Mount Vernon Arts Lab: "The Seance at Hobs Lane" (Ghost Box) is a reissue from 2001 opening with what sounds like sizzling charcoal brickettes smouldering to an explosion. This is on the label, lumped together most recently by Simon Reynolds as part of a scene-unseen, mentioned in the same breath as Mordant and Trunk for their fondness for brooding keyboard experiments, wavering synth lines, ghostly reissues and odes to a bygone age of public information film music, childhood nostalgia; Dr Who theme music, The Clangers etc. This recording by Drew Mulholland, displays a fondness for heavy analog science, harsh oscillations, sinewave manipulation, haunted soundscapes and a dynamic that flits between a Dalek's digestive system and a David Lynch reverie. Yeah! it really is that good, Ladies and gents we are in the midst of a concept album that conjures up the spookiness of a real life site of apparitions dotted around & about the Thames.
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Sound clips for The Seance At Hobs Lane by Mount Vernon Arts Lab: on CD at Norman Records UK. CD, Ghost Box, GBX009, £10.29.
The Fog Detonator Hobgoblins* The Mandrake Club Dashwood's Reverie* The Black Drop* Sir Keith at Lambeth The Submariner's Song* The Vauxhaull Labyrinth While London Sleeps Warminster 4 Percy Toplis
