Ghostly International is an independent label founded in 1999 by Sam Valenti IV, a DJ who grew up in the suburbs of Detroit and was fascinated with the sounds of the city's underground. His right hand man is Matthew Dear, who has released almost all of his work on Ghostly and its sub-label, Spectral Sound. The latter was founded by them both in 2000, as the former was focussing more and more on pop and experimental music. With Spectral, they wanted to keep their techno essence alive, releasing work by Dear and his alter ego Audion, alongside artists like James T. Cotton, Hieroglyphic Being and Osborne. Both Ghostly and Spectral have always been broadminded, releasing different forms of underground dance music, like acid or dub.

Both labels are now key players on the underground dance music scene in the USA, thanks to key releases like the Italo disco compilation “Tangent 2002: Disco Nouveau” (featuring tracks by Legowelt, Solvent, Daniel Wang, I-F, DMX Krew and Lowfish), the albums by Matthew Dear, the Audion singles and the compilations “Idol Tryouts” - which offer a panoramic view on the label's roster and catalogue.

Selected discography

V/A: “Tangent 2002: Disco Nouveau” (2002)

Solvent: “Apples And Synthesizers” (2004)

Kill Memory Crash: “American Automatic” (2005)

Matthew Dear: “Asa Breed” (2007)

School Of Seven Bells: “Alpinism” (2008)

Tycho: “Dive” (2011)

Com Truise: “Galactic Melt” (2011)

Roster

Aeroc

Com Truise

Dabrye

Gold Panda

HTRK

Jacaszek

James T. Cotton

Lusine

Matthew Dear

Mux Mool

Phantogram

School Of Seven Bells

Solvent

Tadd Mullinix

Tycho