Radio Belbury Programme No.4

Radio Belbury Programme 4: "Offerings,Themes & Circles"  

Belbury Poly Mirrors remix 7"

Skint records issued a beautiful white vinyl 7" Remix EP by Mirrors, titled the White EP, especailly for Record Store Day last week (up to the minute news as always here in the Parish Mag).

It features a  krautrockische / motorik reworking by Belbury Poly of  the Mirrors track, Lights and Offerings. Its only available in participating record shops and I'll give it a spin on Radio Belbury No. 4 next week.

Ghost Box on the Guardian Music Weekly

Last week while we were in Brighton for The Belbury Youth Club, we spoke to Alexis Petridis for the Guardian Music Weekly, you can stream or download it here.

And by the way a huge thank you to everyone who came along to the show last Thursday.

Hintermass and Jonny Trunk Singles out Now

The next two in our Study Series singles are available right now on 7" and download in the Ghost Box shop, where there's a special bundle price if you buy both. Available from all our usual stockists in a week or two.

By the way Jonny Trunk will be presenting a new documentary called Into the Music Library next Tuesday, 12th April on BBC Radio 4 (13:30 and available online for a week). It's a history of library music featuring interviews with artists, label owners and collectors. An absolute must for readers of the Parish Mag.

And speaking of radio, Radio Belbury programme No.4 should be available on or around 21st April.

John Foxx and The Maths - Interplay

I was very excited to receive the new album from John Foxx and the Maths this week from the kind people at Metamatic. Its called Interplay and is the result of a collaboration between Foxx and Benge the artist behind 2008's Twenty Systems album.

Benge's studio is home to an amazing collection of analogue synths and other antique gear, and its this incredible array of equipment that provides the rich sounding backbone to this album. I'd be the last person in the world to deny that recapturing the warmth of analogue studio sounds and tape is still something of a holy grail in the modern studio, but its an irony that modern digital recording techniques capture the fullness of analogue oscillator sounds far better than could be done when they were cutting edge technology. Don't even bother listening to this record on ear buds - turn it up on your dad's proper hi-fi and prepare to have your trousers or skirts flapped. I have no problem at all with the "vintage"  presets of the fun little plastic synths that parp and poop away in a lot of contemporary electro pop, (indeed I have been known to do some plastic pooping myself) but its always instructive to be reminded of the gap between cheap emulation and heavy reality.

In places Interplay harks back to Foxx's first solo album, the classic Metamatic - especially the tracks Running Man and Watching A Building on Fire (which features Ladyton's Mira Aroyo).  As well as the stark Ballardian worlds of Metamatic  there are hints here of the dreamlike mysteries of The Garden  (for example on Summerland) and the romantic glories of the The Golden Section (especially on The Good Shadow).

However, this is by no means part of the 80s road show come back brigade biz though. On one hand this is because Foxx was never very mainstream in the first place and on the other, because those of us who have always followed his career know that his output has been continuous, varied and endlessly (foxx fan ref there) creative. There is freshness and continuity here in equal measure, just as there is both analogue noise and great pop music.

Obviously I'm a big fan and at the risk of making this review seem even more partisan, I'll share the news with you that Jon Brooks (of The Advisory Circle) and I (of Belbury Poly) will be collaborating with John Foxx on a few tracks, for a project that will see the light of day on Ghost Box sometime in 2012. Yeah I know !

Here's an interview with Mr.Foxx and a little nose around Benge's studio courtesy of Electric Independence.

With my thanks to Steve at Metamatic.