November 2018 10inch EP Release

k s audio & Belbury Music Present

Seatman and Powell

Featuring Belbury Poly
The Broken Folk 10 inch EP

Artwork/Design by Jim Jupp (Ghostbox Records, Belbury Poly)

Side 1
Broken Folk (Belbury Poly Mix)
Boxes with Rhythms in 

Side 2
Broken Folk

Mr Metronome

My Morning Ritual 

Track 1 Remixed by Belbury Poly
Tracks 2-5 Reworked and Remastered from the Albums

A Rest Before the Walk
All Hold Hands and off we Go 

Release Date November 2018

Also Full Digi Discography can now be purchased from Bandcamp
for the super low price of £14

Hare and the Moon/Grey Malken Reviews all hold hands hands

A Review for all hold hands and off we go by
Grey Malken/Hare and the Moon (Active Listener 2017)

 

Hampshire artist Keith Seatman beckons us to return to his spooked, analogue world with his fifth album 'All Hold Hands And Off We Go', the follow up to 2015's masterful folk flecked slice of electronic pastoralism 'A Rest Before A Walk'. With a back catalogue of haunted gems as well as being the architect behind the highly recommended Test Transmission mixes, Seatman is quietly cementing a reputation as one of the foremost and most influential of electronic explorers in the inhabited by fellow travelers Belbury Poly, The Advisory Circle and Concretism. 'All Hold Hands And Off We Go' more than cements this; this is possibly Seatman's finest yet and an album which seems to unveil more depth, detail and riches upon each successive encounter.

The brief ominous hum and distant chatter of voice that opens 'A Lighthouse Might Look Long' provides a startling and pleasingly disorientating beginning to proceedings before the driven and urgent synth stomp of 'All Hold Hands And Off We Go' accelerates the listener into a metallic and neon filled dream. Electronic drumbeats propel the whirling strings and twisted carnivalesque keys and chimes; both exhilarating and disconcerting this ably sets out Seatman's stall and leaves some other 'hauntology' or electronica acts seem tame and plodding in comparison. 'Skipping Rope' goes even further down the rabbit hole, a descending synth motif merges with a children’s' song, music boxes and clattering percussion to create a truly spectral and ghost filled vision that begs repeat listening; nightmares have rarely sounded quiet so delicious. Next, 'Mr Metronome' eases the pace to a stately, dystopian glacial grandeur, strings framing vocalist Douglas E Powell's breathtaking performance; fans of John Foxx, should immediately seek this out. Should an alternative soundtrack to Ben Wheatley's 'High Rise' be needed then he need look no further; this is both chilling and addictive. 'Left behind, Lost Or Dropped' screams into view, propelled by insistent keys and increasingly frantic drumbeats, it's melody (as Seatman's seem to) getting under the listener’s skin and into the imagination; this music conjures visuals like almost no other. Next, 'Four Steps At A Time' shrouds its glistening melodies in a cosmic wind, echoes from a past within the present ricocheting and returning around the steady electric beat. Haunting and curiously uplifting, this track exemplifies the layers and careful construction involve din Seatman's mini symphonies, there is so much going on here that repeated listens are ably rewarded. 'Odd In A Nightcap and Cup' posits backwards effects amidst synthetic voices and analogue bleeps and whirrs before an organ harmony plucked straight from some decaying old Hollywood film hovers into view; this music is filled with ghosts. 'Tap Tap' is a foreboding slice of future sock; rasping keyboards and a colossal sounding drums give an indication perhaps of what Black Sabbath might have sounded like in alternate universe had they formed with a battery of Korg synths rather than conventional instruments. 'Boxes With Rhythms In' returns Douglas E Powell to the helm for an album highlight, a shimmering jewel of a song, banks of strings and keys creating a processional march of no small power. The album concludes with 'Of salt And candy', a children’s' nursery rhyme resonating against electronic howls and gusts; an ending befitting the otherworldly nature of what has come before.

