1969 Moonbase and More

What with it being 50 years since the Apollo Moon Landings, I thought it might be a good time to put my 1969 Space City Biscuit Tin on here. My friend Mr Palmer picked this up for me and it really is quite a lovely thing. In 1969 we were all so optimistic about space and the moon. The general assumption was that by the 1990s/end of the century we would be holidaying on the moon and there would be a rather splended Moonbase. On TV and Film we were constantly shown people living and working on the moon: Clavius Base in 2001, Moonbase Alpha in Space 1999, SHADO Moonbase in UFO (set in 1980) and even Hammer got in on the act with Moon City in Moon Zero 2 (set in 2021). Sadly of course in the real world none of this happened, even though I was convinced that it would. More on My fondness of all things 60s and 70s Spacewise can be sort out on Found Objects

 

SHADO/UFO Moonbase

Moonbase Alpha, Space 1999

Clavius Base, 2001

Moon City, Moon Zero Two

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...

Found Objects: Creepy Dolls

Found Objects: Creepy Dolls: There really is not a lot I can say about these adverts. I think they speak for themselves. The words Freaky and Creepy spri...

A Super Summer CD EP Clear Out

Its time for a clear out and a tidy up. There are only 5 CD copies of The Disjointed Oddities and Other Such Things EP left. So with that in mind it is time for a Super Summer CD EP Clear Out. These last few copies are going for £2.50. So if you fancy a super summer audio bargin then bimble along to Bandcamp to grab your summer bargin.
Track five on the EP is a remix of the 2015 album track Broken Folk, the original version of Broken Folk can be heard on the album A Rest Before the Walk.
Broken Folk Spiricom Shakedown Remix is by Revbjelde who appear courtesy of Buried Treasure Records. Disjointed Oddities has been played by 6 Musics Stuart Maconie (Freak Zone) and Gideon Coe

Musically he walks a capricious, queasily disconcerting and idiosyncratic path. With his sounds balancing on the edges of radiophonic playfulness and acid folk's twisted pastoralism filtered through the dark prism of Coil-esque post-industrial decay he has assembled another collection of deliciously serpentine and indefinably nebulous psychedelia fueled by oneiric logic and arcadian phantasms.
Ian Holloway (Wyrd Britain July 2018)

A Child, the Hare and the Old Wooden Chair combines the cinematic retro-futurism of bands like Pram and Broadcast with samples and experimental sound-sculpturing. DIY psych-folk with haunted electronica, effectively juxtaposing woozy, spooky, surreal and spacey. A great set of tracks from this inventive experimental electronic artist.
Bliss aquamarine (July 2018)

The strange shuffling steam train beat, electronic whistles, creaks and a guide to etiquette at a party playing within, underline the complexities and delights of this exciting EP. The haunting beats and Cutleresque reminiscing are both haunting and strangely hilarious. Enjoy the heady hard stamping disco beats. Jump and nod your head in a frenzy of nostalgic enjoyment for a forgotten  future as the beat, sweeping synth and electro drum whoops sweep you along. musicforzombies (May 2018)

Something for 2020

New Album
Keith Seatman

Time to Dream But Never Seen
Jan/Feb 2020

Chactonbury Ring (Justin, Sharron and Belbury)

Due to my daytime employment I get the benefit of having most of the summer off (and 4 half terms) so at least once in the summer and Winter I take a walk up to the SouthDowns and onto Chactonbury Ring. The photo above was taken a couple of years ago in mid December. That day I never made it to the Ring, as the weather was so bad... and I mean really bad. The wind was vicious and the rain hurt; that was as close as I could get that day.
For those of you who might (and I mean might) not know, Chactombury Ring is situated on top of Chactonbury Hill in West Sussex. Originally it was a late Bronze Age Hill Fort. Legend has it that Chanctonbury Ring was created by The Devil and that he can be summoned by running around the clump of trees seven times anti-clockwise. If he appears he will then offer you a bowl of soup in exchange for your soul. I always take a flask of soup so I should be ok. There have been reports over the years of UFO sightings, Paranormal Activity and witchcraft. The Writer and Author Robert McFarlaine writes about a night spent at Chactonbury Ring in his book The Old Ways; were he is woken up in the night after hearing chilling cries outside his tent.
So imagine my excitement when Mr Jupp from Belbury sent me a copy of the new GhostBox release Chactonbury Rings by Justin Hopper Sharron Kraus with Belbury Poly (Release Date 21st June 2019)
A spoken word and music project by writer Justin Hopper and folk musician Sharron Kraus. It also features Ghost Box's own Belbury Poly. Based on live performances of Hopper's 2017 book The Old Weird Albion (publ. Penned in the Margins), it’s a poetical, autobiographical and psychogeographical account of his experiences at Chanctonbury Ring on the West Sussex Downs.
(Ghostbox Records)
At times reminiscent of the David Cain and Ronald Duncan’s The Seasons. This is a beautiful and perfect sounding album (All Music by Sharron Kraus except Chactonbury Rings by Jim Jupp and Slow Air by Sharron Kraus and Richard Heacock)  Sharron Kraus's voice/vocals on Wanderer are haunting and soothing while Justin Hoppers narration is composed calming and untroubled. He takes us on a wonderful spoken journey which we have to follow through from start to finish.

