The Black Ghosts’ debut EP, Any Way You Choose to Give It, is music for the pulse. A little funky like Gnarls Barkley at times, a bit dark and gritty at others, the London duo’s music goes down smooth like good coffee and with a bite like cheap whiskey. They’ve been aptly described by OhhCrapp.net as “malicious yet upbeat.”

Project-mates Simon Lord of The Wiseguys and Theo Keating of Simian embrace the digital age with joy-they even met via cyberspace. They started “Exchanging and making music immediately, we didn’t actually meet ‘in person’ until half the album was written,” says Simon.

The opener, “Any Way You Choose To Give It” is dirty electro-pop with one of the most infectious synth-bass lines I’ve heard all year, but the track as a whole feels like it could’ve been put together entirely with a Mac notebook and a microphone. Still, the song has texture uncommon to electro music, and a groove that would make it at home in any club. Simon Lord’s vocals are desperately delivered in a rapid-fire style that had my ears racing to keep up.

“I Want Nothing” feels like The Black Ghosts would like to be the first stadium-electro band, with its reverb-laced vocals and dark synth line. The first line is a bit unsettling: “I want nothing / but the love / of the next stranger / who walks through that door.” Though the song is well structured musically and the samples are great, but the repeated lyric “I want nothing!” gets a bit annoying.

“Full Moon” almost feels like America for the post-modern age, with its acoustic guitar loop, its vast soundscapes evoking imagery of deserts and highways, then switching to some mini-symphony action two-and-a half minutes in. The EP’s final track, “Something New” commits all the sins of the previous songs and then screws up again in using a slowed down version of the title track’s bass-line. On such a short EP it’s a wonder how this song made the cut, except as an obvious radio-single. Almost as if in an effort to throw in some originality the song has an orchestral rise near the end of the track but it just comes off as awkward.

Four song EPs are nearly always a hit-and-miss affair as bands typically have a harder time establishing a sure direction with their sound, but this one has more hits than misses. The band clearly has a strong sense for catchy, ear-turning hooks. Perhaps with the maturity of another recording session or two under their belt this duo will find themselves consistently putting out sounds with a little more variation and originality. Fans of The Gorillaz and Gnarls Barkley should be on the look out for this duo in the future.

Check out The Black Ghosts on myspace: www.myspace.com/blackghosts