Issue 27b / 19 July 2024
Your essential DIY electronic music bulletin... Track Of The Week: WH Lung + new release round-up... James Adrian Brown, Acid Klaus, The Both And + A Year In The Country's new book + more
Hello again. We’re back for our second dose of the day. If you missed the first instalment, featuring a ‘25 Years Of DiN’ review and Ian Boddy interview, you can find it here… moonbuilding.substack.com/p/issue-27a-19-july-2024 – if you are ever at a loose end you can find all our back issues at moonbuilding.substack.com, there’s plenty of reading there to keep you quiet.
This morning we also unveiled Moonbuilding Issue 5. For those who don’t know, we do a print version of all this. It’s a lovely 48-page A5 zine full of this kind of stuff. If you’re enjoying this newsletter the zine will be an essential purchase. It goes on sale next Friday at moonbuilding.bandcamp.com, full details are at the bottom of this newsletter.
Righto, that’s us. Have a lovely weekend.
Neil Mason, editor
moonbuildingmag@gmail.com
Issue 27 Playlist: bndcmpr.co/28981de1
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WH LUNG ‘How To Walk’ (Melodic)
Photo: Marieke Macklon
Manchester’s WH Lung make a return this autumn with a third album, ‘Every Inch Of Earth Pulsates’, the first fruit of which, ‘How To Walk’, bodes well. That said, their first two long-players are a pretty good indication that quality is assured.
Taking a trip over the Pennines to Sheffield, the band have been working with Ross Orton on production duties for the first time. “He’s the king of not overthinking it and trusting the process of the art of recording songs,” says singer Joseph Evans. “He was always there to stop us fucking around with cerebral stuff and get it down.”
It’s a process that has clearly worked well from the sound of things. ‘How To Walk’ is a full-throttle belter with a rattling kosmische groove, clanking guitars and a singalong wooo-oooooh chorus. It is one of those tunes you can’t listen to just once. I’ve had it on repeat for a while, it’s not helping my productivity today I can tell you.
The album is released by Melodic on 18 October.
Got an upcoming release? We’re all ears. Find us at moonbuildingmag@gmail.com
Words: Neil Mason
GOOD STUFF #1
JAMES ADRIAN BROWN ‘Terra Incognita’ (Castles In Space)
If I had more time, I’d be asking questions about the making of this EP from the former Pulled Apart By Horses man. It says “from stone xylophones crafted out of railway line sleepers to scaling radio masts to capture air traffic control messages with homemade antennas, ‘Terra Incognita’ explores themes of self-exploration, mental discovery, and inner healing”. I mean, that one sentence would keep me going with questions for quite some time. JAB, as people seem to like to refer to him as, is clearly an interesting chap. Since leaving PABH (as no one calls them) and swapping “fuzz-soaked guitars for swarming synthesisers”, James’ new sonic identity has so far released a clutch of singles and this, despite consisting of six tracks, is his debut EP. I think I’ve said this before, but EPs are four tracks, mini albums can be six… rules are rules.
James talks about the making of ‘Terra Incognita’ and how he had “this musical journey” in his head, “a kind of road trip almost”. He says the sessions were immersive, “deep physical experiences” and you can hear that in the music. The way that ‘Down In The Doldrums’ swells and grows is stand-up-and-cheer good and I love the tape slurs in among the edgy squalls and heartbeat rhythm of ‘Olympus Mons’. This was intended to be his debut solo album, but it’s a fully realised piece of work, dark and foreboding, very cinematic, and at six tracks not quite long enough to call an album. James talks about how the process acted as a kind of catharsis and as his mental health improved so it seemed that the work was complete. “It just felt artificial to force additional pieces to complete a full record,” he says. So here it is. Listen and enjoy. I always like when guitar players come over to the dark side. Especially when they turn in work like this.
GOOD STUFF #2
VEINS FULL OF STATIC & TWO WAY MIRRORS ‘Torn’ (Frosti)
Thomas Ragsdale’s Frosti label is on the money as always. Here we get a split release from Veins Full Of Static, Welsh ambient guitarist Jamie Jones, and Mr Ragsdale himself working as Two Way Mirrors, an occasional project based around “spontaneous studio experimentation and a sort of ‘anything goes’ ethos”. We do like an anything goes ethos. Thomas says the album is “equal parts submerged guitars and vivid string sections, all obliterated and scorched through distortion and echo units”, which again sounds great doesn’t it?
