Ghost Box Records
Founded2004
FounderJulian House
Jim Jupp
GenreElectronic, library music, hauntology, psychedelia
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Official websitewww.ghostbox.co.uk

Ghost Box is an independent, UK-based electronic music record label, launched in 2004 by graphic designer Julian House and producer Jim Jupp. Its roster includes artists such as Jupp's Belbury Poly, House's The Focus Group, and the Advisory Circle, as well as releases by Broadcast and John Foxx among others.

The label's distinctive aesthetic draws on outdated and esoteric British cultural sources from the postwar period, including early electronic and library music, public information films, educational resources, occult stories, and BBC science-fiction programs. Ghost Box consequently became associated with the 2000s music trend known as hauntology.

Background

Ghost Box was established in London in 2004 by producer Jim Jupp and music industry graphic designer Julian House.[1] The label was formally launched on January 10, 2005, and was originally created as an outlet for their own musical experiments, with the idea that each release’s packaging would display a similar design sensibility and allude to a shared imaginary landscape; a very British parallel world of public information films and TV soundtracks, cosmic horror stories, vintage library music and antique synthesisers, folk song, educational programmes, English psychedelia, occult stories and folklore.[1]

Jupp and House have described the label as existing in an imagined or misremembered past. Influenced by school textbooks and the rigid design grid of Penguin and Pelican paperback books, Ghost Box records and CDs were always intended to look and sound like artefacts from a parallel world, familiar, elegant, but somehow "wrong". It’s a world outside of time where cultural references from a roughly 20-year period (1958-1978) are happening all at once.[2]

Their work has been described as an attempt to evoke "a nostalgia for a future that never came to pass, with a vision of a strange, alternate Britain, constituted from the reorder refuse of the postwar period."[3]

Roster

Ghost Box’s key artists are House's own The Focus Group and Jupp’s Belbury Poly as well as The Advisory Circle, the recording name for the work of producer and longest serving Ghost Box collaborator Cate Brooks. Jupp and Brooks have collaborated together as The Belbury Circle. Ghost Box have also released albums by Pye Corner Audio, Mount Vernon Arts Lab, Hintermass (formed by Brooks with former Broadcast and Seeland member Tim Felton), The Soundcarriers and Roj (also formerly of Broadcast), as well as the comeback album by Plone, who are acknowledged by the label as progenitors of the Ghost Box style. Ghost Box has recently began to expand their roster to showcase artists from other countries, such as ToiToiToi from Berlin, Germany and Beautify Junkyards from Lisbon, Portugal.

There have also been releases by guest artists sometimes in collaborating with members of the regular roster over an ongoing series of Ghost Box singles. First the Study Series (nos. 1-10) and more recently the ongoing Other Voices series. Guests have included include Broadcast, John Foxx, Paul Weller, Moon Wiring Club, Cavern of Anti-Matter, Sean O'Hagan, Steve Moore and The Listening Center.

Reception

Music journalists Simon Reynolds and Mark Fisher borrowed Jacques Derrida's philosophical term hauntology to describe Ghost Box's uniquely surreal visual and musical output.[4][5][6] Boing Boing's Mark Pilkington noted Ghost Box founders "fused pop concrète, soundtrack and library music with sharp design and a swarm of esoteric pop-cultural references to create a parallel reality built upon memories of a very British past."[7]

In reviewing Broadcast and The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age, PopMatters called Ghost Box "[o]ne of the most rousing (oc)cult phenomena of the past decade" having "created a career conjuring past futurisms and collectively buried fears to create music that quite literally feels like it’s in a different league, even another dimension, than other modern musicians."[8]

