Jeremy Koren, AKA Melbourne hip hop experimentalist Grey Ghost, talks us through his debut EP.

“The Grey Ghost debut EP is my first offering of what I’m calling Post-Rap,” says Koren. “Hip hop begun around the same time as the post-punk movement; rap parties would be double-billed with new wave nights. I picture Grace Jones and Andy Warhol rubbing shoulders with Run-D.M.C. and the Beastie Boys.”

That post-punk movement, as chronicled by British music critic Simon Reynolds in his book Rip It Up and Start Again, was an attempt to build on punk rock’s sense of revolutionary possibility rather than being limited by its role as the voice of the streets. Like punk, rap has often been a vehicle for angry youth to get things off their chest – and a vital one, full of the energy that comes from being young and disenfranchised – but it’s also able to be more than that, to combine unusual instrumentation with wilfully strange subject matter.

“That’s what I set out to capture and take further on this EP,” says Koren. “Clangy guitars, colourful synths, driving bass, upbeat live drums and otherworldly lyrics.”

Under the name Jeremedy, Koren was previously a member of The Melodics, beatsmiths who combined electro-rock with hip hop on a string of EPs as well as an album called 4D. As Grey Ghost, he’s continued both that gleeful genre-mashing and working with some of the same skilled folk in the studio.

“I worked with some incredibly talented and diverse people on this EP,” he says, “it was produced by Matik and Jan Skubiszewski, engineered by Forrester Savell, mixed by Scott Horscroft and finished off by Don Bartley.”

Koren has kindly broken down the five songs on his EP for us, providing a guide to the new world he’s opening up track by track.

“Unf**k Me” – A love song full of urgency with a backdrop of punk and dance. 

“Black Ghost Gold Chain” – A clangy post-punk tune full of crazy raps and geezer chants. 

“The Machine” – More of a synth-based song about the rise of technology. 

“Space Ambassador” – A rockier tune about a real job description at NASA; someone is hired to be the ambassador for Earth if we happen to find alien life form – true story.

“Alchemy” – A downbeat breakup song full of personal lyrics and evocative synths and guitars. 

There you have it. Five unusual songs from one unusual rapper. As for the overall theme that unites it, here’s Koren’s last word on that: “The EP deals with the concepts of searching, re-building and love… but it’s all told from on top of a soap box in the middle of a Blade Runner cityscape.”