The split is three tracks for Veins, five for Two Way Mirrors. Two of the Veins cuts clock in around 10 minutes and one is just two. You’ve got to love someone who messes with you like that. It’s shame the short track isn’t a hands-in-air pop banger. Jamie’s work feels very pastoral. The excellently titled ‘Ballad For Crestfallen Office Workers’ has something of the Fripp about it. It’s that guitar shimmer, or is it a shiver. Fripp does seem to permeate our world. It’s not the first time I’ve mentioned him that’s for sure. The Two Way Mirrors tracks are of a regular length, bar one that’s a minute and half. Crazy cat (again, not a banger). The vibe is similar for both artists, but this is where the string sections come in. I particularly like the slow-burn cinematic strains of ‘Saints’, which gets a reprise as a full strings version.
There are a lot of ambient labels around, but Frosti really should be up there with the best of them. With such quality releases under the belt already, the hits keep on coming. And yet it still seems like a best-kept secret. Go tell your friends.
GOOD STUFF #3
ACID KLAUS ‘PTSD By Proxy’ (Golden Lion Sounds)
It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Adrian Flanagan’s Acid Klaus. Fret not though as the new ‘PTSD By Proxy’ EP is worth the wait. Released on Golden Lion Sounds, the label radiating out from the Todmorden venue of the same name, it’s a five-tracker (don’t get me started again about EPs) and the first single, ‘Aerodromes’ is an squelchy Italo house thumper, featuring Philly Piper who you may recognise as a member of the AK live band and from last autumn’s single, ‘You’re A Freak’ (which included some scorching remixes).
There’s much to get excited about here. I suspect most will making a beeline for ‘Losing Our Way’, which features “Queen of Sheffield’s DIY scene” Rosey PM and Maxine Peake adding some spoken word. ‘Pour Some Wood On The Fire’ features Welsh language singer/songwriter and live collective member Cat Rin, ‘Hell Below’ has Fat White Family’s Lias Saoudi on duty, while tucked away as a digital bonus track there is a storming David Holmes remix of ‘Aerodromes’, which is worth the entry price alone. Like I said, much to get excited about. You will have noticed there’s lots of guest vocalists here and Adrian even features on the mic. I suspect that’s him on ‘The Solution’. “I’m pretty good actually,” he says never shy of giving good copy, “a bit like a robot version of George Michael that was made up in a shed out of bits of rubbish.”
Digital is out today, proceeds from downloads will go to Medical Aid For Palestinians, while vinyl follows on 6 September. Which is my favourite date of the year. Golden Lion Sounds if you don’t know it is worth keeping an eye on. They did a great Weatherall compilation, ‘Sounds From The Flightpath Estate’, that sold out in the blink earlier this year. It’s worth hunting down, Andy Bell does a great cover of ‘Smokebelch II’ and there’s a couple of previously unheard Swordsman tracks.
GOOD STUFF #4
MILES OTTO ‘Desynclined’ (Subexotic)
Now, Miles Otto is a name I know. We covered him very early doors at Electronic Sound. He’s from Norwich, the mag is based there… I mean, it’s not the only reason we covered him. He was 18 when we spoke to him back in 2015. Talented little bugger. He talked about how he was making an album back then. He said it had “a sci-fi feel, like a modern soundtrack to ‘Blade Runner’. With beats”. I’m not sure this is the same release, I suspect not, but this is his debut album all the same. Since that coverage, Miles has been through university where he studied “a variety of 20th century avant-garde music” and popped out the other side after the trials and tribulations of “isolation in new and unfamiliar surroundings”, all of which seems to have informed his work.
This is very much a Subexotic release. While there isn’t a house sound, you can hear what Dan Saville likes on his label. ‘Blade Runner’ with beats this is not. ‘Desynclined’ skirts the very dark edges of the dancefloor. Actually, it doesn't make it to the dancefloor, it’s more skulking in a corridor listening through the walls. Tracks like the urgent title track are the sort of thing you might find on Planet Mu or Warp, scuzzed up techno that descends into dark and dirty territory. ‘Echinoid’ feels funky in places, a gently resonant bassline keeping time as an almost-rhythm dances around it. There’s a lot going on here. ‘Slow Theme’ is very cinematic, a chilled melodic tune while ‘SQ1 & Avalaunch Run’ comes on like a modular jam. Good to be saying we told you so back in 2015 too. Miles Otto is still one to watch for sure.
GOOD STUFF #5
THE BOTH AND ‘C-Pattern Theory’ (Wormhole World)
London-based The Both And is a name I know, but not an artist I know an awful lot about. Which is unusual, even if an name is new to me I can often dig something out. Not this time. I’ve seen and liked The Both And’s work on various labels including Front And Follow, Moolakii Club and The Dark Outside, and I know there’s a radio show on Rough Radio, but beyond that the invisibility cloak is very successful. I notice they were once described by Steve Cobby as “not third rate bobbins”. And if Cobby is onboard, well, count me in.
