Belbury Poly - The Belbury Tales Review

Arriving in this morning's post was a much anticipated treat - Belbury Poly's Belbury Tales. A new Belbury Poly album is always a cause for celebration, and this may well be Reverend Jim's best work yet.
Julian House's evocative cover artwork promises much, and is truly something to savor, as are it's delectable contents.
For those unfamiliar with Belbury Poly, think warm analogue electronica, equal parts Boards of Canada and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
This sees the first instance of Belbury Poly bringing in outside musicians to augment his sound, Jim Musgrave and Christopher Budd fitting in seamlessly on drums, guitars and bass.
To say that the Belbury Tales is delightful ( which it undoubtedly is ), would be doing it a disservice as it operates successfully on more levels than this would suggest.
Take Cantalus as a case in point,an irrepressibly chirpy analogue theme with pitter-patter, brushed drumwork and electric spy guitar that unexpectedly and seamlessly drops in a spooky men's chorus making melodic Scooby Doo ghost noises every now and then. The effect is something akin to catching the janitor in the midst of some diabolical ritual in the broom cupboard of your local toystore.
Green Grass Grows appears to be an affectionate Broadcast homage, with an uncredited female vocalist channeling the adventurous spirit of the much missed Trish Keenan, despite not really sounding like her.
The Geography is full of aching melancholy and sounds like the most ancient thing in the world - definitely the most successful marriage of Hauntology and English Folk that I've heard so far.
Things get a little beatier towards the middle of the album, with A Pilgrim's Path sounding like another classic lost seventies TV theme, Now Then coasting along on squelchy radiophonic keyboards and Chapel Perilous making the best use of live drums on the album, with some tricky backwards guitars and an ever-present wall of shimmering synths.
My Hands sounds like a collaboration between Moon Wiring Club and John Barry, while Goat Foot is much more playful, with an almost Eastern melody played on what I can only imagine is a zither. Brilliant.
Unforgotten Town starts out as moody and mysterious as it's title suggests before introducing a stately synthesized harpsichord theme, underpinned by what sounds like a steady casiotone pulse.
Jim Jupp is unquestionably a singular talent - could I have heard my favorite album of the year already? I'm looking forward to hearing anything which can best this.

THE SEASONS - Drama Workshop. Radiophonic Music and Poetry By David Cain and Ronald Duncan

The ever reliable Trunk Records have another winner coming out for us on March 13th.

The much admired and highly sought after Seasons LP by David Cain and Ronald Duncan has developed a reputation as a major influence on the Hauntology scene and will finally be getting it's first official CD release.

Jonny Trunk says : "This album is a “cult” classic in many ways. Always a little devil to find, I first posted it up on the Recommendations pages in 2003. This was one of three copies I’d found with Martin Green at a Tonbridge Wells record fayre in the late 1990s. Several people in my small circle of peculiar musical chums also came across it, and by the mid naughties it was coming across as a major influence on retro futurism and the new fangled scene they named hauntology. This comes as no surprise as the album has several layers and levels to it; it is weird, spooky. unsettling, very British, has an unusual whiff of childhood to some, it comes scattered with pregnant language and is full of unexpected metaphors, pagan oddness, folk cadences and insane noises. Does it get any better? Considering this was an LP made for children’s education and improvised dance, I think not."


YOU CAN PRE-ORDER IT HERE ON CD

Moon Wiring Club - Spare Tabby At The Wedding - Obscure Classics ( Review )

Great Albums You May Have Missed ( One That I Had )


Moon Wiring Club - Spare Tabby at the Wedding ( 2010 )

Eagle eyed readers will notice that I've been on a bit of a Hauntology binge lately.  After sampling the delights of the Advisory Circle and Belbury Poly, it seemed that Moon Wiring Club was my next logical step.
I have it on good authority that the best place to start with them is a toss up between their fourth album Spare Tabby at the Wedding and their debut An Audience of Art Deco Eyes. If that's the case I'm going to be needing to find a copy of Art Deco Eyes very soon.
Moon Wiring Club's Ian Hodgson has a fairly unique approach to making his music. Entirely sample based, it's all patched together on an old Playstation 2 with a used copy of MTV Music Generator 2 from 2001. The results sound like they come from 1974 and 2030 simultaneously.
The oddness continues. Hodgson hit upon the fascinating idea that when you're looking forward to a new album from a beloved artist, you develop a dream idea of what the album's going to sound like, which is then immediately forgotten when you hear the real thing. Rather than leaving us with a sense of loss that we didn't even realize we had, he's provided us with two versions of the album. The CD and download version as the official release, and the vinyl version as a completely different dream version.
He's also spent a ridiculous amount of time creating an elaborate fictional village, Clinkskell, for his characters, whether they be sinister or sweet, to inhabit. Visit Blank Workshop with a mug of cocoa and a few hours to spare to check it out. It'd do Brian Clemens proud.
What's the music like you ask?  Where the Advisory Circle and Belbury Poly eased me into the genre with a more whimsical, pastoral take on electronica, the Moon Wiring Club are a decidedly beatier prospect.  Indeed there are tracks here that I can imagine being played in a club without the DJ getting the flaming torch and pitchfork treatment. Assuming you live somewhere where clubgoers still take these implements with them on a night out.
Its all very politely English, despite the percussion often verging on raw hip hop. Imagine what DJ Shadow's Entroducing would have sounded like if he'd been born in Hull and spent his youth watching the Tomorrow People and Children of the Stones instead of scouring thrift stores for David Axelrod records. If that mental image helps you, you're on the same wavelength as me ( be worried ) and should enjoy this album immensely, as I did.
Layers of vocal samples lifted from obscure seventies TV shows add color and texture, while the music alternates between waves of burbling radiophonics, fizzy analogue synth pop and the sort of aural fever dreams usually reserved for the stoic hero of Hodgson's beloved TV shows when they've finally worked out what's really happening in the village.
Riveting stuff for those of a particular bent.


