The Belbury Circle - Outward Journeys

[Rubin Farr]

Jim Jupp and Jon Brooks do another collaboration. Hype!

 

[Nebraska]

i think i'm ready for this

[Rubin Farr]

 

[Rubin Farr]

The entire album is up for preview on iTunes, sounds good:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/outward-journeys/id1280329256

[fumi]

Don't think I'm going to enjoy this as much as the recent Focus Group album. This album (so far) sounds like standard stuff. I'll always like the Ghost Box label but they need to start pushing the envelope a bit more. The lovely, disorientated, half-finished vibe of the aforementioned album is a great place to start.

[Nebraska]

^^^ i'm kinda in your boat as well. those samples really killed my excitement. 

[Rubin Farr]

I'm continually impressed with how varied Jon Brooks' production skills are.  And you still can't find a recent photo of him on Google, this is it:

 

 

[fumi]

Only 100 of these, apparently.

 

 

 

[Nebraska]

looks like the old spectrum game cassettes

 

[fumi]

Pre-orders are up on Ghostbox now. I'll think I'll pass this time.

[Nebraska]

 

looks good. doesn't sound too good. 

[Nebraska]

this actually wasn't as bad as i initially thought (from samples). it does take a while until things really get good eg. first song is good. next couple are meh. but it's not until 'cafe kaput' that i feel the album starts to get interesting. 

 

it's definitely drawing (again) from a very specific early 80s forgotten tv show era- i think the first song 'no cat's eyes' is a reference to the show 'cats eyes' while the other songs sound like your standard 80s bruton fair like frank monkman's fun party or something from trevor bastow

 

will have to give it a few more spins to see how it settles but- i hate to say it- i miss the old (proper) ghost box sound  

[fumi]

I'm afraid I don't like it all really. It just doesn't do anything for me. 

 

That Focus Group album from back in the summer..... that's the real ghost box sound.

[Caretstik]

I enjoyed this album. I also preferred the last Focus Group album, and I'd lost a lot of faith in Jim Jupp after New Ways Out. I wouldn't say Outward Journeys is the most memorable album I've ever heard (or even the most memorable GB album), but it definitely harks back to the old GB I know and love for me. How much of that is just down to Jon Brooks though remains to be seen.

[Nebraska]

^^ i'm with you. while i don't dislike the album after a few listens, it also isn't anywhere even close to what i'd recommend if someone wanted to check out ghost box. it kinda hovers around a border betwix "do you like this sound?" and "if you think this is too surreal maybe this?". it's too poppy to be gb, and not poppy enough to be proper electronic music. it's like a library record caught between a string of not being and being library music.

 

maybe that was the goal?

[fumi]

^^ i'm with you. while i don't dislike the album after a few listens, it also isn't anywhere even close to what i'd recommend if someone wanted to check out ghost box. it kinda hovers around a border betwix "do you like this sound?" and "if you think this is too surreal maybe this?". it's too poppy to be gb, and not poppy enough to be proper electronic music. it's like a library record caught between a string of not being and being library music.

 

maybe that was the goal?

 

 

^ Maybe that was the idea. I think the problem with this album is that it is a collaborative effort between two people with very distinctive styles. What we get is some weird mash-up that doesn't do either of the artists justice. 

 

I took another listen to it today. I think it's the worst album gb have ever put out. Each artist diluting the other to the point where you're just listening to really forgettable music.

[Nebraska]

wow that was pretty harsh. i personally don't think it's the "worst album gb have ever put out". i think that unfortunate title goes to 'empty avenues'.

 

i really fail to understand why these guys didn't continue to explore the worlds that 'as the crow flies' explored. that- to me- was almost next level ghost box. 

 

this stuff they've been producing since, has been one step back. this current record is a standstill.