The Haunted Generation

Reviews originally published in Issue 97 of Electronic Sound magazine, January 2023:

BELBURY POLY
The Willows
(Ghost Box)

From tiny acorns grow mighty oaks. And, indeed, huge creepy woods where Druids in flared robes dance around a 1974 TV set from Radio Rentals in arcane celebration of the BBC’s Programmes For Schools and Colleges. Ghost Box Records’ blissful quest to reissue their entire back catalogue reaches this 2005 album, the first full-length Belbury Poly LP from label co-founder, Jim Jupp. And, from the chattering synths of opener ‘Wildspot’ onwards, it’s clear the label arrived with a fully-formed manifesto. Or, more likely, a battered school textbook wrapped in offcuts of woodchip wallpaper from the spare bedroom.

The tropes of the grotty 1970s childhood have now been so widely explored that they feel as much part of 2023 life as Elon Musk and the energy crisis. But, at the turn of the millennium, virtually nobody was getting misty-eyed about mumps and Open University modules. For wistful thirtysomethings still ruminating over the residual trauma of Children Of The Stones, the arrival of Ghost Box felt like the inaugural meeting of a support group. So, almost two decades on, these recordings boast a double whammy of nostalgia: both for our fuzzy memories of the 1970s themselves, and the giddy rush of this first wave of hauntology.

Jupp’s compositions slot perfectly into the nebulous gaps in our collective childhood consciousness, from the decades before Youtube and “On Demand” became ubiquitous. The creepy swirls of the title track clearly soundtrack some long-forgotten spooky children’s drama, where portals created by BBC Micro computers dance between the branches of crepuscular copses. ‘A Thin Place’ boasts slabs of ecclesiastical organ, the ideal accompaniment to running three times widdershins around the oldest gravestone in the churchyard. ‘The Absolute Elsewhere’ has bone-piercing choral chants and slow-moving glaciers of frozen synth from the weirdest corners of Roger Limb’s Radiophonic scrapbook.

Because, growing up, those mental gaps were often filled with darkness. The idea that something nasty, something other, was waiting to break away from the creeping shadows around the bedroom door. The Willows remains the perfect musical embodiment of those feelings, an acorn from which an entire musical movement continues to flourish. Make a note of that in your jotters, and hand in your textbooks to the Chief Druid by the hawthorn bush.  

Album available here:
https://ghostbox.greedbag.com/buy/the-willows-0/

THE FOCUS GROUP
Sketches And Spells
(Ghost Box)

You’re 11 years old, and you’re trespassing in The Creepy House. You know, the one on the corner with the boarded-up windows and waist-high grass around the peeling front door. Lured up the rickety stairs by terrifying, unearthly sounds, you find a damp-ridden bedroom where six Dansette record players are spinning ancient BBC Sound Effects albums and collections of KPM Library Music by themselves, stopping and starting to some weird, ghostly agenda. That’s Sketches and Spells.

Even on the label he co-founded, Julian House feels like a shadowy outsider. And his debut 2005 album as The Focus Group, re-released as part of Ghost Box’s ongoing reissue campaign, comes from the darkest corner of the label’s oeuvre. From the electronic blips and spectral flutes of ‘Open The Gate’ to the cobweb-coated early synths of ‘Swirling Paths’, House’s sound collages belong to the deepest-buried recesses of the collective 1970s memory. And it’s still a giddying and overwhelming confection, a terrific album of both sepia-tinted melancholy and primal unease.

Album available here:
https://ghostbox.greedbag.com/buy/sketches-and-spells/

THE HOME CURRENT & PETER WIX
Controlled Sparks
(Spun Out Of Control)

“I am, and I always have been, a stone-thrower”. So begins this second collaboration between Danish producer Martin Jensen and British wordsmith Peter Wix, and the duo are taking vicious pot-shots at the grimmest corners of 21st century life. Opener ‘Aim’ is the military mindset seen through the filter of petty, local violence. “Taxi driver, Alan Thompson, threw stones from his cab at people he didn’t like… fucking nutter,” drawls Wix, as hypnotic drumbeats clatter. Global warfare? It’s just smalltown squabbling writ large.

Sometimes there’s the ambience of Chris Morris’ Blue Jam, although the combination of Jensen’s retro grooves and Wix’s deadpan narration also carry a whiff of Paul Hardcastle. ‘Calling Your Child’ is a soulful eye-roll at infantile consumerism (“Can you be, say, eight and 45 at the same time?”), ‘Trickle Treacle’ the disdainful voice of the billionaire exploiter. “The abandoned wealth, generated in our accounts, will trickle somewhere into the wastelands that lie beyond your footsteps…” Eloquent and potent, it’s a bold attempt to make sense of the bleakness.

Album available here:
https://spunoutofcontrol.bandcamp.com/album/controlled-sparks

SUZY MANGION
Location: Gilsland
(Bandcamp)

Gilsland? The tiny Cumbrian village to which Delia Derbyshire relocated in 1973, embarking on a sadly ill-fated marriage. Five decades on, Manchester-based Suzy Mangion has created an affecting soundtrack to her own short film about these wilderness years. Plaintive, pulsating electronica accompanies interviews that Mangion conducted with women whose life experiences reflected Derbyshire’s own. Most touching? ‘Chosen Companion’, a bridal fanfare couched in gentle beats. “It was wonderful that someone wanted to marry me and be with me forever…” It’s heartbreakingly poignant.

Album available here:
https://suzymangion.bandcamp.com/album/location-gilsland

LELAND WHITTY
Anyhow
(Innovative Leisure)

By day, Whitty is sax player with Canadian funkers BADBADNOTGOOD. By night, he clearly loosens his tie and drifts through the neon streets of Toronto to an internal soundtrack of laid-back, cinematic jazz. With a strong squad of BADBAD bandmates helping out, and older brother Lowell on beautifully unhurried drums, Whitty has crafted a hugely impressive debut album. ‘Glass Moon’ is a stunning showcase for his mellifluous John Coltrane-influenced sax playing, ‘Windows’ a breathy, synth-drenched evocation of longing sighs on rainy nights. A delightful album of melancholy and moonlight.

Album available here:
https://lelandwhitty.bandcamp.com/album/anyhow-2

FINGERWOLF
Mechanical Man Land
(Woodford Halse)  

Pining for the days when Top Of The Pops was filled with British jazz-funkers in floral shirts and silver-faced, robotic dancers in tuxedos? Here comes Buckinghamshire producer Jon Dickinson with the groove-fuelled answer to your prayers. From the splendidly-titled ‘Trouser Force’ onwards, it’s a riot of funky clavinets, basslines slapped at nipple height and syn-drums that go “booooo” with wanton abandon. ‘In The Freezer’ sounds like Shakatak gone trip-hop, ‘Flashback’ is the chilled-out 2am finale to a club night with bowls of popcorn still untouched on the marble-effect bar. Glorious. 

Album available here:
https://fingerwolf.bandcamp.com/album/wf-61-mechanical-man-land

Electronic Sound – “the house magazine for plugged in people everywhere” – is published monthly, and available here:
https://electronicsound.co.uk/

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