Courtship Ritual – not of the frisky variety

An unsettling sense of foreboding runs throughout “Wild Like Us,” the A-side single from Brooklyn’s Courtship Ritual, who recently played their label GODMODE’s show at the Northside Fest. Evoking the spirit of 90’s era 4AD artists like His Name Is Alive and their disquieting “Can’t Go Wrong Without You,” ominous overtones emerge from within the spaces surrounding the song’s sparse arrangement. B-side “Biesenbach on the Beach (Klaus)” maintains a similar level of spaciousness, driven along a singular bassline and minimal slap percussion as vocals repeat the lines “grey fox grey – beach day.” Recorded by Colin Alexander and mastered by Joe Lambert, the tracks are available digitally worldwide and as a limited edition cassette on the GODMODE imprint. Dave Cromwell