Issue 30 / 9 August 2024
This week's essential DIY electronic music releases... Track Of The Week: Hologram Teen + Good Stuff round-up starring Jo Johnson, Gregory Nieuwsma, Bill Nelson, The Night Monitor and more...
Can’t hang around today, got a beach that needs sitting on. Yup, Moonbuilding is on holiday. Apologies in advance for any typos, the finishing touches were performed in an airport. You’re also getting today’s newsletter a little early as we can’t get our heads round time zones. We’re recharging the batteries and will be back and firing on all cylinders and other invigorating clichés on 23 August. Thing is, I’ve had a look and 16 August is a pretty bumper release week. You should probably expect a suitably bumper round-up once we’re back at HQ. Hope you don’t miss us too much. It’s only a week. And anyway, it’s always good to have something to look forward to isn’t it?
Oh, before we disappear, just a reminder that there is a new issue of Moonbuilding. Not sure we’ve mentioned it. The print version of all this, a lovely 48-page A5 zine full of interviews, reviews, release rounds ups as well as an all-new Polypores album is available at… moonbuilding.bandcamp.com
Neil Mason, editor
moonbuildingmag@gmail.com
Issue 30 Playlist: bndcmpr.co/f1b1c164
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HOLOGRAM TEEN ‘Midnite Rogue’ (Dell’Orso)
It’s been a while since we’ve seen the work of ex-Stereolabber Morgane Lhote gracing a slab of vinyl. It was, in fact, her solo debut as Hologram Teen with the Polytechnic Youth-released ‘Between The Funk And The Fear’ in 2017.
That was followed by a brace of cassette releases on Ransom Note, 2020’s ‘Pizza Conspiracy’ and 2022’s ‘Day-Glo Chaos’, the latter of which gets a very welcome vinyl reissue on the mighty fine Dell’Orso imprint at the end of September.
Morgane’s work is nothing if not eclectic. It was described by Poly Youth as motorik disco, which is as exciting as that sounds with a kind of Cerrone/Mororder/70s vibe to proceedings. ‘Pizza Conspiracy’ was a much more off-kilter affair, stirring in funk, hip-hop, jazz and even some lounge rhumba. ‘Day-Glo Chaos’ is different again, a ‘Drive’-like handbrake turn that catapulted her into the 80s synthy fast lane.
All right-thinking folk will already know the quality of this album and how it taps into that gaming/synthwave vibe with ease and will no doubt be glad to seeing it emerge on vinyl. If you missed it first time round, you are in for an 80s-soaked treat.
‘Day-Glo Chaos’ is released on pink vinyl by Dell’Orso on 27 September. There’s also an exclusive translucent orange/pink variant available via Bandcamp and Bleep. Oh, and the label tell me there's a cat print with every vinyl copy too. “Frankly,” they say, “it’s fabulous. If you like cats. Very 80s cats in particular.”
Got an upcoming release? We’re all ears. Find us at moonbuildingmag@gmail.com
Words: Neil Mason
GOOD STUFF #1
JO JOHNSON ‘Let Go Your Fear’ (Castles In Space)
The wonderful Jo Johnson, who is quite difficult to Google thanks to Boris’ brother, arrives on Castles In Space and about time too. But this modular synthesist extraordinarie isn’t one to be hurried. With ‘Let Go Your Fear’, she is serving up only her second full-length and it comes a mere decade after her first solo outing, ‘Weaving’. The old what kept you? line has never seemed so eagerly asked. Jo says ‘Let Go Your Fear’ is “an invitation, an instruction to me, to drop the perfection and trust in the power of play”. Running to just three tracks, the album is a masterclass in free improvisation, which she shares here “unedited and unadorned”. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve listened to this since it arrived at Moonbuilding HQ back in the spring. It is such an easy listen, which isn’t to say it’s simple or uncomplicated in any way. The opening track, ‘It Just Is The Love It Feels’ unfurls slowly around its repeating motive while the deep, resonant thrum of ‘Inside Eyes Sparks Fire Under Ice’ ushers in the ghosts of her underground dancefloor leanings in the 00s. Over on the flip, it’s one long track, ‘Unfolding And Folding’, which does just that over its 20 minutes. While it’s beatless, Jo brilliantly manages to conjour up a rhythm to her work that is utterly captivating. This is high quality stuff and demands your immediate attention.
