Ghost Box Subforum

[kaini]

advisory circle podcast 1!

http://www.sendspace.com/file/svgot9

[kaini]

oh man if you grew up in the uk/ireland in the late 70s/early 80s you'll be in love with this from the first track

 

it's like hospital radio from another dimension

[kaini]

[kaini]

recent gbx night (not my photos)

 

moon wiring club

 

want.

 

Edited March 30, 2010 by kaini

[The Green Kingdom]

Saw this on the blog. I know as a designer I definitely like to look through things for "inspiration" but this might be a little much- at least they changed the font, right?

 

And those House prints are awesomeness! Wonder how much they cost?

[patternoverlap]

That's some pretty blatant shit.

[kaini]

well whaddaya know

 

Stereolab: Three Women, taken from the album Chemical Chords

Directed by: Julian House

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRNGhqe4OiQ

[chime]

The Cafe Kaput podcasts are really great. Lots of weird stuff in them that's had me scouring the net for info on the artists.

[kaini]

The Cafe Kaput podcasts are really great. Lots of weird stuff in them that's had me scouring the net for info on the artists.

woah! i forgot to listen to no. 2... i don't want to turn off this ariel pink though. actually ariel pink would segue nicely into that, sweet

 

And those House prints are awesomeness! Wonder how much they cost?

 

i don't believe they were for sale - although you can bet your entire collection of public information films on me attempting to 'acquire' one if i had been there ;)

Edited April 1, 2010 by kaini

[Caretstik]

From what I remember art prints were on sale at the The New Spirit Happening in Scotland. I'd possibly swap my entire Fall collection for one of those above.

 

And kaini, did you check out Moon Wiring Club's ASDA mix? Definitely one for the 30+ WATMMer.

[The Green Kingdom]

And kaini, did you check out Moon Wiring Club's ASDA mix? Definitely one for the 30+ WATMMer.

Great mix (yes, I am over 30 ) I really like that he included the "tape cover" with tracklist.

[Caretstik]

And kaini, did you check out Moon Wiring Club's ASDA mix? Definitely one for the 30+ WATMMer.

Great mix (yes, I am over 30 ) I really like that he included the "tape cover" with tracklist.

That was spot-on, the design was perfect and rounded it all off very nicely. And thanks again, I think it was your good self put me on to that mix in the first place.

[kaini]

a rare interview with julian house (by the lovely eva revox) - all the other gbxers are surprisingly communicative (blogs, facebook) - but you don't see mr. house talk about the label too often. lovely to see pram and plone get a shout out.

 

translated from french by google:

 

Audiovisual Unit is second to none, Ghost Box makes its way in recent years to share in the world of independent music. Summit with its two instigators, the musician-magician Jim Jupp and designer Julian House-demiurge.

Ghost Box label to this non-sensitive products (not for long, it seems), reveals the impressions of an imaginary world imbued with magic, occultism and pagan rites from a cultural heritage eminently British . Ghost Box embodies a fantasy of both literary and cinematic sound, where text, music and graphics overlap and enrich each other. In this quirky and timeless universe, the lost paradise of childhood flirt with parapsychology, peacefully antiquated English cottages conceals disturbing supernatural forces, and courtship displays are similar to the black masses ... In the space of a few discs objects (Belbury Poly, The Focus Group, The Advisory Circle, Roj ...), rare and precious amethysts, Ghost Box has redefined a retro-futuristic aesthetic of collage, blending pastoral folk , samples of library music, psychedelic rock and cosmic disco dislocated in meandering dark electro-acoustic and imprecations of underworld. From these emanate jingles diffracted dreamlike visions, perpetually oscillating between wonderful dreams and nightmares from the depths of time. Summit meeting between the two instigators of this parallel world, the musician-magician Jim Jupp and designer Julian House-demiurge, shared learning and high-flying humor deadpan humor.

 

When and how was born Ghost Box? What was the starting point of this label which is not really one?

 

Jim Jupp: We started Ghost Box 2003, Julian House and me, how to shape our music and our ideas on a website and selling some of our self-produced CD at the same time. The graphic and design for us were the most important aspect, I'm not even sure we reasons then in terms of label, it was advantage to create a portal to our own parallel world of images and sounds. During a period of two years, Julian and I are meeting regularly to develop a kind of aesthetic manifesto based on the things that fascinated us both alike: the horror stories, old TV shows bizarre, the electronic vintage, psychedelic folk, Krautrock and library music . All that was left in our first recordings and Julian began to design a visual identity for the whole mix. Things have continued to evolve in this way, design is always closely related to audio content. We even find the title and the cover even before the music exists, if it exists one day. The label started in 2004 and during the first month we sold as CD-R self-produced in very limited quantities. But it took off from an unexpected manner, which encouraged us to manufacture the discs and create an online shop.

