Zyklus – Colophon, 1998 / Wasteland, 1983 / A Thought is a Wave, 1989 / Another Flood, 1987 [from Gumbo Gulag, Buried Treasure, 2020]
Jude Cowan Montague – Moog – Church African – Red Gold [unreleased, 2020]
Plone – Circler / Red Kite [from Puzzlewood), Ghost Box, 2020]
Long Meadow – Just Wait Until Spring [unreleased, 2020]
Not Quite So – This Nice Man [from 37 Minutes, Not Quite So, 2020]
Kemper Norton – Treliske [from The Isolation Tapes (Cassette Edition), Castles In Space, 2020]
Ffion – This Limbo [from The Isolation Tapes (Compact Disc Edition), Castles In Space, 2020]
The New Obsolescents – Glass Sphere [from The Isolation Tapes (Compact Disc Edition), Castles In Space, 2020]
Polypores – Abstract Gardening [from The Isolation Tapes (Compact Disc Edition), Castles In Space, 2020]
Hawksmoor – La Peste [from The Isolation Tapes (Cassette Edition), Castles In Space, 2020]
Jonathan Sharp – The World Without Us [from The Isolation Tapes (Compact Disc Edition), Castles In Space, 2020]
Warrington Runcorn New Town Development Plan – Public Health and Wellbeing – Prog. 314 Meditation for Insomniacs [from The Isolation Tapes (Compact Disc Edition), Castles In Space, 2020]
Field Lines Cartographer – Time Crystals [from bonus ‘Side 3’ of The Isolation Tapes (Cassette Edition), Castles In Space, 2020]
Drunk Keith! – Keep This Frequency Clear! [from the forthcoming album The Death Of Drunk Keith!, Drunk Keith!, 2020]
Hello you. Rather later than usual this week, please enjoy the latest edition of Fog Cast for Resonance FM, much of which is given over to celebrating the release of volumes one and two of The Isolation Tapes on Castles In Space, boasting a whopping 66 tracks from the cream of weird electronics and psychedelic pastoralism; and also Gumbo Gulag, a retrospective of library and production music from Zyklus on Buried Treasure Recordings that’s full of the kind of grainy lo-fi synth goodness I get very excited about. Listen to 1983’s ‘Wasteland’ (second track on the show) and you could almost be watching the title sequence of some badly-interlaced, tenth generation video nasty on VHS. This is a very high compliment of course – and not just because I’ve been watching an awful lot of trashy B-movies lately. Although I can’t deny that has helped…
Anyway, both releases deal with specific time-spans, but at rather opposite ends of the spectrum – everything that appears on the two volumes of The Isolation Tapes was created in a single month under lockdown, whereas Gumbo Gulag runs from 1982 to 2004. All are highly deserving of your attention and selling fast, so I’d jump and secure yourself copies right away. Plus all proceeds from The Isolation Tapes are going towards The Cavell Nurses’ Trust, so it’s a thoroughly worthy cause too.
As we’re now halfway through the year, I thought it might also be nice to look both backwards and forwards at some of 2020’s other offerings. The show is rounded off with exclusive new and unreleased material from Resonance’s own Jude Cowan Montague, the ever-affable Long Meadow, those charming chaps from Not Quite So and also the tipsy splendour of Drunk Keith!, a new project from the artist formerly known as The Protagonist! (exclamation marks his own – I’m not shouting). Plus I couldn’t have a mid-year show without including something from my very favourite LP of 2020 so far, the life-affirmingly joyous Puzzlewood by Plone. It’s been a rotten year for so many, but all this amazing music – and finally having a little more spare time to actually listen to it – has been one small reason for good cheer. The lathe cuts of Howlround’s new EP with Merkaba Macabre selling out in under half an hour has been another, rumours of forthcoming releases by The Twelve Hour Foundation and Concretism another still. We might just all survive the year with our sanities intact after-all…
Robin The Fog 