(First published in Issue 112 of Electronic Sound magazine, April 2024)
DOROTHY MOSKOWITZ AND RETEP FOLO
The Afterlife
(Buried Treasure)
She was the voice of 1960s psychedelic pioneers The United States Of America. He is the Swedish synth maestro with a love of offbeat time signatures. And when they got together, it was… actually, rather wonderful. This virtual collaboration sees Moskowitz adding cautionary narration and floating harmonies to Peter Olof Fransson’s ecologically-minded soundscapes. “Dare, dare to breathe the air before the air runs out,” she intones solemnly, amid the baleful guitars of ‘Running Time’. “No turning back before time runs out”.
The highpoint comes with the five-part ‘Black Hill Suite’, a seamless 13-minute montage. Moskowitz weaves Latin chants and the wide-eyed musings of her five-year-old grandson Boom into Fransson’s modular shards before Svante Sjöstedt’s chiming guitars lead us into the melodic uplands of ‘Sleeping Hills’. And then the concluding title track: “There’ll be suns exploding here and away / And then all blackness and bleak, withdrawing into an abyss,” whispers Moskowitz, lending warmth and humanity to the infinite hereafter.
Album available here:
https://buriedtreasure.bandcamp.com/album/the-afterlife-cd
New 2025 version:
https://buriedtreasure.bandcamp.com/album/the-afterlife-2
RIDE
Interplay
(Wichita Recordings)
There’s an alluring alternate universe where Ride didn’t split in 1996 and this is their 17th studio album. But maybe that two-decade breathing space was necessary for a bit of perspective? Interplay, the band’s third album since their fruitful 2015 resurrection, is an album of very grown-up wistfulness. “The feeling inside / Is a tension that’s outside of time,” sigh Mark Gardener and Andy Bell in perfect unison on album opener ‘Peace Sign’. It is, apparently, about daredevil free climber Marc-André Leclerc, but it feels like a world-weary metaphor for the daily rock faces we all have to conquer.
Musically, it’s an album of charming curveballs, with Depeche Mode synths and U2 guitar flourishes throughout. ‘Sunrise Chaser’ could even be Tears For Fears with Bhundu Boys guitars. And closer ‘Yesterday Is Just A Song’ feels like Bell looking back on the band’s turbulent history with a melancholy half-smile. “Everyone’s got troubles of their own / Sometimes it’s too much but I don’t stop living”. It’s a touching conclusion to a delightfully bittersweet collection.
Album available here:
https://rideox4.bandcamp.com/album/interplay
THE TWELVE HOUR FOUNDATION
Compendium
(Disques Boum)
Boing! Plonk! Jez Butler and Polly Hulse create such authentically melodic tributes to the 1970s BBC Radiophonic Workshop that you’d be forgiven for thinking they’d used a twangy ruler to summon the spirit of John Baker himself. This two-disc CD set assembles their 2018 album Tree Little Milk Egg Book And Other Non Sequiturs, 2020 follow-up Six Twenty Negative and a glut of EPs into one joyous whole. If you aren’t listening to ‘Macaroni Cheese’ with an ear-splitting, face-aching grin, hand in your Spangles and report for double detention on Tuesday.
Album available here:
https://thetwelvehourfoundation.bandcamp.com/album/thf-compendium
THE NIGHT MONITOR
Horror Of The Hexham Heads
(Library Of The Occult)
In 1976, BBC news programme Nationwide covered the story of the Hexham Heads, a brace of stone carvings unearthed from a Northumberland garden by two tank-topped brothers. Neil Scrivin retells this curious tale with typically Radiophonic relish. So the sinister synths of ‘Bedroom Intruder’ are the (ahem) half-man, half-sheep creature that terrorised the boys’ neighbours, while the alarming ambience of ‘The Doctor And The Werewolf’ is an homage to Dr Anne Ross, a specialist in Celtic carvings who investigated the case and was pursued by… well, you guessed it. She’s alright nooooow.
Album available here:
https://thenightmonitor.bandcamp.com/album/horror-of-the-hexham-heads
VARIOUS ARTISTS
L SERIES #6
(Russian Library)
“Just past the house there was a patch where the crows don’t go”. So begins this intriguing mini-album. Ghost Box regular Justin Hopper lends deadpan narration to a spooky MR James tale, accompanied by the rustic stylings of label boss João Paulo Daniel in his guise as Folclore Impressionista. The overall theme? ‘The spectrality of the garden’. So hiding behind the hydrangea is Frances ‘The Hardy Tree’ Castle, adding wistful woodwind to ‘Lily Of The Valley’, while ‘A Sea Education’ is rustling, shadowy electronica from Jörg ‘Fogroom’ Follert. A shadowy summer’s evening of a collection.
Album available here:
https://russianlibrary.bandcamp.com/album/l-series-6-justin-hopper-folclore-impressionista-the-hardy-tree-30-door-key-fogroom-nu-no-folclore-impressionista-dem-nio-ant-nio
IVAN THE TOLERABLE TRIO
Infinite Peace
(Stolen Body)
In May 2023, this unassuming trio decamped to Leeds’ ATA Studio with one mission – to create freeform psychedelic jazz in the spirit of Alice Coltrane or Sun Ra. Ten hours later, they emerged blinking with this immersive, improvised double album. From the sparse limbering of ‘Hymnal’ onwards, Ben Hopkinson’s mellifluous sax leads the way, while Oli Heffernan’s liquid guitars and Neil Turpin’s organic drums effortlessly fill the gaps. There are raga drones, actual Mellotrons and ‘Hipnosis’ is their riotous ten-minute take on a vintage Archie Shepp riff. Nice.
Album available here:
https://ivanthetolerable.bandcamp.com/album/infinite-peace-2lp-dl-stolen-body-records-2024
Electronic Sound – “the house magazine for plugged in people everywhere” – is published monthly, and available here:
https://electronicsound.co.uk/
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