Woman in Black. A Fine Edition

My friend Mr Palmer has just recently loaned me a copy of Susan Hill’s Woman in Black. I have read the book and seen the film….plus seen the stage version, but I was rather taken by this hard back copy 1st published in 1983. The Illustrations are by John Lawrence and at first they might seem a bit light in style and at times even jovial, more fitting a lighter tale. But the illustrations are in fact quite lovely and are definitely a bonus which add to the whole reading experience of this classic story;  The Woman in Black has many elements of other classic ghost stories. An old house, a causeway, a village were the locals mutter into their pints at the mention of the house, an unsuspecting hero, eerie sounds in the night, spooky children, fog/mist, secrets, vengeance, a locked room, rocking chair and of course The Woman in Black. All this is used to great effect as the mystery unfolds and the suspense builds and reaches a climax.
I have seen both the BBC adaption (Screenplay by Nigel Kneel) and the 2012 film with Danial Radcliffe. Both quite good in their own right; even though the film does change the story quite a bit, but both are very enjoyable and def worth a watch. 

Just a Bad Dream

In the summer of 2018 I was contacted by Cherry Red Records who were putting together a 60 track compilation of 1980s Garage/Postpunk/Trash. They were very keen to include a Psylons track from the Bite Back Records Cassette release Psylons is Golden.
It had been many many years since I had given my old band Psylons much thought. Occasionally things would turn up on YouTube and other places on line, but that was about it. In 2016 Gideon Coe played a Psylons Peel Session track (Gideon Coe has also consistently played Keith Seatman tracks. Thank you Mr Coe) and in 2014 a Psylons track was played on a John Peel 75th anniversary special.
I have over the years (on and off, def more on than off now) stayed in touch with the rest of the band. So after a catch up and band meeting (not had one of them for decades) we agreed to let Cherry Red use the requested track Waiting Nation. Jack Packer (Psylons Guitar) re-mastered the track as we only had a cassette copy of it and Warren Grech (Psylons Bass) did the write up for the CD booklet. Unfortunatly Carl Edwards (Drums) was very ill and could not meet up with us. So we agreed that we would email, text all relevent info to Carl to keep him in the loop and part of the whole project. Carl would regulery reply to my emails outlining what was going on and giving us the thumbs up to go ahead with it.  Just A Bad Dream is a massive and impressive collection. Naturally Billy Childish features heavily on this collection (Thee Mighty Ceasars, The Milkshakes, The Headcoats) but there are also so many others: Naz Nomad, The Playn Jayn, The Wolfhounds, Biff Bang Pow, Jesus and The Mary Chain, The Prisoners, Prime Movers, Sexton Ming and loads and loads more. The music site Louder than War said this about the collection
A must-have compilation for all lovers of that stripped back primitive sound.On this new compilation, Cherry Red have taken a snapshot of the bands that maintained the garage-trash sound throughout the 80s in the UK.

Sadly by the time this collection was released our dear friend and Drummer Carl Edwards had passed away. I am 100% certain that he would have loved the finished product.

Test Transmission Archive Reel 35

Here is the 1st Test Transmission Archive Reel of 2019 (hopefully not the last) To get things going this time round we have music from Boards of Canada, Paddy Kingsland, Aquarian Age, Cate le Bon, Pye Corner Audio, Sun Ra, Seatman and Powell (Featuring Belbury Poly) Sproatly Smith, Soundhog, Talk Talk, Andy Quin and loads more.

So if you fancy a listen, bimble over to mixcloud. I am going to be busy working on the new album and a track for A Year in the Country. So until we all meet again feet up, heads down and until the spring goodbye.

Found Objects: Zokko

Found Objects: Zokko: For quite a while now my brain has been telling me that when I was very very young there was a program on Saturday lunch times call Zokko...

Special CD Album and EP Bundle

A limited special CD bundle
Includes the album all hold hands and off we go
and the CD EP Disjointed Oddities and Other Such Things
Vocals on both CDs by Douglas E Powell
Broken Folk Spiricom Shake Down remix by Revbjelde (Buried Treasure Records)

Available from
Here

Vinyl and Digi update

New Year update

There are still some Vinyl copies of the Seatman and Powell (featuring Belbury Poly)
10inch ep available from The Belbury Music Shop

Or if the mood takes you
full digi discount bundle consisting of 5 albums and 2 ep's
from Bandcamp