This is a masterclass in atmosphere and mood but also in melody and song craft; Seatman has composed an album that lingers long after it has finished, it leaves its own ghosts behind and delightfully so. This is essential listening but don't stop here; seek out Seatman's earlier albums for more treasures. Available now from KS Audio on CD and as a download from Bandcamp
Grey Malken (Hare and the Moon 2017)

We are Cult Review

Short extract from the We are Cult Review of all hold hands and off we go

Sometimes it’s very pretty. Sometimes it makes you glance out of the window to make sure that there aren’t people wearing Badger Masks stood menacingly at the end of your drive. Sometimes it’s both of those things. It’s intriguing, inventive stuff, quite bouncy in places, and the propulsive title track motors along with infectious energy like a sort of 70s children’s TV version of Can. We Are Cult highly recommend all hold hands and off we go. Now, if you’ll excuse me, there’s some men with Badger Masks outside and I’m looking for a broom.

Martin Ruddock  (We are Cult July 2017)

For full review and many many other interesting things click on link to

We Are Cult

What Next????? There is a Plan (Maybe)

A while back I had the idea to maybe rework (polish and tidy up) four of the tracks that have appeared on the last two albums (all hold hands and off we go, A Rest Before the Walk) which feature the vocals and lyrics of Douglas E Powell. I trekked down to North Devon to have a bit of a summit meeting with Doug and to discuss this idea and maybe release four tracks on a 7inch EP. Doug liked the idea, so in July this year, after a long old slog in Doug's studio we finally finished the music side of this project. There are still some vocals to re-record, but getting there. The Tracks are Boxes with Rhythms in, My Morning Ritual, Broken Folk and Mr Metronome.

We are not sure when the EP will be released...........at first we were optimistic that it was going to get released by another label, but that has fallen through now, so unless we get interest and someone else picks this up, we will probably release the EP ourselves sometime in 2018. I have now also started to record new tracks myself. Not sure what I will do with these??? again might end up on an album or I might do another EP myself??? Who knows???

Still Some CDs left here, but not there

There are still some CDs left and available from Bandcamp for all hold hands and off we go.
CDs now sold out in the Ghost Box Records Guests shop.

Press/Reveiws
It's music of a lost Albion, a windswept land of steel skies and old ways, of dark, satanic mills built upon psilocybin drenched earth fertilised by the endlessly copulating ghosts of generations of cunning folk. Through it's hands runs a stream of British outsider music from Coil to Bowie at his most enigmatic and it feels like it's redefining the boundaries of what constitutes a truly British music.
Ian Holloway (Wyrd Britain June 2017)  

Surreal retro analogue visions slide in and out of haunted fever dreams in this woozy, uniquely psychedelic, Radiophonic-flavored concoction that's suffused with ambivalent subconscious.
Carl Griffin Electronic Sound Magazine 28 (April 2017)
 
Odd In A Nightcap And Cup’ and ‘Please, Is It You’ very much recall Broadcast, ‘Tap Tap’ could be The Human League Mark One doing incidental music for Blake’s Seven and once again, Devon-based folky Douglas E Powell contributes some Syd-esque vocals on the haunting ‘Mr Metronome.
Jon Mojo Mills Shindig Issue 67 (May 2017)
 
Unsettling pastoral electronica on this 5th CD album from Keith Seatman.
He’s joined on two tracks by vocalist Douglas Powell.
Jim Jupp (Ghost Box Records May 2017)
 
The mixing and seamlessly combining and bringing together of atmospheres that you would not normally connect with one another is probably one of the defining aspects of the album; this is an unsettling, playful, warm, comforting, distant, familiar, experimental work with an intriguing pop edge.
A Year in the Country (April 2017) 

Strange exotica, repeated samples and a sense of quiet adventure are found on Keith Seatman‘s all hold hands and off we go.
A Closer Listen (April 2017)

An album length sonic journey into the surreal, the strange and the sinister, a psychedelic pseance populated by waking dreams, nocturnal nightmares and supernatural forbearance, a melodic map of discovered Barrett-esque continents and hitherto beyond the eye magick lands. Trippy stuff.
The Sunday Experience (Jan 2017) 

BBC 6 Music Freak Zone 11th & 18th June

Stuart Maconie played left behind or lost & dropped from all hold hands and off we go
two Sundays in a row 11th and 18th June on Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone

So a big massive nod and thank you to Mr Maconie.

