Tag: 2022

The Delaware Road by Alan Gubby

a rare book review but if you like folk horror, hauntology and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop then you need this..

A gripping tale of an alternative timeline where the government performed occult rituals in BBC Basements during World War 2 and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop (or rather their equivalent in this timezone) discover the tapes to devastating consequences.

The format is very unique, the story presented as a film script on the left page and illustrated on the right. The design and illustration is outstanding with every page demanding your eyes embrace it yet it never clashes with the film playing in your head, serving as a sort of leader for your imagination.

There’s also plenty of prefaces and appendices as Gubby began by telling this story through multi-media performances including a night in a bunker and an actual festival on an active military base. All this is presented with flyers, event photos and even schematics. Very handy context for those of us who never had a hope in hell of attending.

There’s a lot going on in this story. A central thread being the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and with most central characters being analogous to actual composers who worked at the Workshop, though you don’t need to know anything about the Workshop to enjoy the story [however, if you would like to know more then you should read my book!]. Then you’ve got witch cults, haunted electronics, cursed recordings and soundwaves as a means to revolution with some sex and violence thrown in too (not at the same time). 

All that draws a Venn diagram of pertinent themes with ‘The Delaware Road’ right in that perfect sweet spot at the center. It would make one hell of a movie, for sure, but it also works great in this format. I practically inhaled it, only stopping to read due to the demands of work and life. 

My copy even came stunningly wrapped in printed paper with art prints and postcards and radiation pills. The strong visual aspects echoing the multi-media origins of the tale. Once you’ve consumed the story, the book’s stunning visual aesthetics means you’ll still not be letting it go and enjoying a flick through the art many a time. I suspect I’ll be lured back in to reading it all again by that art in the none too distant future.

I mostly buy ebooks these days due to space constraints but this was one I had to have a physical copy of on my shelf and if you’re the sort of person who reads this website, I suspect you need one too.

review of SANTAKA – NO RIVERS HERE

A beautiful bed of warm bass supports an exploring stream of electronics and jazziness here. Imagine a nocturnal jam between Cluster and late period Talk Talk remixed by Adrian Sherwood as the score for some 70s crime flick. I know that sounds unlikely, nay unbelievable but that is what seems to be wafting from my speakers and enveloping my room. It makes perfect sense that this is a collaboration between two seasoned pros, one from the world of out there jazz and the other from the world of out there club music. A meeting of envelope-pushers you might say and this is neither of those things, but some utterly twisted chimera, spliced from them and gouged into something new.

If you like fresh music that puts you in a similar headstate then this one will take you there. It’s deep, enchanting, unique and exceptional.

Trevor Beales – Fireside Stories

Everyone loves a tale of lost genius that it can be all too seductive when a press release comes along promising such. Add in a dash of Hebden Bridge then wrap it up in the contemporary photographs of Charlie Meecham and the omens were so strong that anything other than a revelation would be a severe disappointment.

Thankfully it delivers on the promise and the vinyl is already on its second pressing before I’d even written my review. You’ve got the intimate ambience of a guy taping his stuff in an attic but then given the modern mastering by Andrew Liles. What he’s done with cassette recordings from the early 70s is nothing short of miraculous.

He really could play that guitar and sing with a full heart but the most surprising part is how his original compositions sound like they’ve stepped out of some classic songbook. You could imagine John Renbourn covering these songs with a cheery aside about “old classics”

Trevor Beales died suddenly at the age of 33 in 1987. Its taken all this time for his music to reach us but it’s found its time and it’s place.

Tokio Ono – Individuals

This is one of those albums that you need for stress emergencies. It’s the first album I’ve heard that’s made me think of 16 bit CD-Rom game soundtracks as it does Tangerine Dream.

There’s a beautiful sense of melody matched to a big, wide sound. The percussion is spacious, and the mood is very special. It’s hard not to imagine myself on an alien beach, having a wonderful time.

What we have here is someone who’s gift for composition is as great as his skill at production. Someone who can paint the walls with his music and make you feel like you’re somewhere else.

Review of Ben LaMar Gay – Certain Reveries

Walking an extraordinary tightrope between free jazz and song, this album us another testimony to the power of duos. Ben is mainly on his cornet, though he does add a little synth and vocals in there too, and matched perfectly to drummer Tommaso Moretti.

It’s a match made with searing chemistry, both artists expressing perfectly together. It hits all my favorite jazz adjectives: questing, nocturnal, spiritual, instinctive, ecstatic, experimental – sometimes simultaneously.

I never heard a cornet sing like this before and damn me if that ain’t the perfect drummer for it to bounce off.

Sweet sounds.

hand-written review of Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan – Districts, Roads, Open Spaces

 

Salvatore Mercatante – Decas

If you like your electronic music big, dark and elegant then this is going to take you away. Think icy but elegaic synths, crisp drums and warmest, deepest bass.

It made me think a little bit of peak Biosphere. That high fidelity sound, the sharp minimalism and intense atmosphere. The rhythm providing more for the composition than the dance floor

There’s something immensely immersive about the sound. I called the music ‘icy’ but at the same time it has a really ‘warm’ analog sound.

If you’re looking for some electronic music with a soul and with a ton of atmosphere then this is it.

Oracle Column – Lily

review of the most cosmic thing I’ve heard in ages

Is it a cliché to call something “deep”? As I sit here with my headphones on listening to distant percussion sounds, weird synth noise bubbling in one side of my head and divine chimes of sound at the other side, meeting in the middle of my brain, well….it feels like a deep experience.

It starts off like meditation music with “Boaz” which is side A. That spiritual feeling soon gives way to strong vintage science fiction. It’s BBC Radiophonic Workshop scoring with Jodorowsky. By the end of it, it makes me feel like I’m free-falling through inner-space.

Side two “Joachim” kicks off as a hypnotic drone jam, really sounding like the two artists are facing off over their gear. It evolves into something sunny, melodic and vaguely dubby.

This is easily one of the most cosmic things I’ve reviewed in ages. Make sure to bring your own oxygen supply.