GOOD STUFF #2
GREGORY NIEUWSMA ‘A Guide For Getting Lost’ (Preston Capes)
US-born, Krakow-based Gregory Nieuwsma writes excellent sleevenotes. His notes for this latest offering on this increasingly essential Woodford House offshoot are belting. “All music inevitably draws from many wells,” he writes. “Often these wells are hidden, mysterious, and even unknown to those engaged in drawing from them.” And while he can’t talk of some of the wells he draws from, others are pretty flipping obvious. A couple of years back Greg released a reworking of Terry Riley’s magical ‘In C’ on Submarine Broadcasting Company, recorded using instruments sourced at flea markets and here he revisits that “sonic space” on the 16-minute opening track, ‘The Slow Process Of A Moment Revealing Itself’, which is a close, chaotic relative of Riley’s original. “The first few notes of a phrase are loped several times before the next note or two are added on,” he writes, “and eventually the whole phrase is revealed.” Indeed, minimalism is something of a theme here for this cerebral artist. Riley’s “time lag accumulator” delay techniques are implemented on ‘Pantheon, 6am’ and ‘Napoleon The 8th’, ‘Thick And Thin’ sees a drum machine rhythm track replaced with electric guitar part, while the flea market instruments get another outing on ‘Nightshade’. A quick read of his notes beforehand will reap rewards when listening to this fine exploratory work.
GOOD STUFF #3
BILL NELSON ‘The Summer Of God’s Piano’
Activity is never too far away from the Bill Nelson camp, but it’s worth paying extra attention at the moment as there seems to be some movement with his epic 80s electronic albums. The ambient masterpiece ‘Sounding The Ritual Echo’, which was originally released as part of a double album set along with ‘Quit Dreaming And Get On The Beam’ in 1981, saw a digital outing via his Bandcamp in July and now it’s the turn of 1989’s ‘The Summer Of God’s Piano’. Originally released as part of the four-LP ‘Trial By Intimacy (The Book Of Splendours)’ boxset in 1985, Bill talks about how it was all recorded on very simple equipment “which is all I had at the time, hence the 'home hobbyist' sound”. That “home hobbyist” as he puts it was a sound that launched 1,000 ships! It’s a charmingly quirky LP, full of deep tunefulness and rich melody all dipped in and dripping with new fangled electronics. The full-blown pop extravaganza ‘Demonstrations Of Affection’ four-CD boxset also saw a digital release last year and ‘Chance Encounters In The Garden Of Lights’ was reissued physically fairly recently-ish by Cherry Red, and again digitally back in June. What’s missing, what is always missing, is ‘Quit Dreaming And Get On Your Beam’, which hasn’t been re-released since it’s original outing in 1981. We’ve sailed past the 40th anniversary, a reissue must be more than ripe. You can only begin to imagine the outtakes, demos and bonus tracks.
GOOD STUFF #4
THE NIGHT MONITOR ‘Perception Report 3’ (Fonolith)
Neil Scrivin’s The Night Monitor continues to serve up 10-inch lathe cuts of the four-part ‘Perception Report’ series of strange goings on and here part three gets the wax treatment, the music within inspired by the tale of a man not called Philip Spencer who had a morning encounter with a strange being on Ilkley Moor in December 1987. The run is a hand-numbered limited edition of 50 and comes with a pile of extras - there’s the stickered white disco sleeve, full-colour insert cover card, PVC outer sleeve, eight-page A5 zine, ‘Perception Report Form’ card, 25mm badge and three stickers. Part of the joy of these kinds of releases is wondering if they come out of a fantastical imagine or if they are actual events. Helpfully Neil provides a bibliography, which aren’t always a guarantee of the truth being out there, but ‘Northern UFO News’ Issue 131 (May-June 1988) appears to exist and it’s a very pretty publication. Delightfully DIY with some excellent cover illustrations. Check it out here. It’s lovely to be reminded of The Night Monitor’s atmospheric EPs, why not collect the set?
GOOD STUFF #5
RYAN HOOPER ‘Unfold Only In The Now’ (Eustress Tapes)
‘Unfold Only In The Now’ from experimental sound artist Ryan Hooper is a curious release. Eustress Tapes bills itself as dealing with “musique concrète, drone, left-field recording and so forth”. ‘Unfold Only In The Now’ sits firmly in the “so forth” category. Opener, ‘Origami With Headphone Spill’ is just that. Someone doing origami, no, I’m not sure what they making, and listening to music on headphones. It’s almost eerie, like you’re eavesdropping on a private moment. Things do get more musical as we move through this five-tracker, well, there’s the repetitive glitchy drone of ‘Anatomy Of Melancholy’ and the uncomfortable cacophony of ‘Harmonium (For Radio Static)’, which is exactly what it says. The title track is dense piece of concrète and if you take the title literally, as seems to be case here, you’d say it was something to do with unfolding origami, but it sounds a million miles away from that, more like a Burroughs-style cut-up using sound. It closes with the 15-minute long ‘Aerus Delay’, which is white noise. Great for tinnitus sleeping. An unsettlingly curious release that keeps you on your toes for sure, but it’s not without a charm all of its own.
