A Sense of Doubt blog post #2400 - THE MOON WIRING CLUB - Musical Monday SEPTEMBER THIRTEENTH 2021
Happy Hauntology Day with the music of MOON WIRING CLUB.
Possibly fitting for post #2400, but I will commemorate it more fittingly tomorrow.
https://thequietus.com/articles/00963-moon-wiring-club-shoes-off-and-chairs-away-album-review
Moon Wiring Club
SHOES OFF AND CHAIRS AWAYjonny mugwump , January 8th, 2009 16:13
As hauntology becomes a matter of political debate on the blogosphere (inevitable considering the term's roots in Derrida) I feel that this distracts from the uncanny and beautiful aesthetic value of those artists with whom the phrase first became associated. I'm thinking the Ghost Box label, Ariel Pink, Broadcast, The Caretaker, and so on. I'd be the last person to object to taking a concept and running haywire with it, but given that they're almost all arch-fantasists, these groups couldn't be less politically motivated. Instead, their approach to music is to be "weird" in almost the same sense as you might find the word – and world - explored and revealed in literature. Perhaps, in this context, "weird" is a more suitable term of description than "hauntology".
If we take Lovecraft being the exemplar, the weird in literature works through a distortion of reality, be that a recognisable landscape or situation. All of the aforementioned acts play with memory by throwing familiar sounds at you (often from the past) and then subjecting them to wholly contemporary devices; say, Focus Group's rough edits and loops or Belbury Poly's analogue/ digital confusions. The other prime obsession of many ‘weird' acts is geography. Barring Ariel Pink, ‘weird' music is obsessed with England and the English landscape.
Moon Wiring Club are a more recent addition to the cannon. Their debut, An Audience of Art Deco Ears, was a sublime masterpiece. MWC have taken this obsession with locale to such an extraordinary degree that they have a huge and gorgeous website dedicated to Clinkskell, the mysterious village from where these gentlemen of music launch their temporally skewed transmissions.
MWC's attack on time and memory comes from vocal samples, spoken word culled from lost TV transmissions, supernatural films and a probably a huge dose of Hammer Horror. The other thing that is quite startling when you listen with a certain amount of distance is how much like hip hop this sounds. It's kind of like NWA being produced by William Blake, Kent instead of Compton. The beats are hard, choppy and slow and the space between the rhythm and melody is as much East Coast USA as anything else.
Another enormously attractive aspect of the music is a total lack of irony in what's taking place, even if the approach might sometimes be light-hearted. This is no reflection of seriousness of intent. It has been suggested that hauntology is a kind of parallel post-modernism that creates the new from the past; a temporal interruption to that philosophical ball and chain where irony is ditched in favour of alternate histories for pasts that never existed. These in turn become the new building blocks for sound, a wealth of open horizons to which the listener is warmly invited. These artists reinstall history by interfering with it.
Moon Wiring Club's second release is business as abnormal and is even more submersive and evocative than their debut – this is high praise indeed. The album is bookended by their best songs to date. ‘Always A Welcome' sounds like a slo-mo rave for spectres, chunky beats and an orchestral or organ riff pitch-shifted and saturated with effects moves like a ghost through your ears. ‘Ten Years or Twenty' is simply staggering, a voyage through darkest pastoral Britain, a sinister voice promising "apples for everyone" and then what sounds like dialogue is multi-tracked and treated to such ecstatic levels that the spoken word becomes song. It's utterly captivating, a huge wave of eerie sound underpinned by chiming bells of doom and warm expansive flute. Another highlight is ‘Strangers to the Music' which has a melodic faded grandeur, laughing voice echo from nowhere whilst a solemn voice invokes "all things must be as they were before" while another moans "help me".
But all in all, every second is a portal. These twenty-two tracks make for a sublime and spooky trip from start to finish as orchestras, woodwind and harpsichords all get manhandled by the technologically-savvy ghosts in the machine. The second it starts you're instantly transported to this other world and you don't leave until you're allowed to - never has this green and pleasant land sounded so uncanny.
12 Feb 2012
Great Albums You May Have Missed ( One That I Had )Moon Wiring Club - Spare Tabby at the Wedding ( 2010 )
Eagle eyed readers will notice that I've been on a bit of a Hauntology binge lately. After sampling the delights of the Advisory Circle and Belbury Poly, it seemed that Moon Wiring Club was my next logical step.
I have it on good authority that the best place to start with them is a toss up between their fourth album Spare Tabby at the Wedding and their debut An Audience of Art Deco Eyes. If that's the case I'm going to be needing to find a copy of Art Deco Eyes very soon.
