Deadman’s Ghost

The Haunted Generation is also a regular column in Fortean Times magazine, rounding up new releases and forthcoming events. From Issue 463, dated November 2025…

THE HAUNTED GENERATION

Bob Fischer rounds up the latest news from the parallel worlds of popular hauntology

“In the 1960s and ‘70s, running was a slightly hippy-ish subculture in America,” explains Jesse Chandler. “I have a book from that period, and it actually talks about what runners should do when they’re heckled by passers-by. They were seen as ‘freaks’ by some! Runners like Steve Prefontaine and Bill Rodgers were freewheeling rebels on the fringes, and Jim Fixx and Dr George Sheehan became gurus for what was – and still is – a meditative and spiritual practice, almost akin to yoga”.

Jesse’s new album Runner’s High, recorded under his nom-de-plume of Pneumatic Tubes, explores the New Age connections of the mid-20th century jogging explosion with shimmering aplomb. When he’s not pounding the pavements himself, Jesse is the flautist with both Midlake and Mercury Rev, and the album weaves his immaculate woodwind skills into electronic plateaus that perfectly encapsulate the elusive, long-distance euphoria of the title. It’s also intended as a tribute to Jesse’s father Dave, whose own passion for running made him a familiar figure in the family’s famously hippy-affiliated hometown of Woodstock, NY.

“My dad was part of that whole scene,” nods Jesse. “He kept a running journal for over forty years, from his first day as a runner until he passed in 2018. My mom has them, and every time I visit I crack open a different year”. Released by Ghost Box spin-off label Belbury Music, Runner’s High includes guest vocals from Midlake founder Tim Smith and comes complete with a self-explanatory bonus disc entitled Warm Up and Cool Down. Those suitably shamed into putting away the Chocolate Hob-Nobs should do a few gentle stretching exercises then jog slowly to belburymusic.greedbag.com.

If you’re still in holiday mood, however, then David Boulter’s mini-album Whitby might be the perfect soundtrack. David plays keyboards with legendary Nottingham lounge lizards Tindersticks, but his latest solo release was inspired by a visit to North Yorkshire’s spookiest seaside resort. Influenced more by the “natural drama” of the coastline than the goth weekend and the Dracula exhibition, David has poured his memories into a collection of soothing instrumentals for strings and woodwind. Climb the 199 steps to claypipemusic.co.uk. And for further nature-based contemplation, I also recommend Ronsack, the new modular synth album from Shropshire farmer Tom Kennedy. Recording as Swansither, Tom has composed an atmospheric homage to a thousand-year-old oak tree on the edge of his land, and the social changes it has witnessed: from the Domesday Book to the Industrial Revolution and beyond. Rake over the acorns at swansither.bandcamp.com.

Up in Leeds, the resolutely unhurried Sunny Smiles Three have released their first album since 2020. Some Everyday Hazards is a terrific collection of twinkly psychedelic folk that should delight fans of Caravan or Roy Harper, comprising – in their own words – “tales of mystery, imagination, death, fighting, the Ark of the Covenant and Little Richard”. My favourite song? The exquisite ‘Mr Fodgety’, a disarmingly sinister tribute to a (hopefully) imaginary nocturnal visitor. “With the night-light shining on your wall / Ancient worries shouldn’t worry you at all”… throw back your candlewick bedspread and head immediately to thesunnysmilesthree.bandcamp.com for further unconvincing reassurance.

Elsewhere, I’ve been listening to This Material Moment, a stunning automatic-writing inspired album by Newcastle electro-folkie Jayne “Me Lost Me” Dent; to Morgan Szymanski and Tommy Perman’s Songs for the Mist Forest, a jazz-tinged homage to the endangered woodland of Mexico; and to A Votive Offering, a new collection from Deadman’s Ghost. This latter LP is the work of Belfast-based Jason Mills, using traditional Irish folklore as the basis for some genuinely scary soundscapes. Meanwhile, Haunted Generation veterans should salute Alan Gubby, genial overlord of the Buried Treasure label, who has given a limited physical release to the soundtrack from ITV’s alarming 1975 children’s series Sky. There might just be a handful left beneath the Juganet at buriedtreasure.bandcamp.com.

And as summertime fizzles away, a final word from sun-worshipping writer Adam S Leslie. Last August, I enthused over Adam’s novel Lost in the Garden (FT447:57), and the book has since deservedly won the prestigious Nero Award for Fiction. Recording as Berlin Zebra, Adam has now created an original soundtrack for this creepy tale of “summer hauntology”, and it’s a delightful melange of mellotron, school piano and shortwave radio: what Adam calls “heat-hazey, summer afternoon nap sounds”.

“Back in the ‘90s, my friend Peter and I used to make sound collages on C90 cassettes,” he explains. “We’d have record player, TV and radio all running at the same time, and we’d move the tape recorder around the room to shift the balance. So I wanted to evoke that kind of dreamlike atmosphere”. This time using his own music and field recordings as source material, Adam has crafted the ideal accompaniment to his book: head to berlinhorse.bandcamp.com, and feel free to break into a brisk trot whenever the ghost of Mrs Kelway comes crashing through the shrubbery.