Test Transmission Archive Reel 36

Spring is here, and so is another mix (not really Spring related) This time round for your listening delight we have: Sexton Ming, DJ Shadow, Concretism, Wire, David Essex, Dukes of the Stratosphear, Family, The Twelve Hour Foundation, Talk Talk, Ashtoreth and Grey Malkin, Andy Partridge, Yuri Morozov and so much more lurking in the wobbly old mix.
Got to spend the next few months getting the new album ready for early 2020,
So until the next one...TATA

TV Thrillers and Chillers with the Parents

Here are a couple of 1970s evening Thrillers and Chillers. I have very fond memories of watching these with my parents. I always seemed to be drawn to the intros and the music 1st, before I
had even seen a full episode. Orsen Wells Tales of Mystery ran from 73 to 74. Each episode ran for 30 mins and was a different tale every week, introduced by... Orsen Wells. The superb intro music was by John Barry.The DVD is set for UK release in July 2019

 

Another 70s fav was the ATV anthology series Thriller. This always went out on a Saturday night at 9pm. The series ran from 73 to 79. Some epsodes were supernatural and spooky some were mysteries and basic who dunits. My personal fav is Nurse will make it better starring Diana Dors, Patrick Troughton and Ed Bishop. Again I loved the intro music, which was composed by Laurie Johnson. The series was picked up on in USA, but changes were made to some episode titles (Nurse will make it better was changed to The Devils Web and Video release Night Nurse)
USA trailer here.

A couple of fine releases for April

A couple of fine new releases have arrived round here recently.

First up is this absolute stunner from Buried Treasure Records

DREW MULHOLLAND / THREE ANTENNAS IN A QUARRY
Based on an original score by Delia Derbyshire.

Drew (Mount Vernon Arts Lab) became friends with Delia Derbyshire in the late 1990's. They spoke often about electronic sound, the arts, her time at the BBC & beyond. Delia sent him a copy of a graphic score written in the late 1960s & gave her blessings to a new interpretation. Three Antennas In A Quarry (BUTR28) is a 12 track, 10" LP of dark, ambient soundscapes based on Delia's score & is released on Buried Treasure this April. With sleeve notes by Drew Mulholland & an extremely rare image of Delia Derbyshire from the mid-1970s.  

Release Date is April 13th 2019

and is available to pre-order from
Buried Treasure Records Band Camp

Next up is
Douglas E Powell and The Rising Spirit
Overnight Low 
CD and Digi download
Release Date April 15 2019
Douglas E. Powell – Vocal, Guitars
Jason Pratt – Fiddle, Backing Vocal
Simon Murfet – Drums & Hand Percussion
Cover Art - Keith Seatman
Forward - Russell McAlpine

  

Douglas E. Powell is a UK based songwriter, lyricist and performer. A key figure on the South West UK music, he is a seasoned performer and a familiar face at summer festivals around the UK. Powell has also supported a variety of artists such as: Ben Ottewell from Gomez, Tom Hingley of the Inspiral Carpets and Peter Bruntnell. In collaboration with Keith Seatman and Belbury Poly the Broken Folk EP has been featured on 6 Music with plays from Gideon Coe and Stuart Maconie’s Freak Show. Powell has two released albums as a solo artist: The Still and West and The Iron Coast. In 2015 Powell teamed up with the Rising Spirit to produce Good Men Get Lost At Sea. Overnight Low is their second album together.
Powell has a distinctive voice somewhere along the tradition of Bert Jansch, Richard Thompson and Bill Fay. His warmth and personal approach to song writing also bring to mind the work of classic artists from in the folk tradition from David Crosby to Billy Bragg. The Broken Folk project was released by Ghost Box is and altogether different spectre, recalling John Foxx or the electronic paths sometimes travelled by Robert Wyatt.

A bit of an update

There are now only 5 CD copies of Disjointed Oddities and Other Such Things left on my Bandcamp site
The Broken Folk 10inch EP is still available from the re-vamped and new looking
Belbury Music Shop.

My last album was All Hold Hands and Off we Go in 2017 and I spent most of 2018 working on the 2 EPs and Tracks for A Year in the Country and Wyrd Kalendar

I do have plans to release another album sometime, tunes have been recorded and at present its lots of listening back and whittling the tracks down to maybe a dozen.
At present really not sure when or how it will be released.
I have recorded a track for A Year in the Country for relese later in the year.
When I do know what I am doing (do I ever ???)
I will post all info here and on Twitter

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