Blue Öyster Cult's new album is an AI-assisted collection of songs recorded decades ago

By Fraser Lewry
( Classic Rock )
published

BÖC launch video for So Supernatural and detail Ghost Stories album, which includes covers of songs by MC5, The Doors and The Animals

Eric Bloom and Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser
Blue Öyster Cult's Eric Bloom and Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser (Image credit: Sandra Roeser)

The legendary Blue Öyster Cult have announced details of their 15th album. Ghost Stories, the follow-up to 2020's The Symbol Remains, will be released by Frontiers on April 15, and is a collection of songs plundered from the band's archive then demixed and remixed using artificial intelligence. 

The songs on Ghost Stories were originally recorded between 1978 and 1983 – with the exception of If I Fell, which was taped in April 2016 – and includes a number of originals alongside the covers of The MC5's classic Kick Out The Jams, The Doors' Roadhouse Blues and We Gotta Get out of This Place by The Animals. 

The archive material was originally recorded on analogue tape by longtime band engineer George Geranios, who sent the tapes to BÖC's Richie Castellano and producer Steve Schenck. The pair then weaved their studio magic, transferring the audio to digital and preparing the tracks for release.

"Once we made the decision on what we were going to use, we used AI demixing software to separate the elements from the original tapes," says Castellano, in a video accompanying news of the album's release. "It gave us something to mix with, but that process – even though it's getting better – it's not perfect." 

"If you're Peter Jackson it's perfect," adds Schenk. "I'm sure many of you have heard of MAL [machine audio learning], which is the Peter Jackson software that The Beatles used to demix their stuff. Well, we had to use the dime store version."

The album was completed in the studio with new parts recorded by Castellano and original BÖC members Eric Bloom and Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser, while Albert Bouchard and Rick Downey appear on drums. Additional overdubs come courtesy of Joe Bouchard. 

Blue Öyster Cult have also released a video for the first single from the album, So Supernatural.

Blue Öyster Cult: Ghost Stories tracklist

  1. Late Night Street Fight
  2. Cherry
  3. So Supernatural
  4. We Gotta Get Out Of This Place
  5. Soul Jive
  6. Gun
  7. Shot In The Dark
  8. The Only Thing
  9. Kick Out The Jams
  10. Money Machine
  11. Don't Come Running
  12. If I Fell
  13. Roadhouse Blues (Japan-only bonus track)

Blue Oyster Cult - Ghost Stories cover art

(Image credit: Frontiers)
Fraser Lewry
Fraser Lewry

Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 38 years in music industry, online for 25. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.