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.

Pre-Order Study Series 5 and 6 now

The next in the Ghost Box Study Series singles will be released on download and 7" vinyl on the 8th April and can be pre-ordered now at the Ghost Box shop.  Listen to clips here.

Study Series 5, "The Open Songbook", is by Hintermass a new collaboration between Jon Brooks of The Advisory Circle and Tim Felton of Seeland on vocals and guitar. For the first time pop music comes to Ghost Box, in the form of rich, melancholy song underpinned with haunting analogue electronics.

Number 6 is "Le Train Fantôme" from Jonny Trunk, the head of re-issue label Trunk Records and natural ally of the world of Ghost Box. On this single Trunk plays with a wonderfully woolly palette of electronic sound reminiscent of grainy old stop motion animation soundtracks.

Jonny borrowed the title "Le Train Fantôme" and the cover image from the fabric designs in the beautifully realised world of the same name by Fanja Ralison, Julian House's partner. Visit Fanja's blog and shop here.

Strange Attractor in The Belbury Village Shop

The Belbury Village shop re-opens today (if you need directions - its a little way down on the right hand column on this blog). We're very proud to be stocking the long awaited fourth number of Mark Pilkington's Strange Attractor Journal, with cover art by Ghost Box's Julian House.



From Haiti and Hong Kong to the fourth dimension and beyond: discover the secrets of madness in animals; voodoo soul and dub music; ancient peacock deities; Chinese poisoning cults; the history of spider silk weaving; heathen mugwort magic; sentient lightning; Jesuit conspiracy theories; junkie explorers; Dali’s Atlantis; the resurgence of Pan (in London’s Crouch End); anarchist pirates on Madagascar; an ancient Greek Rip Van Winkle; French anatomical waxworks; Arthur Machen’s forgotten tales and the full text of Alan Moore’s unfinished John Dee opera.

Featuring written and visual contributions from:

Richard Barnett, Mark Blacklock, John Cussans, Erik Davis, Paul Devereux, Roger Dobson, Joanna Ebenstein, Stephen Grasso, Gyrus, Ken Hollings, Mike Jay, Phil Legard, David Luke, Eleanor Morgan, Alan Moore, Steve Moore, Michael Neve, Andy Sharp, Robert Wallis, Sean Walsh.

Artwork by Joel Biroco, Julian House, Phil Legard, Eleanor Morgan, Arik Roper & Nathalie Tayton

320 page illustrated paperback - the first forty copies in the village shop will ship with a free postcard version of the Julian House cover art. Please remember to select your shipping destination before you click "Buy Now".

Radio Belbury Programme No. 3 "Spring Rites"



Belbury Youth Club at The Outer Church, Brighton

Live sets from Moon Wiring Club and Pye Corner Audio, Ghost Box & Outer Church DJs a screening of Julian House's short film Winter Sun Wavelength, Public Information Films, lost television and other odd visuals.

Thursday 14th April7.30pm - 12.00midnight
Komedia
Brighton

Tickets £7
www.komedia.co.uk
Box Office: 0845 293 8480
Resident Records: 01273 606 312

Ghost Box on the Freak Zone this Sunday

Julian and I will be guests on the Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone this Sunday on BBC6 at 6:00pm. Laugh, as we get carried away with our usual stream of consciousness rambling, confuse release dates and forget our own track titles. As well as tracks from the recently re-issued Ghost Box albums, we'll be previewing Jonny Trunk's Study Series single and a track from the forthcoming Belbury Poly album.

A tremendous honour to be invited back onto our favourite show on radio (apart from the OST on Resonance of course). If you don't already listen, but you enjoy the kind of music on Radio Belbury you should make it a weekly habit. For those of you worried about the clash with Evensong you can listen again all week here.

Xylitol - Music Played by Other People

More of what I think we're now calling  "Confusing English Electronic Music" emerges this week in the shape of a two volume 3" CD album of remixes of music by cult electro-kosmiche artist  Xylitol (aka Jim Backhouse).

Two years in the making Mr Backhouse has coaxed re-interpretations and re-imaginings of his tunes and unfinished sketches by a very diverse set of artists, including our own Belbury Poly, Woebot, Sculpture and the Cambridge scenesters explored in this month's Wire: Um and Nochexx.  Each set of this very limited edition comes with a unique hand made bundle of artwork and is available right now from the Xylitol Blog.

Talking of Sculpture, take a look at their beautiful website and movies here.

Radio Belbury Programme No.2 "Magpie and Crow"

Presenting programme No. 2, in what will hopefully be a monthly spot. This month features a sneak preview of the upcoming Advisory Circle album, As The Crow Flies.

If you want to get in touch about the programme the address is radiobelbury@ghostbox.co.uk , I'd love to hear from you. (The show is exclusively available through Mixcloud incidentally, because being a fully licensed service all the artists get payed for plays (not much mind...grumble)).

Talking of things Brooksian, you can now download both episodes of Resonance FM's Weird Tales for Winter recorded by The Advisory Circle and Moon Wiring Club for free right here. Its William Hope Hodgson's "The Gateway of The Monster" a tale featuring the redoubtable psychic sleuth Thomas Carnacki, music by Mr. Jonathan Brooks and read in the genial fireside tones of  Mr. Ian Hodgson . No relation, or is he ? Is he ?

And to accompany this Jon has released a download soundtrack album on his own Cafe Kaput label.