Here we get a full length on Wormhole World, and you can see why Cobby likes. It’s got that after-hours vibe, the title track is nicely mellow while keeping the beats going, but it’s not all like that. The record comes interspersed with more experimental offerings like the towering synthy jam ‘Form Enclosure’ and ‘18 Million Songs’, which uses cut-up chunks of TV chatter that nudge along under warm, swollen chords. ‘Lost Futures’ seems to do both at the same time, with its infectious melody and tsk-tsk beats giving way to an ambient breakdown halfway in. It’s one of those records that open-windowed summer nights were made for.
A ROUND UP IN A ROUND UP
It’s always worth keeping an eye on Matthew Herbert’s Accidental label, because you know you’re going to get something interesting. Neil Luck is a UK-based musician but ‘Eden Box’ (Accidental) was written and produced “largely on the edge of a South German forest”. By which he means in an actual forest, capturing sounds outside and on the hoof. There’s an essay/illustrated book called ‘Sensible Activities’ by Neil that includes “musical-sensory exercises” several of which relate to tracks on the album, including ‘Leaf Catalogue’, which is the “demonstration of leaf blowing” and ‘Snore Releases Sheep’, which is “testing ‘internal snore monologue’”. You need to hear this stuff. It is one weird record. As his people say in the notes, “It is all, in the end, music”. Well, some of it is.
accidentalrecords.bandcamp.com
You may recall we mentioned Drew Huddard’s Scholars Of The Peak when they released their debut outing, ‘The Peak EP’, back in April. Here he is with his debut full-length, ‘Polymorphic’. He says his work consists of “software synthesis, guitars, church bells and field recordings” and you may remember Drew is also a bell-ringer in training, which you can hear in a track like ‘Betty Coke’, which has the feel of a peel (poet/didn’t know it). The album takes on some local Peak District legends, Betty is apparently a ghost who haunts Melbourne Hall, the Derbyshire birthplace of Thomas Cook. There’s a very gentle pastoral feel about proceedings too, ‘The Magpie Mine’ feels Ghost Box-y, which is the vibe in general. I really like ‘The Foolish Viaduct’, which sounds like the theme tune from a long-lost children’s TV show. For all this and more ghost stories, you know what to do.
thescholarsofthepeak.bandcamp.com
With a Moonbuilding Track Of The Week under his cap for the stray-lettered ‘WVTADTSSPXDAMAVAND’, Sote’s album ‘Sound System Persepolis’ (Diagonal) has finally arrived for those of you who like your minimalist computer music. Ata Ebekar is from Tehran, Iran, where he returned with his family 10 years ago. “My family moved to Tehran with three suitcases each,” he explains, “so now I just use a computer – sanctions meant I couldn’t ship anything back.” Which is why his work sounds like it does. Bright and crisp and sharp, very high res. And it’s meant to be played mindblowingly loud, which would be quite a thing. Not one for background music at your next dinner party, then again…
sote-sound.bandcamp.com
I don’t know if it’s just me taking my eye off the ball, but Library Of The Occult have been quietly going about their business while I’ve been looking the other way. Witchboard’s ‘Incidental Goth Club Music For Television and Film’ (great title right there), the musical side-project of horror film director Glenn McQuaid, is very good indeed. The accompanying notes make all the right noises saying it channels the New York post-punk scene, and blends new wave, electro and darkwave. The whole thing rattles along very nicely indeed. Liking this a lot. I was all aboard when LOTO first appeared, and I’ve caught occasional releases like The Night Monitor’s ‘Horror Of The Hexham Heads’ and label boss Tom McDowell’s Dream Division and ‘Lumarian’, but it seems I have some catching up to do. Sorry Tom, I will pay proper attention to your fine label.
libraryoftheoccult.bandcamp.com
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YEAR BOOK
Stephen Prince is one of those people without who not much of this would exist. His A Year In The Country project was one of the first DIY imprints on my radar when Electronic Sound was getting up and running. As well as artist albums as A Year In The Country and getting his thoughts on all things wyrd down on his website, he put together themed compilations and brought together a smorgasbord of musical offerings from the likes of Howlround, The Soulless Party, Polypores, Time Attendant, Cosmic Neighbourhood, Vic Mars, Field Lines Cartographer, Grey Frequency, Pulselovers and many more.