Moon Wiring Club's Ian Hodgson has a fairly unique approach to making his music. Entirely sample based, it's all patched together on an old Playstation 2 with a used copy of MTV Music Generator 2 from 2001. The results sound like they come from 1974 and 2030 simultaneously.
The oddness continues. Hodgson hit upon the fascinating idea that when you're looking forward to a new album from a beloved artist, you develop a dream idea of what the album's going to sound like, which is then immediately forgotten when you hear the real thing. Rather than leaving us with a sense of loss that we didn't even realize we had, he's provided us with two versions of the album. The CD and download version as the official release, and the vinyl version as a completely different dream version.
He's also spent a ridiculous amount of time creating an elaborate fictional village, Clinkskell, for his characters, whether they be sinister or sweet, to inhabit. Visit Blank Workshop with a mug of cocoa and a few hours to spare to check it out. It'd do Brian Clemens proud.What's the music like you ask? Where the Advisory Circle and Belbury Poly eased me into the genre with a more whimsical, pastoral take on electronica, the Moon Wiring Club are a decidedly beatier prospect. Indeed there are tracks here that I can imagine being played in a club without the DJ getting the flaming torch and pitchfork treatment. Assuming you live somewhere where clubgoers still take these implements with them on a night out.
Its all very politely English, despite the percussion often verging on raw hip hop. Imagine what DJ Shadow's Entroducing would have sounded like if he'd been born in Hull and spent his youth watching the Tomorrow People and Children of the Stones instead of scouring thrift stores for David Axelrod records. If that mental image helps you, you're on the same wavelength as me ( be worried ) and should enjoy this album immensely, as I did.Layers of vocal samples lifted from obscure seventies TV shows add color and texture, while the music alternates between waves of burbling radiophonics, fizzy analogue synth pop and the sort of aural fever dreams usually reserved for the stoic hero of Hodgson's beloved TV shows when they've finally worked out what's really happening in the village.
Riveting stuff for those of a particular bent.
BUY IT ON CD HERE
Moon Wiring Club xtras
Just finished writing my review of the new Moon Wiring Club joint, Today’s Bread, Tomorrow’s Secrets. I always love to spread the word on the British hauntologists; they’ve always been my favorite, for some reason. The crumbly sound of ruined vinyl and warped tape: the quotation of the strangest, quaintest vintage store riff-raff that you could never hope to find. I got into Ghost Box first, then with the help of folks like Julian House, Jim Jupp, The Head Technician of Pye Corner Audio, i found a dank, phosphorescent subway tunnel of obscure horror movies, unknown weird fiction authors, great lost techno. They got me into the Radiophonic Workshop, which got me back into sci fi and futurism, and brought some damn hope back into my life. There’s just something about this music…
So i wanted to write a good review for this record. It seems like Ian Hodgson is putting out music at an accelerating rate, and i’ve been thrilled with the results. The lock-kneed, rusted Playstation beats, the smeary dubbed-out proper British samples. Everything seems to be referencing something else; there are reoccurring characters in Moon Wiring Club songs, and the album covers all have that vaguely sinister Art Deco adornment. There’s opening credits for TV shows that may or may not have existed, on the website. Its just a damn wormhole, and it leads on and on. So i’ve been spinning Moon Wiring Club pretty heavily in my earholes, as i go about my errands lately, and letting Mr. Hodgson’s reality perception bleed into mine.
Moon Wiring Club is a nearly picture-perfect example of what i’m getting at w/ the 66.6 series. What i truly want, above and beyond all things, is to be able to appreciate my own life, and it is increasingly necessary for us to do so. As you may or may not have noticed, we do not yet appear to have been sucked down the wormhole, and we’ve all been living on the coattails of history for as long as most of us have been alive. The content of culture continues to accelerate on the daily, as everyone everywhere vies for our attention spans. There is infinite potential in every direction, so at this point, we have an option no culture has ever had. We have all the knowledge at our disposal: what are we trying to do? and how are we going to accomplish it?
With the never-ending grind of the Industrial Revolution, the illusion that more is better and that continual expansion = stability, we are drowning in the disposable artifacts of a technological age. With capitalism, there has been this idea that newer is better, we have discarded a lot in pursuit of speed. Wisdom, Patience, Observation… the ability to be moved by experiences. Writing about music (apart from it being like dancing about architecture) requires one to experience, to pay attention. To stop thinking about one’s self. In some ways, it can incapacitate you. Its like a sonic meditation, sometimes several hours a day. Its the antidote to the gluttonous wash of banal attention whores, all style and no substance. You’ve got to pay attention, you’ve got to care. You can’t just do things for popularity or praise. And in this way, listening to music becomes a religious act. Its like a possession.