 

Can you give us an overview of artists related to Ghost Box?

 

It all started with Belbury Poly and The Focus Group (respectively, my project and that of Julian). We always intended to keep a small catalog and go out only discs by artists who have fully understood the universe and the approach of Ghost Box. Everything that is on the label must match the aesthetic we have developed or extend it to a direction that seems logical. The first artist we signed out was The Advisory Circle aka Jon Brooks. He had heard of us at the time Julian had done the artwork for one of his albums of library music on Lo Editions. We already knew and admired his work under the name King of Woolworths and we immediately knew that this would be perfect for our label, knowing that we share a lot of musical influences. Mount Vernon Arts Lab, aka Drew Mulholland contacted us after we noted in an interview in Wire, and he did us the honor to accept that we reissue her album "Seance at Hob's Lane. We know Roj years - Julian and made it part of the same art school in South Wales (as James Cargill of Broadcast). We realized he had amassed a bunch of new material and highly original, which corresponded perfectly to our design, we have asked him to make an album for us. As for Eric Zann, we prefer to let the mystery hovering ... All artists and those who write the liner notes are continually developing the world of Ghost Box, and we are delighted to form a collective rather than a label. We hope that by 2010 there will be more collaborations between artists and the label even more interaction between writing, image and sound.

 

The sophisticated design of the pockets is full of cryptic references: the covers of books pop 60s, posters of movie fantasy, kinetic art, the generic Saul Bass ...

 

Julian House: Yes, the main inspiration comes kits Ghost Box Penguin paperbacks, the library music LPs, old school notebooks. I always liked things that come in series, where the mystery comes from the interconnection of elements that can be approached individually but form a whole when they are together. There's also something hermetic, occult in this notion of incompleteness permanent part missing. It uses the collector side that we all, but also the impression that something exists beyond the object you hold in your hands. Each of these individual objects corresponds to an entry point in a separate universe. My fascination with schoolbooks still just half-forgotten, moreover, they evoke a time of life when you can hire strong relationships with pictures which we know almost nothing. The footnotes and page references on the Ghost Box record work the same way: they draw the boundaries of a world but do not meet the interior, leaving a vacant space where spooky things are taking shape. Jim is right to mention the aesthetics of collage as a central element of the project. There is a playful and spontaneous in the collage, but a downside ago more related to Surrealism and the unconscious. Burroughs has almost reached a definition of "magick" of sticking with his concept of Third Mind . The biggest mystery in this game of collage is the idea that two factors combined may reveal a hidden meaning, and have a visual appeal as much as philosophical. The "something missing" suggested by an assembly or a fragmented context brings us to the unspeakable found in Lovecraft's fiction. The other thing that binds us is how Lovecraft's stories always refer to texts and magic of old books cursed, recurrent references so they end up giving the impression that these structures do exist in reality, thereby reinforcing the impression of authenticity of the whole. The drama eventually affect the real world.

 

The term mean to you Hantologie, which a journalist Wire you involved? What other artists do you feel an affinity?

 

Jim Jupp: Mordant, Ghost Box and Trunk have been in the same bag and have received tremendous publicity thanks to an article published in Wire Simon Reynolds, who was associated with the term Hantologie, invented for the occasion. This is not a word we use to define ourselves but it was very gratifying to perceive that the blogging community needed to invent a new genre to define what we were doing. The main problem with this expression is that I'm not quite sure about what ele relates specifically. It is a term all that is more vague, and as I understand, it seems applicable to many other things that the strange kind of music we produce. I learned it was a loan to Derrida, off the homophonic pun on "Hantologie" and "Ontology" probably works better for Francophones than for the Anglo-Saxon. This scene has developed mainly around Birmingham in the '90s with bands like Broadcast, Pram and Plone, which were major influences for us, and with whom we continue to maintain a strong relationship. If indeed there is one, the cradle of Hantologie would rather look in that corner there.

 

Ghost Box refers to many rural traditions rooted in folklore and mythology specifically British: pagan rituals of black magic, with all that this concept leads as mysterious and frightening, even dangerous ... There is something mysterious island and the very identity of the label, as a secret life in which autarky is not linked to the music industry or currency, but would imply a notion of "psychogeography" more wide ...