They’re all names that are familiar now, but back in the care-free pre-COVID times, most of them were new to me and suspect many others and acted as an education in the sort of music being made by fiercely independent DIY artists up and down the country.
The compilations were cracking, there’s a raft of them with themes ranging from abandoned cold war installations (‘The Quietened Bunker’) and space exploration (‘The Quietened Cosmologists’) to tales from the woodland and its folklore (‘The Forest / The Wald’), a field recording map of Britain (‘Audio Albion’) and lost TV and radio broadcasts (‘The Furthest Signal’)… the list goes on.
The hand-finished limited edition CDrs came lovingly packaged in a recycled fold-out sleeve with various inserts and a badge. A badge! I was discovering new artists almost as fast as I was finding new labels so I hoovered them up. Stephen has very much played his part in all this. Thanks mate.
I might be wrong, but I think the last collection was 2020’s ‘The Quietened Dream Palace’. There’s a reason they stopped. Stephen was getting increasingly into writing books. ‘A Year In The Country – Wyrd Explorations’ is his ninth and collects together his “decade of wandering through spectral fields”, which has explored and documented “the interconnected rise of interest in the wyrd, eerie and re-enchanted landscape, folk horror, the further reaches of folk music and the parallel worlds of hauntology”. It’s a might slab of a book, 52 chapters across 551 pages, in which Stephen covers an awful lot of ground with his writings on film and TV, directors, writers, books, musicians, record labels and so on.
The book includes revised and extended version of work from the A Year In The Country archives. “Its been a right old journey,” he tells me, adding that he’s quoted the Moonbuilding interview with Kevin Foakes about his ‘Wheels Of Light’ book. We get a lovely credit along with Castles In Space who get a whole chapter to themselves pretty much. Big up the mention of Moonbuilding illustrator Nick Taylor’s Spectral Studios.
Stephen is such an interesting chap and ‘Wyrd Explorations’ is like dipping around inside his head. It’s great to see his thoughts laid out like this and the diversity of subjects is dizzying. He veers from ‘Bagpuss’ to Jane Weaver, Andy Votel and Dean Honer’s The Eccentronic Research Council to John Carpenter, Excalibur, Paul Nash, Quatermass, Edgar Wright’s ‘Hot Fuzz’ Delia Derbyshire, Caroline Katz and Cosey Fanni Tutti and so much more.
If you’ve not entered the wyrd world of A Year In Country you do have some catching up to do. I’d suggest perhaps starting with this book. If you know all about Stephen and his fine work you won’t be hesitating to pick up a copy of this might tome.
ayearinthecountry.co.uk / ayearinthecountry.bandcamp.com
A MESSAGE FROM THE MOTHERSHIP
***THE NEW ISSUE OF MOONBUILDING IS OUT 26 JULY***
Bloody hell! Will you look at that? The new issue of MOONBUILDING, Issue 5 for those of you who are counting, is almost here. Yes, we’ve taken our sweet time, but it is very much worth the wait.
On the cover, with another cracking illustration from the untouchable Nick Taylor, is the awesome Polypores. In our free-wheeling chat we get right under the hood of Stephen James Buckley’s musical operation, offer up a listening guide to help you safely navigate his extensive back catalogue and we also have a whole new Polypores album exclusively for you.
Yes, you read that right. We are giving you a freshly minted, not available anywhere else new album called ‘The Album I Would Have Released In An Alternate Universe’, which happens to be the sister recording to his forthcoming Castles In Space album ‘There Are Other Worlds’. Read all about it in the new issue where Stephen talks you though it track by track.
Elsewhere, there’s a profile of our new favourite label Mortality Tables, Pye Corner Audio gets in on the There’s A First Time For Everything act, we round up an absolute mountain of recent releases and serve up our thoughts on the best albums from the last few months, including Loula Yorke and Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan. There’s a column from The Orb’s Alex Paterson, which starts off about Jah Wobble and ends up about Andrew Weatherall, and an all-new installment of the brilliant Captain Star cartoon strip.
We’ve gone book crazy of late and this issue features a shit-tonne of great book reviews (that’s great books, reviewed, rather than the reviews being great, although they are pretty good). There’s a cracking chat with Justin Patrick Moore, the author of ‘The Radio Phonic Laboratory’, and a bonus chinwag with the world’s finest music journalist, Mr Simon Reynolds.
You will be kicking yourself and quite hard if you miss out on this issue. Form an orderly queue, we will be opening the virtual doors at moonbuilding.bandcamp.com on 26 July for your purchasing pleasure. This magazine ain’t going to buy itself.
Moonbuilding Weekly is a Castles In Space publication.
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