Entertainment For Lively Minds
Hauntology
My two favourite labels at the moment are Ghost Box and Mordant Music. I’ve been collecting Ghost Box releases for some time now, and I recently had a splurge on Mordant so I was doing some background reading. It turns out – and I really did discover this quite by accident – that they are both examples of the Hauntology genre, which figured, because they do share an aesthetic. Theirs are worlds of unsettling electronica, at once full of dread and a nostalgia for a time that never quite existed. Ghost Box are probably the best known example. Occultism meets town planning in the 1970s in the world of Ghost Box, which is the home of Belbury Poly, The Advisory Circle and The Focus Group. Taken together the label’s albums read like alternative social history of the 1970s read by the light of a torch beneath the bedclothes -- from a time when fear was grey, mundane and drizzly. The Focus Group’s use of public information films will strike a chord with anyone who was terrified by them as a child. Does anyone remember Apache, for example?
That sense of bucolic dread runs through much of the work of Ghost Box, underpinning the music which sounds like Tangerine Dream’s lost Wicker Man soundtrack, or Morris Men dances rearranged for old, analogue synthesisers, peppered with found sound and those public information films; in one instance that almost gave me a heart attack, a terrifying scream; a snatch of conversation, like hearing your mum gossiping with the neighbour in the front garden while you’re thinking that if you’re good, you might be allowed to stay up late and watch Hammer House of Horror. There are definite similarities to Trunk Records (also ‘Hauntology’, it turns out) but there’s something about the fictional construct of Ghost Box that is more considered and that I find more appealing. They have a more aesthetic approach to their releases for a start. This Belbury Poly cover gives you a good indication of the house style.
Isn’t it beautiful? Mordant is even more oblique. Mordant Music’s Dead Air seems to be a concept album about paranoia and surveillance, and visualises the takeover of the airwaves in a post-apocalyptic 1979. It’s narrated by ex-Thames TV announcer Philip Elsmore who at one point says, ‘The following includes graphic scenes of a strobing magpie’s wing,’ which seems to sum up the entire enterprise perfectly, and much more succinctly than my bumbling, inarticulate efforts. The Tower is suitably dark and brooding, and probably the most easy-to-classify thing Mordant have done, in a dark-ambient vein, but it’s the new album SyMptoMs that has really bewitched me.
There’s simply no pigeon-holing this album. Imagine British Sea Power reimagined by Burial. Dubstep gone folk. It’s not ‘easy’ music, obviously, it requires some input on behalf of the listener. But it’s incredibly rewarding and immersive and there’s a sense of narrative that runs through the music, a lot of it I think conjured by the listener. As with Ghost Box, the art and packaging of Mordant is as important as the tunes, as are the websites. So that the music only forms part of the overall aesthetic. To download this music, for example, would be to completely miss the point, and in both cases I’ve bought direct from the websites. I’m not just buying the music, I’m buying into the world. And for some reason I find all that nameless dread of the 1970s remarkably comforting.
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Some interesting stuff AE
had a quick look at Ghost Box an Mordant Music, and from my very quick listen, would say the MM stuff is more up my street.
Don't know whether you've heard anything by a band called Miasma & The Carousel of Headless Horses, but they are doing some similar things, probably more accessible than what you've highlighted, but a definite 70s horror/occult theme. One of the members of that band released an lp under the moniker Mothlite, which has its moments of music of dread, although again much more accessible.
Of course there is the wonderful Coil, who have released some of the most unsettling music of recent times.
Can I also point people in the direction of The Owl Service, although primarily a traditional modern English folk band, there are a couple of tracks on their debut which have elements of electronica, creating a weird unsettling modern soundtrack to The Wicker Man.
Thanks A E for highlighting some truly original homegrown talent.
Thanks, Mint
I'm a huge Coil fan, yes. Thanks very much for those two recommendations. After a couple of drinks last night... well, you know what it's like...
Delivery estimate: 13 Nov 2009 - 25 Nov 2009
Dispatch estimate for these items: 10 Nov 2009 - 11 Nov 2009
1 "Perils"
Miasma & The Carousel of Headless Horses; Audio CD; £5.84
Sold by: all your music
1 "A Garland of Song"
The Owl Service; Audio CD; £7.71
Sold by: all your music
Albert, hope you like them
as much as I do, The Owl Service have a new one due out next year, am hoping they carry on developing the more darker/experimental side.
With regards to MM, is there a definitive cd that I can start with? There is a track (first one) on their myspace, which immediately caught my attention, sounded like they were using a hammered dulcimer or something, very good. Love the fact that they come from such an unromantic town like Northampton.
Again, hope you like them, will be interested to hear what you think of them.
I'll definitely be reporting back.
And as far as names go, The Owl Service had me at hello.
That Myspace track Where Can You Scream? is the first track off SyMptoMs, and is as good a place to start as any. Unlike Ghost Box, Mordant don't really have a trademark sound -- it's more an aesthetic -- but that album and The Tower are probably their most fully realised musically. Dead Air is fascinating and creepy but has a major spoken word element that makes it a bit of a commitment.
Interesting stuff
Thanks for stirring some intrigue. Will dig further, love the O-Level Maths text book aesthetic.
I was unaware of this whole thing until I picked up the Broadcast's new one which is a collaboration between them and The Focus Group. To be fair there has always been a creepy, early 70s cold war/public information film element to their music but this is quite the oddest thing the band have ever done. I'm seeing them live soon and Warp Records have made it quite clear that the band have now slimmed down to a two piece, and there won't be any 'old' performed. It will be mostly this sort of thing:
Sounds right up my alley
What would be a good starting point? Is there some sort of compilation?
Not that I know of
But you could do a lot worse than the new Belbury Poly album, From an Ancient Star.
Interesting
The past few years I've been following a funny little path through music, and the internet and blogs have been a good source along the way.
The darker side of Saint Etienne, The music from Bagpuss and The Clangers, Basil Kirchin, Boards Of Canada, Tunng, random library music found on funny little blogs, odd psychedelic folk tunes from the late 60s and early 70s, the Fuzzy Felt Folk compilation, some odd arty things at Cecil Sharp House (arguably the home of British Folk music) where dulcimer melodies sat over breakbeats whilst film clips of people wearing horse's heads walking through spotlit forests played.
Looking over Trunk Records wikipedia page you can see some of my path in and out of their discography
Hauntology eh? I never knew there was a name for what I was interested in.
I shall be investigating as soon as I get home!
Incidentally
If you join the Ghost Box mailing list you get a bunch of free downloads.
http://ghostbox.greedbag.com/freedownload/
Fascinating thread…
… that's presented exciting new avenues to explore. 'Hauntology' - the coinage is regrettably barbarous, but I guess we're stuck with it. Nonetheless, the idea alone strikes a very deep chord - as it probably does for many others of a certain age and sensibility (far more so for me than the 'industrial' genre with its cheap Nazi/serial killer shock tactics). The Broadcast track is great - as a huge fan, I was a bit disappointed with their last album, but this sounds like a must-buy.
With slightly different reference points, but, I'd say, equally creepy in the same emotionally involving way is The Caretaker's 'Haunted Ballroom' album.
I think I'm hooked!
There is a great sampler from Ghost Box called 'Ritual and Education'. Its only available on download and if you're an Emusic subscriber it's here:
http://www.emusic.com/album/Focus-Group-Ritual-and-Education-MP3-Downloa...
I've got the 'Dead Air' record on order from
http://www.mordantmusic.com/
If anyone wants a listen you can preview here:
http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=31385
And remember...don't sleep in the Segue will you?