An Interesting Start to the Year

Its been an interesting start to the year. Arriving in my mail box the other day was the announcement of the next Buried Treasure Records Deleware Rd event. This time round its taking place in at an old Army base in Wiltshire on Sat 17th and Sun 18th Aug
LINE UP CONFIRMED so far is: PENNY RIMBAUD / DOMINIC LASH + SETH COOKE / PAUL WATSON / ANI KCAM / MARK VERNON / NATALIE SHARP / LONE TAXIDERMIST / ANDREA PARKER / LIA MICE / CATTLE / THE SEANCE / FRONT & FOLLOW / KEMPER NORTON / THE SLOWEST LIFT / EMBLA QUICKBEAM / ARC SOUNDTRACKS / DJ FOOD / SARAH ANGLISS / CLAY PIPE MUSIC / SIMON JAMES / REVBJELDE / CASTLES IN SPACE / THE TWELVE HOUR FOUNDATION / CONCRETISM / POLYPORES / PSYCHE TROPES / SCULPTURE / HOWLROUND + MERKABA MACABRE / A’BEAR / DOUG SHIPTON / NICK TAYLOR / ALISON COTTON / IAN HELLIWELL / RADIONICS RADIO + MORE TO BE ANNOUNCED.
The austere military complex of New Zealand Farm near West Lavington will act as the
venue for over 10 hours of live music, DJs, experimental films, talks, exhibitions, rituals & theatrics inspired by landscape, myth, broadcast propaganda & the transformative nature of sound.

Tickets available from here

Next up and arriving just before Christmas was the new one from Pye Corner Audio; Hollow Earth. Its PCA's 3rd album for Ghostbox and was conceived as a sequel to 2016's Stasis. Its a lovely sounding album, mastered by Dean Honer with artwork by Julian House. Stand out track for me is the wonderfully haunting The Seventh Labyrinth (makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand everytime I here it.
Hollow Earth is Released on 15th Feb 2019
as CD, LP and Download from State 51 Conspiracy

Back in 2016 at the Folk Horror event at the British Museum
Chris Lambert asked me to contribute a track to the Wyrd Kalender album....and here it is

WYRD KALENDAR

Released by Mega Dodo
Jan 1st 2019
Edited and curated by Chris LambertMastered by Chris Sharp
Book written by Chris Lambert
Illustrations and artwork by Andy Paciorek

 Following the success of “Songs from the Black Meadow” in 2016 Mega Dodo and Chris Lambert are proud to present Wyrd Kalendar, a new Book and CD release. This will be released on January 1^st the beginning of the next Wyrd year.
 
Wyrd Kalendar takes the year as its starting point weaving from dark and forgotten traditions stories and music to delight, disturb and escape into.
 
Artists from the England, Scotland, Ireland and Portugal were each given a month of the year and a story from the book (Wyrd Kalendar) as a starting point from which to create a vastly eclectic and evocative mix of genres that sweep from the worlds of Folk to Electronica via Psychedelic licks and lost Horror Soundtracks.
 
Each month is presented by a different artist.
January: Widow’s Weeds (lead by Grey Malkin formerly of The Hare and the Moon) give us their occult tinged hymn to that month in Song for January.
February: Electronic wizard Keith Seatman explores the strange world of the Three Day Girl forever doomed to experience the missing days of that truncated month.
March: Psych-Folk singer Emily Jones brings to life the words of her long dead ancestor in Waiting for Spring.
April: Psychedelic Queen of Spring - Crystal Jaqueline plays us all for fools as she goes Chasing the Gowk.
May: Ghost Box’s Beautify Junkyards charm us with their delicious and haunting May Day Eve.
June: Alison O’Donnell of Mellow Candle, Flibbertigibbet, Firefay and United Bible Studies teams up with David Colohan on her wasp celebration Deadly Nest.
July: Scarfolk collaborator and electronic ghost of Cold War Britain Concretismbrings to life A Fair by the Sea.
August: Icarus Peel explores lost love and yearning as he explores the words of the aching and humid The Weeping Will Walk.
September: Legendary Folk Rock duo Tir na nOg encourage us to raise a glass to Autumn with Columbine.
October: Wyrdstone explores the haunting rhythms of harvest in The Field.
November: The Soulless Party leave the Black Meadow to take us for a Dark November Drive.
December: The Rowan Amber Mill explore the darker side of Christmas with The Witch’s Lament.
The Year: The 13^th track of the album is called Wyrd Kalendar. The Mortlake Bookclub explore the world of the book and the year through their unusual aural game of Exquisite Corpse.
Available from Here