BUY IT ON CD HERE

The Twisted Nerve Mix

Cottage of Electric Hell's excellent Children of the Drones compilation has inspired me to attempt to put together a similar compilation of my own.

Where his is expertly mixed into one seamless whole, mine is a simple compilation with no effort to blend the tracks together. I've attempted to sequence it as logically as the sometimes illogical track selection will allow. Hopefully it all fits together OK and you'll find something of interest. This is a much more niche compilation than I've put together before, so I'm not expecting a massive amount of downloads, but hopefully there are a few adventurous listeners out there that'll get a kick out of this.

 It should be noted that the tracks contained herein are intended to invoke the glory of the featured artists, and not to provoke the wrath of the copyright gods. However, should any copyright holders object to their material being on this non profit mix, they need only contact me and I'll gladly remove it.

                                                    DOWNLOAD IT HERE 

Cottage of Electric Hell's Children of the Drones

I'd like to draw your attention to an excellent compilation put together by Cottage of Electric Hell
( visit their excellent blog here ). Blog coven leader Fearlono writes in a very entertaining manner and has impeccable taste.


Children of the Drones is a very well mixed selection of various bits and pieces of hauntology, folk, seventies TV and movie themes, with the odd ( very odd ) public service announcement thrown in for good measure. Donald Pleasence's efforts to keep children away from water are a particular highlight.



Seamlessly mixed, it's a total joy from beginning to end.

In Fearlono's words : ' Here's a compilation I made about three years ago. It consists of spooky, warped & wigged-out music; and is heavily treated with samples from freaky kids TV shows and off-kilter movies. Took me ages to make it, and a lot of weed. '

Download it here.

There are lots of other great mixes and custom soundtracks available at the site too so make sure you visit. Some links were hosted on megaupload, but hopefully they'll be re:upped soon. The more of us that ask for them the more likely we are to see them perhaps.  The Horror of Abbot's Grange sounds particularly interesting...

Jon Brooks - Music For Thomas Carnacki

Jon Brooks  is a busy man.

Apart from his excellent output as the Advisory Circle he also has a few even more esoteric releases available through bandcamp under his own name, and runs an excellent blog : cafekaput.blogspot.com

My favorite of his Jon Brooks material is Music For Thomas Carnacki,  written as a companion to William Hope Hodgson's Carnacki The Ghost Finder stories. Creepy evocative stuff.

You can ( and should ) listen to or buy Music For Thomas Carnacki below :

Bill Ryder-Jones Remixed By Belbury Poly - Listen or Buy Here

Ex Coral guitarist Bill Ryder-Jones album If is one of the most interesting releases of the last six months, and it gets even better with these three excellent remixes.

Hauntological wonders Belbury Poly ( pictured ), The Moon Wiring Club and Leyland Kirby are responsible for remixing these three tracks and do a fantastic job of accentuating the lovely melancholy of the original tracks.

Stream or buy them here:


The world will be a better place for you if you buy the original album on CD here too :

Pram - The Owl Service - Have You Heard This?

Essential back catalogue tracks you have to hear - posted weekly.


Pagan trip hop with free jazz influences? That's what you get with this week's Have you heard this?- a fantastically spooky piece from English weirdo's Pram. 
The moody video suits it perfectly.
From their excellent album The Museum Of Imaginary Animals.




Tune in same time next week.

The Advisory Circle - As The Crow Flies - Obscure Classics ( Review )

Great Albums You May Have Missed


The Advisory Circle - As The Crow Flies ( 2011 )

Jon Brook's Advisory Circle are at the forefront of the Hauntology movement.
Hauntology is as much an aesthetic as it is a musical movement, so it's not the easiest to define. The best definition I've come across is that it's the present being haunted by the sounds of the past. Boards of Canada's Geogaddi album is often cited as the first Hauntological record, but it's the U.K's Ghost Box label that are leading the way now, and this is their highest profile release so far.
The Advisory Circle approach Hauntology via the sort of synth based music that you hear on seventies public information films and English T.V shows of a similar timeframe. For those that find that prospect intimidating ( or tedious ), there's also a touch of Italian proggies Goblin, and side two of David Bowie's Low to hopefully make things a little more palatable.
True this is nostalgia, but it's a forward thinking nostalgia - our musical present as the electronic mavericks of yesteryear imagined it would be. And if films like 2001 have taught us anything, it's that the future never ends up quite as we expect.
Keeping with the very English approach As The Crow Flies is based on seasonal change, and Brook's takes the opportunity to bring in some more pastoral elements.
Acoustic guitars make an appearance on a few tracks - but folk music this certainly isn't.
Brook's pop smarts are pretty astute and for a mostly instrumental album, this has some very memorable pieces.
The title track coasts along on a nice wave of percussion which wouldn't sound out of place on a Radiohead album, while Modern Through Movement and Everyday Hazards have classic lost tv theme written all over them.
Final track, Lonely Signalman shows even more growth and has heavily treated vocoder vocals, which aren't able to mask the fact that this is a wee gem of a space age pop song.
So definitely not for everyone, but if you're feeling nostalgic or adventurous check out the samples below.
A new favourite of mine.