve to some degree in order to build something new. They're having to do that simultaneously as they are shifting into different parts of their lives, respectively, growing into themselves more as individuals, and again, figuring out what it means to explore music through this new creative dynamic as a duo with the loss of their greatest collaborator, haunting them.

All of this is clearly what is driving RiTchie's lyrics on this record, too. But I think this also explains why so many of the instrumentals here feel deconstructed in a way. But that lack of directness doesn't mean a lack of direction, because at the end of the day, I think it actually intensifies a lot of the emotions the duo are trying to get across here. Case in point, the opening track, which explores anxieties around the way parenthood can change a relationship, because now, after having a child, you're having to share your partner effectively. RiTchie drops a lot of bars, anticipating maybe the negative ways in which that can impact things, fearing that he will instantly miss the way things used to be. Again, somehow the scattered layers of guitar chunks and autotuned vocal leads, rap/sung bars, as well as eerie muted background vocals, it all speaks to that feeling better than I think something more spelled out could.

Following this, we have "Dead Weight", which is similarly fragmented with the various relationships between each sound in the mix. But it all rises up and reaches this intense, noisy peak that feels like either an anxiety attack or just being unable to get your brain to stop overthinking. It's just so strange to hear this strain of abstract hip hop set to these persistent, shimmering guitar arpeggios and what sounds like these blown out math rock guitar fills, like something off a Hella record or whatever.

But then with "Grapefruit", we get what is really for me, a favorite. It's funny. I feel like it's a song on paper I shouldn't really get that much out of with its repetitive progressions, its really persistent, gentle kick drums, the numerous calls of "Grapefruit!" But the end result of all of these ideas here is genuinely mesmerizing, especially with these woozy waves of harps and keys coming in again and again. Meanwhile, RiTchie delivers the first real straightforward rap verse on the entire record. It feels like he's throwing it back to the youthful, charismatic bars that he used to write on records like Live from the Dentist Office. But then that is contrasted greatly with his flow and delivery on the second verse, where he sounds like he's really suffering, feeling quite tortured, almost like trying to bargain his way out of his pain, out of his anguish, and progressively feels like he's losing himself to this sadness.

The surreal grapefruit imagery throughout the track actually does say a lot about his creative process, likening the inside of the grapefruit to the inside of his own physical being in terms of its makeup, its color. I imagine on some level, likening this to the process of tearing yourself open creatively or spilling your guts, spilling your emotions out.

Following this, "In My Town" is another incredible highlight for me with a super collagey instrumental that stylistically is difficult to place. In one breath, it feels like I'm listening to some futuristic cloud rap, but then there's also something about the assembly of all these sounds that feels akin to a track off of a Oneohtrix Point Never album with its disembodied vocals, angular tones, and odd loops and repetition sections.

Then RiTchie, again, is just rapping with his heart on his sleeve, giving us what feels like this very intense either flashback or low point, stressing through the motions of making ends meet as an underground performer, moving from place to place, thinking of envelopes of cash audiences. It's real vivid in the way he relives all of it lyrically without having to explain every single detail, or go over exactly why he's recalling it. But then it's Parker who really steals the show and takes the instrumental in the second half off into this transformative odyssey of beats and murky sample layers. It moves with just pure weightlessness. To me, sonically is like the reason words such as "transcendental" exist.

The track "Zig Zag", I want to touch down on again for its lyrical themes, as it is a pretty important centerpiece for the album, as the entire track seems like this ode to these times in life where RiTchie may have spent his energy dodging obstacles, avoiding dangers, difficulties, stressors. The track, in its own way, acknowledges the futility of that and the regrets that may come with running away from your problems and challenges.

Then the second half of the record contains some surprises and familiar moments. We have, interestingly enough, a billy woods feature on the song "Best Interest". A track that I have mild feelings on, honestly, due mostly to RiTchie's very understated delivery on this track, which succumbs to this very droney, saturated instrumental, just packed with all of these wheezing strings. And while noise and cacophony is definitely a defining factor of some of this album's best moments, unfortunately, RiTchie's performance here doesn't really break through it.

Then after this, we have this second iteration of "Double Trio", which was a teaser. Coming back to it, honestly, within the track list here of this album, it's a mind-blowing cut. I can only describe this track as just avant-garde jazz rap with dueling sax layers that's just awe-inspiring from start to finish.

Then the song "And I Dance" sees By Storm just grooving into oblivion with this increasingly abrasive noise wall of instrumentation that gets more and more fuzzy and saturated as the song reaches its finish. Meanwhile, what's bringing us there are these very textured drum loops, some synth layers, and autocroon vocals. It feels like a super experimental Ye cut. In a sense, this track feels like something lifted straight out of the 808s era, but somehow just way more left field.

Then we have the closer, which is effectively the title track of this LP, which ties up the major themes of the album perfectly, even if it is a relatively low-key finish for a super emotionally intense album. The track is packed with these grandiose drumless guitar and piano loops, and many of RiTchie's lyrics address these feelings of being haunted by your past and trauma and wanting to move on. There's even a standout bar here about dodging shadows and trying to cast his own.

But then as we hit these ending refrains that close the track out, I get the sense that RiTchie is trying to say that these lingering feelings and memories also make him who he is, and he accepts them and begs them not to leave, which I think is a pretty wonderful way for an album that, again, is so much about being haunted by your past to finish off because you're reckoning with these feelings instead of running away from them. Again, wonderful sentiment and incredible, just very incomparable production that is so ahead of the curve, so forward-thinking, so beautiful, textured, and moving in its best moments, of which there are many across the album.

Again, I love how much this record gets across musically and thematically without having to be too obvious about any of it. Those and many more reasons are pretty much why I'm feeling about a decent to a strong 9 on this record.

Anthony Fantano. By Storm. Forever.