THE ROUND UP’S ROUND UP
Following Charlotte Keeffe’s offering the other week, the third season of Mortality Tables’ LIFEFILES series cracks on with Sulk Rooms’ ‘Earth & Horror’. The idea, which I’m sure you’re up to speed with, is MT’s Mat Smith provides source recordings that an artist interprets however they see fit. In this case it’s a Milton Keynes double bill of a Waitrose shopping trolley and windscreen wipers. Knowing Mat it’s probaby worth noting that they were recorded two years apart. Thomas Ragsdale responds with two pieces that are unmistakably him. There’s the pulsating throb and dark rhythmic grind of ‘Earth & Horror’, while ‘Tryptich’ with its insistent beat upfront is much more direct until everything around it begins to close in. As usual, this is essential work from this most inventive of labels.
mortalitytables.bandcamp.com
As our regular reader will know, there can be some perplexing releases round these parts. There’s a double whammy of my top two favourite labels who confuse the chuff out of me. Frosly’s ‘All Day To Sparkle’ on the Fijian vapourwave Bogus Collective (yes, you read that right). All I can tell you is Frosly is a Spanish musician and this is, frankly, nuts. Vaporwave is such a weird genre and yet I find it so compelling. I’ve no idea what Frosly is drawing on here - sounds like AM radio funk hour from the early 80s mixed with lashings of pop. Think a detuned Swing Out Sister or Haircut 100 gone disco. Take a listen to ‘Tropical Lighs’ (their typo not mine!), which sounds like something from ‘Super Mario’. I might be overselling, but I love how bonkers this is.
boguscollective.bandcamp.com
In the other corner there’s a new various artists collection on Bath’s Institute For Alien Research called ‘Audio Report C’, which picks up where volumes ‘A’ and ‘B’ left off. The rate at which some of these labels issue this stuff is dizzying. This is seriously experimental stuff and as such is certainly not for the feint-hearted. The page links out to an ocean conservation page for you to read about octopus. Octopi? Some octopuses? Not entirely sure what that’s all about, but if you’d like to make a donation, you can. Again, there’s a raft of names new to me - One Day In December’s ‘Buck’s Frozen Journey Part Two’ is very nice, a louche edge of the dancefloor almost squelcher with a lovely laidback drum lick. Larry Toadman Of The Wirral is perhaps the best name here and their track is drifty ambience which is worth a listen to. Weird it might be, but I do appreciate labels like this doing whatever it is that they’re doing.
ifarmusiqueconcretecompilation.bandcamp.com
It seems there’s a groundswell of artists finding alternative ways of serving up more music. Loula Yorke and Bright Eyes have prominent mixtapes, Loula’s monthly psychedelic audio diary meets mixtape and Bright Eyes with her ongoing ‘Women Of Ambient’ series. Claire Rousay also has a monthly mixtape that has only been available through her subscription service. The August edition, called ‘August Mixtape’, which could get confusing if everyone starts doing this, Loula’s has the same name. I mean, I know it’s a mixtape and it’s August, but we might need to get more creative with the titles. Anyway, for the August edition featuring “new experiments in Ableton”, Claire lifted the paywall for a few days so people could sample her wares, you know try before you buy. It’s safely locked back down now, but there’s no reason she won’t do it again next month. Keep them peeled.
clairerousay.bandcamp.com
Finally, Language Field’s ‘Fluctuations EP’ on Astra Solaria Recordings, which can I remind you is Bernard Grancher’s label, is a release I’ve been meaning to mention since it’s release back in June. We’ve got a long queue for inclusion in the newsletter, please don’t get the huff if you’re not mentioned exactly on your release day. We listen to a lot of music and try to write about as much of it as we can. When I say we, I do of course mean just me. It’s the royal we. I only have two ears and they’re working hard. Anyway, Language Field is London-based musician, DJ and producer Paul Cheshire who, according to Shindig mag, makes “pulsing electronica with reverie inducing powers”. Last year’s ‘Fearful Symmetry’ on Buried Treasure is very much worth checking out as is this. You’ll know the ballpark if it’s got Bernard’s seal of approval. It may only be an EP that clocks in at a total of eight minutes, but feel the quality. Loving the mellow closing track ‘Hubbub’ that has a soundbed of a hubbub. Language Field feel like they’re doing something a little different. A language all of their own? Indeed.
astrasolariarecordings.bandcamp.com
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A MESSAGE FROM THE MOTHERSHIP
***THE NEW ISSUE OF MOONBUILDING IS OUT NOW***
Bloody hell! Will you look at that? The new issue of MOONBUILDING, Issue 5 for those of you who are counting, is 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 an 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.
If you’d like an extract from our Polypores cover feature interview where Stephen Buckley talks about his formative influences, which probably aren’t what you’d image, you can do that here… moonbuilding.substack.com/p/issue-28a-26-july-2024
Elsewhere in the new issue, 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 instalment 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. The virtual shop doors are open now at moonbuilding.bandcamp.com for your purchasing pleasure. Don’t delay, this magazine ain’t going to buy itself. Call it scarcity marketing if you like, but snooze and you lose.
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Awesome picks as always and especially Jo Johnson's record, really enjoyed that one today.
Great picks - Jo's album is so good x