 

all hold hands in the Ghost Box Guests shop

As from today a limited number of all hold hands an off we go will be available to purchase from the Ghost Box Records Guests shop. Digital and CD copies of all hold hands, and previous albums can also be purchased from Bandcamp.

A couple of Nice reveiws. Electronic Sound and Shindig

A couple of rather nice reviews from Electronic Sound 28. and Shindig 67

all hold hands and off we go. Release April 2017

Here are 11 excerpts from all hold hands and off we go.
all hold hands and off we go is the 5th album of strange Electronics, Psych, Radiophonics, Drone and quirky Folk by Keith Seatman.
As on his previous release (A Rest Before the Walk) Keith re-unites with North Devon Singer/Songwriter Douglas E Powell for two tracks
mr metronome and boxes with rhythms in.
Release Date April 2017
CD and Digital download from Bandcamp.
The tracks are
a lighthouse might look long
all hold hands and off we go
skipping rope
mr metronome*
left behind or lost & dropped
four steps at a time
odd in a nightcap and cup
tap tap
boxes with rhythms in*
with salt and candy
please, is it you?

Out into the light sometime April-ish and again finds Mr Seatman forging alliances with Mr Powell for an album length sonic journey into the surreal, the strange and the sinister, a psychedelic pseance populated by waking dreams, nocturnal nightmares and supernatural forbearance, a melodic map of discovered Barrett-esque continents and hitherto beyond the eye magick lands. Trippy stuff.
The Sunday Experience (Jan 2017)

Keith Seatman's science fiction landscapes explode with meekness that is undiscriminating as it is enthusiastic. Seatman is a talented sound designer, and it shines on his instrumentals.
Wire Magazine 383 (Jan 2016)

Spellbinding, Captivating, Evocative Radiophonic keyboard compositions and electronic folk. Brilliant.
Carl Griffin Electronic Sound Magazine (Dec 2016)

Seatman’s odd melodies sit with industrial repetition to convey the scares of the synth laden themes and incidental scene setting pieces of early 70s through early 80s kids TV
Jon Mills (Shindig Magazine issue 39 2014)

"Seatman is a kindred spirit, and this is his most evocative and personal sounding work to date."
Jim Jupp, (Ghost Box, 2013)  

Keith Seatman is someone whose music I first heard in the context of my old experimental music zine, ‘WonderfulWooden Reasons’ and who’s album left me craving more. His latest is an utterly glorious selection of filmic folk and ghostly electronica that is utterly mesmerising from first to last.
Wyrd Britain (Nov 2015)
 
Hampshire’s Keith Seatman is a name that will be familiar to many from his previous albums such as ‘Around The Folly And Down Hill’ and ‘Consistently Mediocre And Daydreams’, both modern classics of spooked electronica and shadowy synthesised vignettes. If you have not already do take a journey through his back catalogue, there are many evocative and unsettling treasures to be found. Seatman is also known for his superb ‘Test Transmission Archive Reels', extensive mixes featuring vintage recordings, electronic and hauntological tracks and choice musical offerings.
The Active Listener (Oct 2015)

all hold hands and off we go (Excerpt)

Another excerpt from the new album all hold hands and off we go, due for release in 2017. There are also plans for a 4 track ep late in 2017 and I have two tracks on another compilation, so busy times ahead. More on all this at a later date.

New Album 2017

More info at a later date.
Until then snippets and segments can be heard here
All previous albums and reviews here

A couple of new tunes, early mixes/excerpts

A Couple of early mixes/excerpts from the new album All Hold Hands and off we Go. Due for release early 2017.