Seasons Greetings

Seasons Greetings to you all

Marvel Classics Comics

When I was about 12 the Marvel Classics Comics series was my introduction into the world of fantasy/horror/scifi literature. I still have my collection of these and have recently been looking through them. The stories were not exact copies from the books, and in places literary liberties were taken with some of the stories, but I loved them. There were a total of 36 issues of Classics Comics and 12 were in fact reprints from another publisher (Pendulum Now Age Classics)
A full list of all the Classics Comics can be viewed here. To this day there are a few which I would love to get hold of (Christmas Carol, 1st Men in the Moon, Alice in Wonderland, Food of the Gods) They were very difficult to get hold of in my town, and I remember there were a few Newsagents that I would visit, to pick up my monthly copy of Tomb of Dracula and they would endeavor to order Classics Comics for me. The problem was that it was always hit and miss, sometimes they could get hold of them and sometimes not (A very disappointed me when Black Beauty turned up and I was expecting Pit and the Pendulum) 

Aluminum Its the future of Christmas

Aluminum.....Its not just for gifts.....its for Trees as well.
Its so convenient

Found Objects: Finishing Line

Found Objects: Finishing Line: Monday, 2 May 2016 As far as 1970s Public info films go, The Finishing Line has to be the most overlooked and hard hitting of them a...

Out Now. Broken Folk 10 inch EP and Digi Release

After over a year of planning, and long walks on the Southdowns, the Seatman And Powell (Featuring Belbury Poly) 10 inch has arrived. The original plan for this release was conceived 18 months ago late one night in North Devon. Myself and Doug, decided to release a 7 inch single containing two vocal tracks. These tracks were from the albums all hold hands and off we go and A Rest Before the Walk. Doug and I would re-master and re-work these 2 tracks and release them as a very limited run. Then the idea moved on a bit to a 7 inch ep. Months went by and I discussed this project with Jim Jupp at Ghost Box. Way back in early 2018 myself Jim, Doug and our friend Russel went for a very long walk along the South Downs. It was when sitting in a very snug pub in Lewes that Jim said he would be interested in releasing the single but taking it up to a 10inch on colour vinyl and full colour artwork. Not to be released on Ghostbox but released through his own Belbury Music. I said yes to this and months down the line here is the final product.
The EP has 5 tracks with Broken Folk remixed by Belbury Poly.
The 4 other tracks have been re-worked by myself and Doug.
All tracks re-mastered by Jim Jupp, and all artwork by Jim Jupp at Belbury Music.
Broken Folk Excerpts Soudcloud
  An EP of collaborations with folk singer Douglas E. Powell selected from Keith Seatman’s last two albums. It opens with a remix of the title track Broken Folk by stalwarts of British pastoral electronica Belbury Poly.
Melancholic and subtly psychedelic, these songs are redolent of supernatural short stories and winter afternoons out on English landscapes.  They are dark rustic reveries, occupying the overlapping territory between haunted electronica and wyrd folk.
Seatman builds a dense collage of electronics, fragmented melody and found sound, around which Powell weaves his dreamlike lyrics.
The tracks have been remastered for the EP by Belbury Poly’s Jim Jupp and the 10” is pressed on translucent green vinyl with sleeve art by Jim Jupp. It’s released on Seatman’s own label
KS Audio in conjunction with Jupp’s Belbury Music.
The Broken Folk vinyl ep can be purchased from the
Belbury Music Shop 
The Digital version is available from Bandcamp.   

 

Wyrd Kalender January 1st 2019

WYRD KALENDAR
Released by Mega Dodo
Edited and curated by Chris Lambert
Mastered by Chris Sharp
Book written by Chris Lambert
Illustrations and artwork by Andy Paciorek
  Available to buy from January 1^st 2019 from Mega Dodo
CD and digital download

www.mega-dodo.co.uk
www.wyrdkalendar.blogspot.com

All profits from the sale of Wyrd Kalendar will go to Cancer Research UK.

Following the success of “Songs from the Black Meadow” in 2016 Mega Dodo and Chris Lambert are proud to present Wyrd Kalendar, a new Book and CD release.
This will be released on January 1^st the beginning of the next Wyrd year.

Wyrd Kalendar takes the year as its starting point weaving from dark and forgotten traditions stories and music to delight, disturb and escape into.

Artists from the England, Scotland, Ireland and Portugal were each given a month of the year and a story from the book (Wyrd Kalendar) as a starting point from which to create a vastly eclectic and evocative mix of genres that sweep from the worlds of Folk to Electronica via Psychedelic licks and lost Horror Soundtracks.