Do you remember when you first got into music? First went to a show? Perhaps first moved to the city? That feeling of excitement, enthusiasm, unlimited potential. The feeling that you would go to any lengths to see a particular concert, or maybe play with somebody? It is possible to experience this, to be innocent and refreshed constantly.
My dedication towards this cleansing is the 66.6 series, as i ever more dilligently struggle to learn how to write about music, to play, and to produce. By resurrecting quality. And appreciation. And patience. And wisdom. And intuition. By really drilling down into the ephemeral mist of what makes music amazing, by looking at music i deem worthwhile, at allowing myself to perceive it fully, mind body and spirit, and to be affected by it.
So towards this goal, here’s a bunch of extras, from Mr. Ian Hodgson. The world of Clinkskell is remarkably thorough, as is his knowledge of bizarre, irreal esoterica. It really does get into yr bones, and start to obsess you. Or it did me, anyway…
Blank Workshop (the portal)
01. Dopplereffeckt. Compactification
02. Autechre. Altibzz
03. Mark Pritchard. The Hologram
04. Ivor Slaney. Easy Prey – End Title
05. Shape. Brutalist Realm
06. Andrew Lloyd-webber. Variations
07. El-P. Tuned Mass Damper (instrumental)
08. Koji Kondo & Soyo Oka. Pilot Wings
09. V/VM. Valerian Albanov
10. Gescom. Mag Ae Remix
11. The Advisory Circle. And the Cuckoo Comes
12. MC Duke. I’m Riffin (Smokin’ Beats)
13. Leonard Rossiter & The Rigsbyettes. Rising Damp
14. Coil. Dark River
15. Keith Mansfield. Passport International (a)
16. Goblin. Snip-Snap
17. The Seebach Band. Bubble Sex
18. oOoOO. Burnout Eyess
19. Art of Noise. Opus 4
20. National Trust. Fountains Abbey – Birds In Water Garden
21. Biosphere. The Third Planet
22. (Unknown) KG Intro.
23. The Focus Group. The Other Birds
24. Fox. S-S-S Single Bed
25. Wagon Christ. Rexist
26. Peter O’Toole. Dem Bones
27. Woodbines & Spiders. Old Hands Need a Glove
28. Richard Hartley. Dead Head
29. Giorgio Moroder. Leopard Tree Dream
30. Dead Can Dance. Windfall
31. Moon Wiring Club. Wolves in My House
32. Brian Bennett. The Unknown
33. Tangerine Dream. Katja
34. David Mindel. Russell Harty Theme
35. Robert Swain. S4C Ident #4
36. Florrie. Call 911 (Florrie Remix)
37. BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Avon’s Communicator
38. VHS Head. The Stuff
39. Datassette. Can You Smell Maths?
40. Hideyuki Shimono & Akihito Ohkawa. The Art of Destruction
41. Denny Crockett & Ike Egan. Le vieux vaisseau
42. Vangelis. Alpha
43. Jon Brooks. Piano & Tape Miniature no.1
“Moon Wiring Club have always been a big favourite over here at Days Are Numbers. Their spell-binding and spectacular collages of sound recall the majestic and ghostly world of BBC Radiophonic Workshop, lost 60s/70s British kid’s TV shows, vintage radio cues, loops and library music, with a bit of Hammer Horror thrown in.
Crafting songs that brim with haunting rhythms and melodies, their music is enchanting and eerie but always captivating. It was only appropriate for us to ask them for a wonderfully delicious ‘Surreal’ mix, and thankfully, they kindly agreed.Taking their cue from a legendary British Institution – the British Summer, here’s the Moon Wiring Club with a few words, followed by a splendid ‘Surreal Summer’ mix…” – Days Are Numbers
“After being told to go outside and not watch Victorian Detectives on a sickly-sunny day, experience the reality of too much sunshine & ice cream.Then recoil from the depths of a Vaudevillian Ploughman’s lunch chutney overload sensation with a diabolic holiday showbiz turn. Back inside, the light has turned black and the telly smells funny. Oh! It must be the…Elementary Ice Cream Sunstroke Mix” – MWC
01. Gerhard Trede – Pictures of Science 10
02. Peter Dennis -Timp Easy
03. Patrice Sciortino – Speleolien
04. Nujabes + Fat Jon – How You Feel
05. LFO – Goodnight Vienna
06. Max Mathews – Bicycle Built for two
07. BBC Radiophonic Workshop – Meglos (Tape Wobble mix)
08. Coil – Broken Aura
09. Harold Faltermeyer – Fletch Theme
10. Yan Tregger – Quella Villa
11. John Carpenter – Targets/Ice Cream Man
12. RZA – Ice Cream (instrumental)
13. The Lyons Maid Revue – Little Bit of Eye Tie Ice Cream
14. Bernard Fevre -Special Spatial
15. The Two Pete’s – Macarthur Park/Popcorn
16. Mount Vernon Arts Lab – Hobgoblins (Coil Remix)
17. K Kleins Field – Incidental Black Cloth
18. Washed Out – Clap Intro
19. Sisters of Mercy – Never Land (a fragment)
20. Position Normal – The Frisky One
21. Serge Bulot – Pluie Lunaire
22. Clannad – Robin (the Hooded Man)
23. Art of Noise – Legs (12″ mix)
24. Soyo Oko – Ghost
25. Yuzo Koshiro – Space Flight
26. Basil Rathbone – I do Like to be Beside the Seaside
Elementary Ice Cream Sunstroke Mix – LINK
A Field Full Of Sunken Horses – Free ep!