 

Everything revolves around myth and magic plays an important role in the aesthetics of Ghost Box, but what we care about most is the idea that the cosmic come encroach on the banal. It is a very present in science fiction and supernatural tales English. In Nigel Kneale scenarios or stories by John Wyndham, events or bizarre paranormal phenomena always occur in a familiar environment where there is a spirit of parish - from small rural villages and old universities. If the "psychogeography" applies to what we do is more in the way of exploring fictional territories and mapping of parallel worlds in references to specific locations in the British countryside.

 

On the last album Belbury Poly ( Time and scale ), we explored the notions of time and measuring how they work within the world of Ghost Box. The models of miniature landscapes remind us not only to innocent age where the computer was not part of our hobby but also inspire something fascinating and disturbing, particularly those presented in museums, with their gigantic reconstructions of tracks that cross the country. It's almost an occult process itself - a creative act akin to that of a demiurge, imposing control on a replica of the world closed circuit without external imperatives, and this is just what 's the apparent mental landscape of Ghost Box: It is made from fragments of real landscapes, pieces of music, collages and fiction behind, we control from A to Z. For me, installing Hell Brothers Chapman is the ultimate example of this magical process. We want to derive the notion that the world of Ghost Box is a place where time does not flow in a normal way - it's like a slice of time, say between 1960 and 1980, when everything is stacked and place at the same time, cultural influences which fed both the past and the future.

Ghost Box is also surfacing memories of childhood, spiced with black humor and a typical British eccentricity. In the late 70s in France, there were all sorts of TV programs popular science, illustrated by synthetic soundtracks a bit kitschy. However, listening retrospectively, they arouse feelings both happy and sad terrifying. It is both totally naive and utopian, with the new awareness of a world average of hippie idealism, which announces the technological revolution of the years 80-90, the first fruits of all-digital era of consumerism and the furious ... Are you looking to turn this deliberately lost part of childhood? Do you think that Ghost Box is collected in the same way by someone who was not born in the 70s?

 

Most of the music that comes out on Ghost Box respect to the memory, but this is provided, I hope, one of nostalgia. It's more about recreating the feelings of strangeness, beauty and wonder from the memories of television and music in which our children bathed, rather than a faithful replica of sounds and images - Archaeology emotional if you will, or the nostalgia of a parallel world from the past. But I do not think it is necessary to be born at one time or another to feel it. Julian and I were born just at the end of the sixties, but it is partly our love of psychedelic music and movies from that period comes into play in Ghost Box.

 

The anguish and the wonderful innocence and perversion of utopia and dystopia, the reminiscences of the past and futuristic visions ... They are inseparable concepts in sound aesthetics of Ghost Box. Can you tell us what fascinates you about this ambivalence?

 

I guess it comes from our passion for fiction "cosmic" and stories by authors such as Arthur Machen, HP Lovecraft and Algernon Blackwood, carried on with strange supernatural powers. We are particularly inspired by their use of occult references (real, imagined or a mixture of both) and historical descriptions conjuring the horror came from a remote past, buried in time but the threat is lurking behind the surface of everyday reality. It's part of how our memory digests concern for the supernatural and the occult in TV programs and movies from the late '60s and early '70s - when the faked photographs, fittings and unusual techniques bizarre as the American night, were the ultimate special effects. This very cheap and cardboard only heightens the impression of wonderful. A whole world of strange visual textures that was lost with the advent of the digital age. British Horror films are obviously part of our big influences, such as those produced in the years 60-70 by Hammer and Amicus studios.

 

Where does your interest in witchcraft, Electronic Voice Phenomena, Extraterrestrial Intelligence, Satanism and all that fascinating bric-a-brac esoteric? Do you believe it sincerely, or is it more a form of fascination, half-serious, half-amused?

 

All these things are for us an interest which is beyond the fact of believing literally or not, it's more like if we took into account the supernatural and the occult in particular as fundamental expressions of human creativity . I think it is a good thing for the imagination than focusing on the miraculous in a time without religion. In my heart I'm absolutely sure of anything while remaining open-minded, if somewhat skeptical about most supernatural manifestations. The share of attraction to these subjects is also due to the particular way they were portrayed in the media popular 1970s television documentaries with Arthur C Clarke or Leonard Nimoy, the books by Von Daniken station and other evidence on touts aliens and all these magazines sensationalist type Reader's Digest editions and those devoted to supernatural kitsch that seemed all use the same photos of spiritualist mediums, haunted churches and voodoo ceremonies. I do not think Ghost Box addresses all so seriously, we refer to a mode deadpan laugh more than anything else. We especially enjoyed a huge mix and assemble references from strange old books, films and recordings. Above all this emotive collage that brings out all sorts of unintended quirks.