Each month is presented by a different artist.
January: Widow’s Weeds (lead by Grey Malkin formerly of The Hare and the Moon) give us their occult tinged hymn to that month in Song for January.
February: Electronic wizard Keith Seatman explores the strange world of the Three Day Girl forever doomed to experience the missing days of that truncated month.
March: Psych-Folk singer Emily Jones brings to life the words of her long dead ancestor in Waiting for Spring.
April: Psychedelic Queen of Spring - Crystal Jaqueline plays us all for fools as she goes Chasing the Gowk.
May: Ghost Box’s Beautify Junkyards charm us with their delicious and haunting May Day Eve.
June: Alison O’Donnell of Mellow Candle, Flibbertigibbet, Firefay and United Bible Studies teams up with David Colohan on her wasp celebration Deadly Nest.
July: Scarfolk collaborator and electronic ghost of Cold War Britain Concretismbrings to life A Fair by the Sea.
August: Icarus Peel explores lost love and yearning as he explores the words of the aching and humid The Weeping Will Walk.
September: Legendary Folk Rock duo Tir na nOg encourage us to raise a glass to Autumn with Columbine.
October: Wyrdstone explores the haunting rhythms of harvest in The Field.
November: The Soulless Party leave the Black Meadow to take us for a Dark November Drive.
December: The Rowan Amber Mill explore the darker side of Christmas with The Witch’s Lament.
The Year: The 13^th track of the album is called Wyrd Kalendar. The Mortlake Bookclub explore the world of the book and the year through their unusual aural game of Exquisite Corpse.

About:  Wyrd Kalendar – The Book
Open the Wyrd Kalendar and explore the year with eyes that are not your own…

Join Chris Lambert and Andy Paciorek as they guide you through the twelve months of the year weaving twelve tales of Magic, Murder, Terror, Love and the Wyrd.

Hold to the resolution in January…
Seek to do more with those missing days in February…
Avoid the madness of the March hare…
Become the fool in April…
Dance around Aunt May…
Protect and nurture the June bug…
Celebrate Grotto Day in July…
Fall in love and weep in August…
Let it all fall in September…
Prepare for the October harvest…
Avoid November sin…
Do not let December find you out…

“Gripping, sometimes terrifying but always surprising: this is the year described in the Wyrd Kalendar. Live it if you dare…” – Sebastian Baczkiewicz - Creator of BBC Radio 4’s “Pilgrim”
"There's a story here for all horror tastes, from the understated to the gruesome and everything in between."
"Those with a fondness for horror's rich folk heritage will find plenty to enjoy here, but what's most impressive about Wyrd  Kalendar is how both Lambert and Paciorek have captured the spirit and mood of each month in their storytelling."
"If you like your scare fare laced with imagination, surprise, and plenty of spine-tingling moments, I cannot recommend this enough." - Kieran Fisher - Scream Magazine Issue 49 July/Aug 2018 (pp 94-95)

About:  Songs from the Black Meadow (Released by MegaDodo 2016)
“Songs From The Black Meadow is a deeply involving and atmospherically congruent undertaking, swathed in the beckoning hauntology of the fictitious-or-is-it Black Meadow itself.” – Record Collector
“Here’s a legend for a new kind of perception.” – DME
“Songs From The Black Meadow is a well-realized, immersive concept that will pull you in, and never let you go. It serves as an additional soundtrack for some damn fine horrors, and also stands alone as a weird, supernatural journey all its own.” – forestpunk
“Sometimes frivolous, sometimes chilling, let this be your entrance into one of modern acid folk’s most pervasive myths.” – Goldmine Magazine

Music for Zombies: Review - Seatman and Powell - Broken Folk

Music for Zombies: Review - Seatman and Powell - Broken Folk: Highlights Tonight from K.S. Audio BROKEN FOLK WILL ENCHANT  *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   * ON K.S.AUDIO TONIGHT ...

Broken Folk EP Excerpts. Release Date Nov 14th 2018

Test Transmission Archive Reel 34

Been quite a while since my last Test Transmission Archive Reel, and to be honest probably the last one for 2018. Will def be more in 2019, just a tad busy at the mo working on 10in ep release and new album. So this time round to keep you all going through the Autumn and Winter you have XTC, Mary Hopkin, Darren Burn, Revbjelde, Richard Dawson, Paddy Kingsland, The Twelve Hour Foundation, Guy Pedersen and loads more. So until Archive Reel 35 wrap up warm take care and enjoy the dark winter nights (I always do)