Hello you. Presenting for your approval another dose of Resonance FM Isolation antics in the shape of the latest edition of Fog Cast, which this week pays another visit to the magnificent Touch:Isolation compilation (although at a total of 28 tracks and three hours we’ve still barely scratched the surface), plus the superb new album After Geography by Francisco Dominguez, better known as Forest Robots. Purported to be a ‘love letter to his daughter about the wonders of nature’, it strikes me that we could all do with a reminder of such things, especially when they’re as blissful as this. Hoping to hear a lot more from Forest Robots in the future. Also hoping his little girl appreciates it. Seem to remember my infant niece being pretty ambivalent when I tried a similar approach a couple of years back.. There really is no accounting for taste…
Forest Robots – Subtly Widening Bergschrunds [from After Geography, Forest Robots, 2020]
Rosy Parlane – Awa [from Touch:Isolation, Touch, 2020]
Oren Ambarchi – Sbagliato (Demo) [from Touch:Isolation, Touch, 2020]
Philip Jeck – Followed by Bells [from Touch:Isolation, Touch, 2020]
Bana Haffar – Conference of Birds [from Touch:Isolation, Touch, 2020]
Yann Novak – The Elation of Protest [from Touch:Isolation, Touch, 2020]
Forest Robots – A Detailed Cartography [from After Geography, Forest Robots, 2020]
Forest Robots – Karst Wildlife Surveying [from After Geography, Forest Robots, 2020]
I’m keeping it extra brief this week as I’m having a much needed week off up north, the dogs need walking yet again and the letter ‘n’ on my laptop has stopped working, none of which is terribly conducive to coherent marshalling of thoughts. But I must just share this smashing new mix from Melmouth The Wanderer, which features some classic tropes from the glory days of Hauntology, including ‘post-apocalyptic Cold War paranoia, Number Stations, Public Information Films and the music of high rises, subways and the concrete landscape of our once bright future’. All the good things, basically. It’s been a while since I swam in these warm Hauntological waters, but good grief doesn’t it feel apposite in the current climate?! Plus it features a blast from the Howlround past, alongside goodies from Concretism, Septimus Keen, Cabaret Voltaire and – in this cat’s humble opinion – one of Portishead’s finest yet most underrated songs. Fill your boots!
If all this has whetted your appetite for more Urban Wyrd-ness, you will no doubt enjoy the two books on the subject that Folk Horror Revival have prepared for your delectation and to which this mix should provide the perfect accompaniment. They’re available here and here with all profits being donated to The Wildlife Trusts. I’m planning on diving in myself once I’ve knocked a few more inches off the ‘in’ pile currently teetering on the Foggy nightstand. I blame Ken Hollings. His books about trash movies and flying saucers are just so moreish….
Robin The Fog 