Reviews originally published in Issue 106 of Electronic Sound magazine, October 2023:

JUNKBOY
Littoral States
(Woodland and Wayside)

Some records belong firmly to the “big” seasons, their songs either drenched in summer sunshine or coated in a crunchy layer of freshly-fallen snow. Littoral States falls charmingly between the gaps, illuminated by both the pale, steely skies of springtime and the syrupy sunshine of slow, autumnal afternoons.

In 2020, brothers Mik and Rich Hanscomb lost their father. The album is a bittersweet ramble in his memory, an elegant pootle along the South Coast, and – indeed – the scattered home towns of all three men. ‘Cormorant At The Mouth Of The Ouse’ is our breezy starting point, its wistful fingerpicking accompanied by the kind of mellifluous strings that once lent Nick Drake albums such an air of stately melancholy. ‘Witch Of The Watery Depths’ adds the crystalline vocals of Sussex folkie Hannah Lewis and keening folk-rock electric guitars. 

Lewis is the unsung star here, providing two sympathetic lyrical contributions and a strident voice that may raise goosebumps for anyone still haunted by Toni Arthur’s ethereal 1960s folk vocals. “Once upon a forest, sunlight beams / Nature’s blossoming, it must be spring,” she sings on the breezy ‘Chase The Knucker’, while ‘The Sea Captain’ is grief with open-hearted dignity: “I’d sell my soul to the waves that flow / To reach you”.

There are tranquil field recordings (sometimes made in actual fields), immaculate guitars and strings that flow with effortless grace. From Hanscomb Snr’s birthplace Bognor Regis we roam, through the urban sprawls of Brighton and Newhaven, to the coastal suburbia of Seaford. By the time we reach the impudent banjo and recorder of concluding track ‘Tall Grass’, our flushed complexions and pleasantly aching calves are testament to the joys of an afternoon well spent.

It’s certainly a worthy sequel to the Hanscombs’ similarly exquisite 2019 collection, Trains, Trees, Topophilia. Their own modest description of their efforts? “Music that finds solace and joy in the beautiful banalities”. If such banalities include a stirring walk in celebration of a loved one who – not so long ago – would have been a willing and welcome companion, then they’ve succeeded with no little joy and an absolute surfeit of the aching beauty they’ve been chasing all across the South Downs.

Album available here:
https://waysideandwoodlandrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/littoral-states

IVAN THE TOLERABLE
Under Magnetic Mountain
(Library Of The Occult)

Magnetic Mountain? It’s a 1933 volume of poetry by Cecil Day-Lewis, with its mysterious summit the symbol of a brighter, less conventional future. It’s unclear whether Middlesbrough polymath Oli Heffernan was gazing idly towards Eston Hills when he made this darkly hypnotic album of psychedelic jazz, but the soft guitar lines and drifting saxophones of ‘Opening Bell’ encapsulate the same yearning for open spaces and clear heads.

Heffernan cites Delia Derbyshire and Holger Czukay as specific influences, and the likes of ‘An Apology’ and ‘The Scale’ boast suitably radiophonic swirls… and, indeed, mesmeric beats from Unit Ama drummer Christian Alderson. Elsewhere, Heffernan’s own crisp guitars perfectly complement the impressionistic sax lines of long-term collaborator Ben Hopkinson. It’s a combination most affecting on ‘Feathers’, an amniotic daydream underpinned by a throbbing bassline and – entirely appropriately – snippets of an ancient, crackly Sun Ra interview. He might modestly claim to be beneath the mountain, but this is Heffernan reaching an impressive peak.

Album available here:
https://libraryoftheoccult.bandcamp.com/album/under-magnetic-mountain

EMMA ANDERSON
Pearlies
(Sonic Cathedral)

“Been in the warming sun alone / Swimming through space when time’s postponed / See if I can make it on my own”. It’s 35 years since Emma Anderson founded shoegaze behemoths Lush, and she also spent a decade as precisely 50% of dream-pop duo Sing-Sing. It’s not a bad grounding on which to build a solo career, but the lyrics of Farfisa-drenched opener ‘I Was Miles Away’ suggest the experiment still feels somewhat tentative.

No need to sound so uncertain. It’s a terrific album. Anderson and producer James ‘Maps’ Chapman have crafted a crisply contemporary take on British psychedelia, with Suede’s Richard Oakes lending tastefully trippy licks. And Anderson’s gossamer fragile vocals hit their mark with a deceptively steely confidence. “The road is empty, the sky is black / Makes no sense to be turning back,” she sings amid the charming shuffles of earworm single ‘Bend The Round’. It’s a determined mission statement on an album of melodic delights.

Album available here:
https://emmaanderson.bandcamp.com/album/pearlies

LEO ROBINSON
The Temple
(Prah Recordings)

The baroque harpsichords of The Serpent set the tone for an album of morbidly elegant lyricism. “Skulls snap off from their respective spines by the long row of pines / Where Jesus and the Whore, dripping with sweat in their forest bed…” Robinson is a multi-disciplinary artist from Manchester, and this powerful collection infuses Blakeian imagery with Northern grit. ‘The Wintering’ is a nod to Bob Dylan (“What did you do, my skin and bone son? / I chopped all the tomatoes in Withington”) but Robinson’s haunting baritone owes more to the drizzly Pennines than the dusty Mid-West. Stunning. 

Album available here:
https://leorobinson.bandcamp.com/album/the-temple

FIELD LINES CARTOGRAPHER
Phases Of This And Other Moons
(Castles In Space)

“Standing on the surface of one of the moons of Jupiter, or perhaps observing a satellite of Uranus transit across its host planet…” Travelling from Lancaster to the outlying bodies of the solar system can’t be easy, especially when Mark Burford has only a Buchla Easel Command synth at his disposal. He must have missed the No 41 bus. But he’s crafted an album of ambient tranquility with a splendidly sinister undertone, and the likes of ‘Fenrir In Retrograde’ and ‘Charon’s Pull’ emphasise the stark loneliness of this icily beautiful cosmic journey.

Album available here:
https://fieldlinescartographer-cis.bandcamp.com/album/phases-of-this-and-other-moons

HOWARD JONES
Celebrate It Together – The Very Best Of 1983-2023
(Cherry Red)

Forty years after ‘New Song’, this four-disc retrospective is a delightful reminder of the giddy window when mainstream pop got weird and even spiky-haired chart stars came accompanied by interpretative mime acts in chains. Jones is our suitably idiosyncratic curator here, splitting the discs into ‘Popular Hits’, ‘Electro’, ‘Chill’ and ‘Curiosities’. And while vintage synthpop gems like ‘Hide And Seek’ and ‘What Is Love’ still delight, there are newer charms to be found in the likes of 2019’s bombastic ‘Eagle Will Fly Again’. Throw off your mental chains and – ahem – get to know him well. 

Album available here:
https://www.cherryred.co.uk/howard-jones-celebrate-it-together-the-very-best-of-howard-jones-19832023-4cd-clamshell-box-edition

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

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