01. The Moontower
02. Magpie Mine
03. He’ve got Saint Lawrence on the Shoulder
04. Wolves in My House
IAN HODGSON PORTAL @ THE WIRE (i highly recommend the great gatsby game.)
FACT magazine interview (there’s not many of these. cherish them..)
You can read my review of Today’s Bread here
“Are you ready to take it to the next level?!” booms David Morales.
I’m sat in the living room of Ian Hodgson, Moon Wiring Club, surrounded by shelves of trinkets, stacks of DVDs and old fitness LPs. These are all part of the machine behind Clinksell, the imaginary community of characters populating Hodgson’s records, which exist in an imaginary, timeless place, and whose identity is jigsawed together from hauntological artefacts and images of Peak District villages. David Morales isn’t here with us, he’s on the telly, in the opening video for MTV Music Generator 2 (2001) on the PS2, the computer game that Ian Hodgson makes all his music on.
Hodgson started making music during a fine art course, where he found that “all I really wanted to do, instead of trying to do high concept things, was draw vaguely aristocratic looking women in hats”. This eventually morphed into what’s now known as Moon Wiring Club, and just before Christmas, Hodgson released his fourth album, A Spare Tabby At The Cat’s Wedding.
There are two versions of the record: a CD and LP version, which are not the same, but share track names and a cast of characters. Oh, and the CD has just last week been reissued with different artwork. Hodgson explains to us below what on earth is going on in Clinksell…
“The LP version is the dream mix-up of the CD. So, by the end of listening to the CD you’ve fallen asleep, and in your sleep you’re trapped inside the LP.”
There are two releases with this album, a CD version of A Spare Tabby at the Cat’s Wedding, and an LP version, and they differ in terms of content. Can you explain how the two are connected?
“Every album I do has a story to it, and with this one I was very much interested in the idea of old entertainment, of old board games and old card games. Also, it’s like, when you look forward to something so much – a book, CD, LP, DVD – so much that you have dreams about it, and then you finally get hold of the real item, and it is totally different. But then what happens to that ‘dream version’? It still exists somewhere, so for this record, the vinyl version is, amongst other things, the dream-version of the CD.
“For this [the vinyl edition], there’s an old card game called A Spare Tabby At The Cat’s Wedding, and when it was around there were hints that there was a musical accompaniment to the game. The CD and the LP are that musical accompaniment, but whatever my idea for it is, isn’t necessarily the 100% fixed way to listen to it. The idea is to do the CD first and then the LP. The LP version is the dream mix-up of the CD. So, by the end of listening to the CD you’ve fallen asleep, and in your sleep you’re trapped inside the LP.
“The CD version is the male (prince) cat. He’s on the cover, but the reverse of the CD acts like a mirror trap holding him in place, until the first person who bought a CD lifted it out to play.
“You spend the first part of the game trying to avoid marrying the male cat.”
“The CD opens with the voices of the previous players, who couldn’t get out of the game. They’re no longer in limbo because you’ve played the CD, and that means you’ve started playing the game. There’s a voice that says: “It’s started,” which marks you starting to play, whether you realise it or not. In each track there’s sequences, and certain sequences are a part of the musical accompaniment and represent a card being played. As you progress, each track is a situation that you can or can’t get out of, and there’s also tracks based on people that could help you.
“The idea is that you would spend the first part of the game trying to avoid marrying the male cat. When you get to the end of the CD you need to escape into Edwardian times via a romantic dance, aka, the track ‘Edwardian Romance’. But this is not an escape, it just leads you to the LP version, which operates on dream logic, and the female princess cat is now keenly pursuing you. The back of the LP says it’s a game for 1-450 players, because there’s 450 copies of the LP which are for sale.”
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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2109.13 - 10:10
- Days ago = 2264 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
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