Belbury Poly - From An Ancient Star

Belbury Poly is an alias of electronic musician Jim Jupp, the founder of cult lable Ghostbox Music. Ghostbox is a label dedicated to a genre of music known as Hauntology, essentially a style of electronic music which takes its influences from old BBC Radiophonic Workshop recordings, Folk music, Public Information Films from the 1970s and old fantasy and science fiction programmes. It's a peculiarly British sound and when trying to work out what it reminds you of (other than Kraftwerk in parts) you tend to think more of TV programmes than of other pieces of music. Things like "Moondial", "Tales Of The Unexpected"  and "Day Of The Triffids". I was first introduced to this style of music by attending an afternoon called "The Belbury Youth Club" at the Flatpack Film Festival in Birmingham a few years ago. This was an afternoon curated by Ghostbox Music, consisting of an art exhibition of album covers from the Ghostbox label (which all share a common aesthetic and are designed to look like old textbooks), screenings of old deleted 1970s and 80s science fiction programmes, old public information films ("I AM THE SPIRIT OF DARK AND LONELY WATER..." - that kind of thing) and cold war era propaganda films, plus a live audio/visual performance from Ghostbox's Moon Wiring Club. I bought "From An Ancient Star" while I was there based on the cover art.

I wasn't disappointed when I got home and listened to it, It's all analogue synths, samples from old very British sounding TV programmes and mysteriousness. While googling the front cover for this blog I found one review that describes the album as being like "Trying to read a John Wyndham novel by the light of a spinning glitterball.". I can't put it much better than that! Here's "A Great Day Out" from the album, a track that manages to combine the general Hauntology sound with a Dub influence!...