(First published in Issue 116 of Electronic Sound magazine, August 2024)

WITCHBOARD
Incidental Goth Club Music For Television And Film
(Library Of The Occult)

From a neon-lit New York basement bar comes actual horror director Glenn McQuaid, whose moody new album is a loving tribute to the blood-spattered VHS delights of the 1980s. ‘Lose It!’ is sexy zombie disco, ‘Get Anxious’ is Badalamenti-esque noir jazz and ‘Supernaturals Fill The Floor’ combines buzzsaw synths with the deliciously vampy narration of Grace Sings Sludge. “Scars at night / Delight defaced / Nothingness”. The perfect album for those who consider Ally Sheedy’s makeover in The Breakfast Club to be the greatest crime in cinematic history.

Album available here:
https://libraryoftheoccult.bandcamp.com/album/incidental-goth-club-music-for-television-and-film

DREW MULHOLLAND AND GARDEN GATE
Night Blooming Flowers
(Subexotic)
 
“The curious tale of a botanist in search of a rare and precious flower, said only to bloom during the hours of darkness”. Creeping through the allotments at midnight, Glaswegian haunto godfather Mulholland and US horror obsessive Timmi Meskers have crafted a terrific tale of shadowy woodland and fairy rings. Mellotron, cimbalom and harpsichord combine with Radiophonic ambience to joyously creepy effect, with the eight-minute ‘A Figure Appears’ the lynchpin of this splendid collaboration. A treat for fans of vintage weirdness and the very earliest of Ghost Box’s eldritch experiments.

Album available here:
https://gardengate.bandcamp.com/album/night-blooming-flowers-2

MEGALITHIC TRANSPORT NETWORK
Megalithic Transport Network Phase 3
(Bandcamp)

Appointed Minister for Transport in some alternate reality 1970s government, Martyn Stonehouse has built his own weirdy version of HS2. This third album of first class modular delights expands his fantasy of a rattling rail network connecting the ancient stones of his native Peak District, departing the Craven Faults-esque pulses of ‘Black Rock Depot’ and arriving at the tinkling arpeggios of ‘Habroro Halt’ via the breathy ambience of ‘Ivet Low’. This album terminates at ‘Five Wells’, and passengers are reminded to take all their lingering feelings of drone-inspired disquiet with them.

Album available here:
https://megalithictransportnetwork.bandcamp.com/album/megalithic-transport-network-phase-3

CLEVELODE
Muntjac
(Fenny Compton)

Striding purposefully through Epping Forest, former Lowland Hundred singer Paul Newland creates a shimmering homage to this very suburban wilderness. ‘Loughton Camp’ is our first step into the trees, a sun-dappled canopy of piano and lazy afternoon synths. ‘High Beech’ adds Newland’s own oak-seasoned vocals: “Cycling up here when we were kids / There were few cars around / We’d press up Lippitts Hill”. Meanwhile, ‘It Must Have Rained Last Night’ is a relationship faltering amid musty petrichor. “Tree bark swollen like your liquid eyes…” An album of fragile and bittersweet delights.

Album available here:
https://fennycompton.bandcamp.com/album/fc6-muntjac

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

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