I have stumbled upon Ghost Box. This niche imprint releases records by "artists that find inspiration in library music, folklore, vintage electronics and haunted television soundtracks". I think the latter describes the frequent use of samples from grainy public service broadcasts. There is certainly an obvious debt to Boards of Canada's (BOC) seminal "Music Has the Right to Children" which mined a similar seam and has become something of a holy grail in terms of atomospheric electronica. Like that BOC album much of Ghost Box's output feels half-formed, dream-like and fragmented. It's also very nostalgic - music that feels like memories and evocations of the past. Bloggers like K-Punk and Simon Reynolds have said a lot of interesting stuff on it, and it may have been the former who dubbed it hauntological, a description which kind of gets to the crux of this music really - it really is quite haunting. My tardiness in finding this lovely music is amply demonstrated by the fact that even the Times has done an article on "hauntology". Rather fantastically the Guradian has called it psychogeographic rock. But names aside, this is essential listening for fans of the afore-mentioned BOC, but it also brings to mind Isan, Plone, Broadcast (who share an art-work designer with Ghost Box I believe) and that whole future-retro thing that got going in the late 90s. Other reference points are the soundtrack of Kes and the output of labels like Trunk and Mordant Music.