You can buy it here priced £6.99. Each copy comes with sleeve notes as a PDF and a hi-res graphic of the lovely Blank Workshop cover art. Anyway before you get too excited, don't forget you're supposed to be listening to my show first. The name again ?  It's...



Sketches & Spells & The Willows return.

Re-issues of the very first full albums on Ghost Box, Belbury Poly's The Willows and The Focus Group's Sketches and Spells, are available now on vinyl and CD from the Ghost Box shop and very soon from our regular stockists.



Jonny Trunk to re-air the Broadcast OST show on Resonance today

Jonny Trunk will be airing a repeat of his OST show recorded December 2007, with Trish & James of Broadcast. Its on at 4:30 pm tonight on 104.4FM in London or via the stream at www.resonancefm.com or via the widget at the bottom right of this blog.

Update:
Since I posted this Resonance FM have now made this show permanantley available to download here.

Bless you Trish Keenan



Earlier today we received the tragic news that Trish Keenan of Broadcast passed away in hospital following a long battle with pneumonia. On behalf of all the artists at Ghost Box I would like to express our deepest sympathies to Trish's family and to James.

Broadcast are our central and primary influence and Trish's passing leaves an immense gap in our world, we owe more than we can say to her friendship and support over the years.

An enormously talented, generous and beautiful visionary has gone on ahead to see the Summerland.

Warp Records have made a statement accompanied by what has now become such a poignant song.

We would also like to reiterate Warp's request for the proper respect of  the privacy of Trish's family and friends.

Radio Belbury: Programme No.1



Welcome to the first in an occasional series of radio shows in which I'll be playing a few of my favourite tunes, giving you a sneak preview of forthcoming Ghost Box material and leading you all in devotional song. You can listen to it right here in this funny little Mixcloud box...

Once you've listened to that (and only then) head to Cafe Kaput for Jon Brooks' Soft Sounds for Winter mix. While you're listening to these why not sit back, have a nice cuppa and do your Christmas shopping with the 1976 Argos catalogue. (Thanks Keith!).

Happy holidays and thank you for listening.

A Spare Tabby at the Cat's Wedding

Over at the Ghost Box shop we've teamed up with Gecophonic records to bring you the new album from Moon Wiring Club, A Spare Tabby at the Cat's Wedding.

A kaleidoscopic selection of Edwardian parlour hip hop confectionery, from our friends in Clinkskell . Its available on vinyl and CD, both of wich are lavishly illustrated and packaged. Its the Moon Wiring Club's best and most enigmatic release to date.

However, this being the eccentric world of MWC, the two versions of the album are very different - in fact the similarities are carefully hidden and artfully woven into each format. For this reason  there's a special offer on the  vinyl and CD bundled together. You can watch a video for the CD track, Slumberwick Dreams here.


Rust Bucket: MWC's Ian Hodgson

For more clues to the baffling conundrum that is Moon Wrirng Club visit the Blank Workshop.

New Transmission from Clinkskell Leaks Through.

...and we're also channeling rumours of a beautifully packaged Moon Wiring Club vinyl album to be available soonish.

Imperfect Recall - Exhibition 25th September to 20th November

London artist Paul Smith will be curating an exhibition titled Imperfect Recall, at The Architects Gallery, Teddington, South West London. Open to the public this Saturday, 25th September and running until 20th November, the exhibition features a variety of artists exploring false memories and the gaps between past and present, hostorical fact and recall. The work of Ghost Box's Julian House will be heavily featured in print video and artefacts.

One of Julian House's collection of parallel world paperbacks

The exhibition includes work by Adam Bainbridge, Ronald Ceuppens, Oona Culley, Simon Reid, Hugh Russell, Alexander Sirbu, Paul Smith, Ruth Uglow and Daniela White are also on display. This is a commercial exhibition with  avariety of prints and paintings on sale so don't forget your credit cards and cheque books.

Download the official exhibition guide here and  please direct any enquiries here, and not to Ghost Box or The Parish Mag.

Here's a selection of just some of the works:

Adam Bainbridge - Visionary Landscape

 

Paul Smith - The Girl in the Glade

    

Julian House - Medium



Alexander Sirbu - Semne De Constructii

       

Julian House: See They Await Us

 

Ruth Uglow - Athena

Ronald Ceuppens - Jongen met Confituurvinger

Simon Reid - Walpurgis Eve, Mistley

Jon Brooks and D.D.Denham on The Freakzone

Last Sunday Jon Brooks was a guest on Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone on BBC6, talking about Cafe Kaput, D.D. Denham and The Advisory Circle. You can listen again for the rest of this week here.

Study Series 3 & 4 and Farmer's Angle available now

All three new titles are available in the Ghost Box shop right now. The Broadcast and Focus Group single is almost sold out, so when there's no more in our shop be sure to check with the usual stockists.

Electric Eden on The Freak Zone

There was an excellent interview with Rob Young all about his book Electric Eden on Sunday's Freak Zone on BBC6.  Its available here for the rest of the week.

...and I've just been handed a grubby scrap of paper telling me to remind you all that D.D. Denham's Electronic Music in the Classroom is now available for download.

Cafe Kaput Podcast No.6 is here at last

At long last Jon Brooks has posted No. 6 in the fantastic Cafe Kaput podcast series. Where else would you find Spacemen 3, D. D. Denham, Mort Garson, and Bruce Forsythe all in one show.