Album: Other Channels
Artist: The Advisory Circle
Though Boards Of Canada is an obvious reference point, The Advisory Circle take hauntology into even darker, weirder places. Whereas Belbury Poly's The Willows was inspired by science fiction, Other Channels has a strong vein of health & safety related black humour, notably on Frozen Ponds PIF / Erosion Of Time. One of the album's early tracks, Civil Defence Is Common Sense, is also a reminder of the cold war paranoia that many people felt during the 70s & 80s. These sinister undertones and the oddball dialogue (notably on Keep Warm, Keep Well) are reminiscent of the atmosphere of Madvillainy, and hauntology is the closest that the UK has ever come to creating a native form of hip hop. There are also lighter, dreamier moments on the album like Eyes Which Are Swelling and Fire, Damp & Air, the latter particularly lovely (if still a little weird). I love the sound of the analogue synths, and the way they interlace with the audio samples and ambient sounds, and Brooks really is a master of the art. He's also able to create little vignettes with the music, such as Mogadon Coffee Morning's insight into the life of a suburban housewife during the 70s. There are now groups like Public Service Broadcasting trying to give hauntology a more mainstream appeal, but I have a feeling it will remain very much a cult interest.
*N.B. I've added a link below to the second Advisory Circle LP, As The Crow Flies, because it's the only one available on Spotify. It's more pastoral and dreamy than Other Channels, but just as brilliant in its own way. I'm looking forward to listening to new record, From Out Here (out in late 2014).*
Born: Oxford
Released: March 2008
Genre: Hauntology
"The Advisory Circle: Helping you make the right decisions". This is the announcement made by an officious female voice on debut EP, Mind How You Go, its sinister overtones reminiscent of George Orwell's 1984 and Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 (famously turned into a film by François Truffaut). The brains behind The Advisory Circle is Jon Brooks who, as well as his Ghost Box releases, has also put out electronic music under his own name (see 2013 LP, Shapwick). Like many Ghost Box musicians, Brooks was inspired by the public information films that appeared on children's TV in the 1970s, which could often be frightening and even gruesome (this is one I remember from my childhood, about the dangers posed by electricity pylons). A key inspiration for Ghost Box is the era of technocratic utopianism that flourished after WWII before it was all dismantled by Thatcher. An era of polytechnics, Open University and Penguin Books, advancement of the common man and urban regeneration. Nowadays, in a time of extreme individualism and hedonism, this "nanny state" has taken on a new charm; as Simon Reynolds says in Retromania, it was "a benign system of support and pedagogy whose eclipse is regretted". Brooks himself says his music is about "the State which says, 'We'll look after you, everything is going to be alright with a caring smile, whilst it’s preparing to institutionalise you. It's paranoia and psychosis. It's witchcraft and the occult. Folklore and tradition. Ritual."
"The Advisory Circle: Helping you make the right decisions". This is the announcement made by an officious female voice on debut EP, Mind How You Go, its sinister overtones reminiscent of George Orwell's 1984 and Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 (famously turned into a film by François Truffaut). The brains behind The Advisory Circle is Jon Brooks who, as well as his Ghost Box releases, has also put out electronic music under his own name (see 2013 LP, Shapwick). Like many Ghost Box musicians, Brooks was inspired by the public information films that appeared on children's TV in the 1970s, which could often be frightening and even gruesome (this is one I remember from my childhood, about the dangers posed by electricity pylons). A key inspiration for Ghost Box is the era of technocratic utopianism that flourished after WWII before it was all dismantled by Thatcher. An era of polytechnics, Open University and Penguin Books, advancement of the common man and urban regeneration. Nowadays, in a time of extreme individualism and hedonism, this "nanny state" has taken on a new charm; as Simon Reynolds says in Retromania, it was "a benign system of support and pedagogy whose eclipse is regretted". Brooks himself says his music is about "the State which says, 'We'll look after you, everything is going to be alright with a caring smile, whilst it’s preparing to institutionalise you. It's paranoia and psychosis. It's witchcraft and the occult. Folklore and tradition. Ritual."
Though Boards Of Canada is an obvious reference point, The Advisory Circle take hauntology into even darker, weirder places. Whereas Belbury Poly's The Willows was inspired by science fiction, Other Channels has a strong vein of health & safety related black humour, notably on Frozen Ponds PIF / Erosion Of Time. One of the album's early tracks, Civil Defence Is Common Sense, is also a reminder of the cold war paranoia that many people felt during the 70s & 80s. These sinister undertones and the oddball dialogue (notably on Keep Warm, Keep Well) are reminiscent of the atmosphere of Madvillainy, and hauntology is the closest that the UK has ever come to creating a native form of hip hop. There are also lighter, dreamier moments on the album like Eyes Which Are Swelling and Fire, Damp & Air, the latter particularly lovely (if still a little weird). I love the sound of the analogue synths, and the way they interlace with the audio samples and ambient sounds, and Brooks really is a master of the art. He's also able to create little vignettes with the music, such as Mogadon Coffee Morning's insight into the life of a suburban housewife during the 70s. There are now groups like Public Service Broadcasting trying to give hauntology a more mainstream appeal, but I have a feeling it will remain very much a cult interest.
*N.B. I've added a link below to the second Advisory Circle LP, As The Crow Flies, because it's the only one available on Spotify. It's more pastoral and dreamy than Other Channels, but just as brilliant in its own way. I'm looking forward to listening to new record, From Out Here (out in late 2014).*
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