 

Julian House: The sound collage is the common denominator of all the label artists: the distortion of space-time allowed by the sampling, the linking of elements that have nothing to do together. With The Focus Group, I try really give a quality non-Euclidean and wobbly in my samples, it is a bit like music Cubist.

 

Do you think that technology, astrophysics and science are the further future potential entry into these parallel dimensions? You are interested in theories of quantum physics and discoveries on the design possibly drastic 'holographic' of the Universe?

 

Jim Jupp: Absolutely. All these speculations from exotic quantum physics are truly fascinating. I've always been particularly captivated by the idea of an intrinsic order of Bohm - a field that underlies our conception of reality, devoid of physical dimensions or linear time, where everything is potentially taking shape but that 'From the moment the creative power of the mind materializes in reality. It is a wonderful concept because it legitimizes the possibility of "parallel worlds", non-existence of time, transcendence of death and the nature of the holographic universe. Of course, these are only speculations at the moment, and I think it can become dangerous, since when the words "quantum physics" open the door to all kinds of crap: rantings New Age manuals most plausible extension.

 

Ghost Box Music is like a true psychedelic experience. Are you worn on psychotropic?

 

Julian House: Our music has indeed a high-grade psychedelia, especially the album with Focus Broadcast Group, which is full of innuendo lysergic related to rock and underground cinema of the late 60s. But the process is based on the idea of psychedelia in a line near Burroughs, surrealism and, as Jim stated, theories of quantum physics. The idea of parallel dimensions and bridges between these dimensions is present in everything we do. Ghost Box is an imaginary world, which is accessed by hard-portals.

 

Ken Hollings and the protagonists of the journal Strange Attractor maintain obsessions seem similar to yours. Is his books and his research field - the esoteric in modern times, that is to say of late 40 days - the aesthetic influence of the label? Why did you call him in the liner notes of the album Roj?

 

Jim Jupp: It Woebot, a mutual friend introduced us to Mark Pilkington, a contributor to Strange Attractor. We are interested in this review a long time and we were eager to meet and exchange ideas. The aesthetic work of Roj made us think about the kinds of experiments on strips as William Burroughs and Brion Gysin did when they lived in Paris. Ken is a well of knowledge on the subject, on the hidden histories of American culture and the post-war. It is also particularly good at adopting styles of writing very special ... We gave her a delicate mission: to write a popular tone of cryptic liner notes making reference to parapsychology junk, spiritualism, to experiments on tapes, Marshall McLuhan, Burroughs and TEUs. It was as vague as that, but he is perfectly able to understand our intention and take the music of Roj. He contributed greatly to what I consider the book's most successful label so far.

 

You also seem to share a lot of affinity with labels Finders Keepers and Trunk ...

 

Yes, we're fans of everything they leave. The audience joined the Ghost Box label it completely these editions, just as we obsessed by old movie soundtracks, the library music , psychedelia and folk - a culture belonging to the hidden underworld that is the enchanted years 60 and 70 and just waiting to be exhumed.

 

Do not you think that the exponential trend of modern society to make everything visible and available on the internet, to make public our private lives as our food culture and live in a continuous flow of information and materialistic ends up reinforcing the attraction to imaginary worlds, which fills the empty metaphysics of time?

 

On the one hand, the Internet is a great opportunity, this allows small labels and musicians unknown as we talk to them and reach a large audience like that would never have been possible before. On the other hand, the gradual digitization (scanning and uploads) for all of our culture means that when the discovery of a hidden gem akin to a scavenger hunt is drawing to a close: If you have an uncertain recollection of an old TV show, just look on the Internet. If you fall on a mysterious old disk, you can know the score and a biography of the artist in less than a minute. The task of the collector has lost its magic: it is no longer to make discoveries, but acquisitions. It does more than artists themselves to make available their records on the Internet to let the physical objects and performance for the privilege of secrecy and scarcity. This is of course easier said than done at a time in which to earn some money with music is impossible, since most people are happy to steal it.

 

Ghost Box is like a total work of art rather than a traditional label. Insofar as the visual work of Julian House is so essential to the identity of the label, do you have plans for events that include both sound and image?

