The Willows, by Belbury Poly (CD on Ghost Box)

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This record left our Mingus feeling happy.

We are now stocking the much discussed Ghost Box imprint. A kind of conceptual music/design project as much as an outlet for musings on childhood nostalgia and arcane/otherwordly British folk/electronica noodlings. At times evocative of running scared behind chairs at the sight and sound of the Daleks appearing on the Tragic (or magic if you please) lantern that is early saturday afternoon TV of the 1960's/70's. One of a handful of releases we've received is The Focus Group; "We are all Pan's People" which has a spectral quality, much like other Ghost Box outfits particularly The Advisory Circle, that is reminiscent of Boards of Canada's classic "Music has a right to Children". At times coming across like a DJ battle tool with outtakes of found sound and effects, field recordings, wavering keyboard lines and stuck grooves. There's even elements of folk revivalism (flutes,pan pipes...that sort of thing), abliet fed through the analogue-digital interface. Fact magazine sums up Ghost Box best when they describe their releases as " functioning as an 'evocation-machine', an entry point into a network of associations and memories that can be traced from experimental music through to film, television and literature". In fact some of the sleeve designs are eerily like the old Penguin paperbacks.

The Owl's Map by Belbury Poly (CD, £9.79)