 

We have several events in preparation and we hope to repeat the success of the Youth Club Night Belbury that we organized in London in early 2009. We will project the old TV programs and movies bizarre animation of Julian, there will be concerts by artists close to the label an exhibition, and we plan to move discs at the same time. The only problem is that journalists expect us to create something hearty and intellectually stimulating, especially when we will want to have fun and to laugh. The next event is scheduled for March in Birmingham.

 

What are your latest artistic thrills? What we advise you to read, see or hear that we are likely to ignore?

 

I do not know if these films have already been released in France, but I absolutely recommend people who are interested to watch Ghost Box Ghost Stories for Christmas who passed the English television every Christmas Eve during the 70s. I have a particular episode in mind, Whistle and I'll come to you my lad . Regarding books, I recommend all books by Arthur Machen or this hideous power of CS Lewis, a science fiction unknown, although more mature than the Narnia cycle that made him famous despite a sub-text strong Christian. It is a novel that has lost none of its strangeness, with a disturbing story full of experiences and a sinister secret organization dedicated to the eradication of all life on Earth.

 

Interviewed by Julian Becourt and Olivier Lamm

[The Green Kingdom]

Good news from the GB newsletter:

 

Next month we'll have the Advisory Circle's incredible Mind How You Go (Revised Edition) on CD and check our website and blog soon for news of new releases, new collaborators and news about the next Belbury Youth Club night.

[Caretstik]

Good news from the GB newsletter:

 

Next month we'll have the Advisory Circle's incredible Mind How You Go (Revised Edition) on CD and check our website and blog soon for news of new releases, new collaborators and news about the next Belbury Youth Club night.

Yeah, just got this newsletter, I'll gladly buy it again on CD. 'Seance At Hobs Lane' has been repressed too for anyone who might be missing it.

 

I somehow doubt the Belbury Youth Club Night will be coming to Norwich though, dunno why.

[The Green Kingdom]

I somehow doubt the Belbury Youth Club Night will be coming to Norwich though, dunno why.

Or Detroit

[mcbpete]

oh man if you grew up in the uk/ireland in the late 70s/early 80s you'll be in love with this from the first track

 

it's like hospital radio from another dimension

Yeah what the hell. The theme from Rainbow is from a proper song ?!

[Guest arbee]

that new advisory mind how you go revisited vinyl is soooo nice !!

[chime]

I've heard from Jim Jupp that Ghost Box plans on doing represses and revised editions of some of the earlier catalog numbers over the next year. He didn't say which ones, but I'm assuming it'll be CD-R releases, which will be nice to have.

 

Also, WOW this week's Cafe Kaput had some brilliant stuff on it. That version of "Stardust" at the end, that sounded like echoes from another universe...

[Guest KY]

I just saw the revised edition of Mind How You Go on vinyl for $30 at Academy Annex in brooklyn. Fuck me I was tempted, but I didn't want to drop $30 on a single record when my budget was $25 anyway. (I ended up spending $70. lol)

 

Then again, I bought a used copy of Electronic Hair Pieces (Mort Garson with an all-moog interpretation of the Hair soundtrack) for $25, so there might be an excuse for me to take the plunge after all.

 

AND I just turned my sister onto Ghost Box, which is odd as her interest in music has been lackluster, generally speaking. But now she rocks James Ferraro and Belbury Poly. yes!

[chime]

Anyone know what's going on with The Advisory Circle? The 6th episode of the Cafe Kaput podcast never showed up, and it looks like today he's deleted the blog and his twitter?

[Guest Stoppit]

Mind How You Go Revised Edition is out now on CD

 

I'll probably buy it, despite having the original 3"CD and the Vinyl revised edition. Damn you, Ghost Box.

[Caretstik]

Mind How You Go Revised Edition is out now on CD

 

I'll probably buy it, despite having the original 3"CD and the Vinyl revised edition. Damn you, Ghost Box.

Same here. Cant have any gaps in the physical back catalogue (apart from bloody Farmer's Angle).

[kaini]

Anyone know what's going on with The Advisory Circle? The 6th episode of the Cafe Kaput podcast never showed up, and it looks like today he's deleted the blog and his twitter?

 

he's disappeared from facebook too

[Guest fox]

Anyone know what's going on with The Advisory Circle? The 6th episode of the Cafe Kaput podcast never showed up, and it looks like today he's deleted the blog and his twitter?

 

he's disappeared from facebook too

 

sad. hope he minded how he went