Discography

Albums

Musician Title Release Date Format Catalogue Number
Belbury PolyFarmer's Angle10 January 2005
28 October 2022 (re-issue)
Mini CD-EP
CD/7" EP (re-issue)
GBX001
The Focus GroupSketches and Spells10 January 2005
4 February 2011 (LP re-issue)
11 November 2022 (2022 re-issue)
CD
LP (2011 re-issue)
CD/LP (2022 re-issue)
GBX002
Belbury PolyThe Willows10 January 2005
4 February 2011 (LP re-issue)
CD
LP (2011 re-issue)
GBX003
Eric ZannOuroborindra4 April 2005CDGBX004
The Focus GroupHey Let Loose Your Love4 April 2005CDGBX005
The Advisory CircleMind How You Go17 October 2005Mini CD-EPGBX006
Belbury PolyThe Owl's Map10 September 2006
14 July 2017 (LP re-issue)
CD
LP (2017 re-issue)
GBX007
The Focus GroupWe Are All Pan's People27 March 2007CDGBX008
Mount Vernon Arts LabThe Séance at Hobs Lane31 May 2007
12 June 2015 (LP re-issue)
CD
LP (2015 re-issue)
GBX009
The Advisory CircleOther Channels10 March 2008
12 June 2015 (LP re-issue)
CD
LP (2015 re-issue)
GBX010
Belbury PolyFrom an Ancient Star30 January 2009CDGBX011
RojThe Transactional Dharma of Roj28 September 2009CDGBX012
The Advisory CircleMind How You Go (Revised Edition)5 March 2010CD/LPGBX013
Belbury PolyFarmer's Angle (Revised Edition)10 September 2010CD/10"GBX014
The Advisory CircleAs The Crow Flies8 July 2011CD/LPGBX015
Belbury PolyThe Belbury Tales24 February 2012CD/LPGBX016
Pye Corner AudioSleep Games19 October 2012CD/LPGBX017
The Focus GroupThe Elektrik Karousel10 May 2013CD/LPGBX018
John Foxx and The Belbury CircleEmpty Avenues6 September 2013CD/10"GBX019
The SoundcarriersEntropicalia20 May 2014CD/LPGBX020
The Advisory CircleFrom Out Here5 December 2014CD/LPGBX021
Various artistsIn a Moment... Ghost Box9 October 2015CD/LPGBX022
HintermassThe Apple Tree18 March 2016CD/LPGBX023
The Belbury PolyNew Ways Out9 June 2016CD/LPGBX024
Pye Corner AudioStasis26 August 2016CD/LPGBX025
The Pattern FormsPeel Away the Ivy6 November 2016CD/LPGBX026
ToiToiToiIm Hag16 June 2017CD/LPGBX027
The Focus GroupStop-Motion Happening with The Focus Groop1 October 2017CD/LPGBX028
The Belbury CircleOutward Journeys12 November 2017CD/LP/CassetteGBX029
Beautify JunkyardsThe Invisible World of Beautify Junkyards9 March 2018CD/LPGBX030
The Advisory CircleWays of Seeing10 June 2018CD/LPGBX031
Pye Corner AudioHollow Earth15 February 2019CD/LPGBX032
Justin Hopper & Sharron Kraus with The Belbury PolyChanctonbury Rings21 June 2019CD/LPGBX033
PlonePuzzlewood17 April 2020CD/LPGBX034
Belbury PolyThe Gone Away28 August 2020CD/LPGBX035
Beautify JunkyardsCosmorama13 January 2021CD/LPGBX036
Various ArtistsIntermission (Ghostbox Contemporary Connections)12 August 2021CD/LPGBX037
ToiToiToiVaganten19 August 2021CD/LPGBX038
Pye Corner AudioEntangled Routes26 November 2021CD/LPGBX039
Pneumatic TubesA Letter From TreeTops25 February 2022CD/LPGBX040
Large PlantsThe Carrier22 April 2022CD/LPGBX041
The Advisory CircleFull Circle30 September 2022CD/LPGBX042
Belbury PolyThe Path4 August 2023CD/LPGBX043
Large PlantsThe Thorn17 November 2023CD/LPGBX044

Singles & EPs

Musician Title Format Catalogue Number
Belbury Poly and Moon Wiring ClubStudy Series 01: Youth and Recreation (2010)SingleGBX701
The Advisory Circle with Hong Kong in the 60sStudy Series 02: Cycles and Seasons (2010)SingleGBX702
Belbury Poly and Mordant MusicStudy Series 03: Welcome to Godalming (2010)SingleGBX703
Broadcast and The Focus GroupStudy Series 04: Familiar Shapes and Noises (2010)SingleGBX704
HintermassStudy Series 05: The Open Song Book (2011)SingleGBX705
Jonny TrunkStudy Series 06: Animation and Interpretation (2011)SingleGBX706
Pye Corner Audio with The Advisory CircleStudy Series 07: Autumnal Activities (2011)SingleGBX707
Belbury Poly and The Advisory CircleStudy Series 08: Inversions (2012)SingleGBX708
Listening Center with Pye Corner AudioStudy Series 09: Projections (2013)SingleGBX709
Belbury Poly and SpacedogStudy Series 10: Message and Method (2013)SingleGBX710
Brooks and O'HaganOther Voices 01: Calibair/ Mulcair (2014)SingleGBX711
Listening CenterOther Voices 02: Quotidian Forgotten/ Our Material (2014)SingleGBX712
The Pattern FormsOther Voices 03: Fluchtwege/ The Sacrifice (2015)SingleGBX713
Steve MooreOther Voices 04: The Moon Occults Saturn At Dawn/ Val Sans Retour (2015)SingleGBX714
Pye Corner Audio with Belbury PolyOther Voices 05: Machines are Obsolete/ Pathways (2015)SingleGBX715
Cavern of Anti-MatterOther Voices 06: Pulsing River Velvet Phase/ Phototones (2015)SingleGBX716
ToiToiToiOther Voices 07: Odin's Jungle/ Golden Green (2015)SingleGBX717
Beautify JunkyardsOther Voices 08: Constant Flux/ Pirâmide (2016)SingleGBX718
Belbury Poly & Moon Wiring ClubOther Voices 09: The Music Room/ Moonling (2017)SingleGBX719
Sharron Kraus with Belbury PolyOther Voices 10: Something Out of Nothing/Something Out of Nothing (Belbury Poly Mix) (2019)SingleGBX720
Paul WellerIn Another Room (2020)EPGBX721
Beautify Junkyards & Belbury PolyPainting Box/Ritual in Transfigured Time (2021)SingleGBX722
Large PlantsLa Isla Bonita/Please Don’t Be There for Me (2021)SingleGBX723

Download only label sampler album

Title Work Catalogue Number
Various artistsRitual and Education (2008)GBXSAMP01
Various artistsIntermission (2020)MSFGBXD008

References

  1. 1 2 Reynolds, Simon. "Haunted Audio a/k/a SOCIETY OF THE SPECTRAL: Ghost Box, Mordant Music and Hauntology". The Wire. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  2. Interview: Belbury Poly, FACT magazine
  3. Whiteley, Sheila; Rambarran, Shara (22 January 2016). The Oxford Handbook of Music and Virtuality. Oxford University Press. p. 412.
  4. Reynolds, Simon. "Hauntology: Ghost Box label profile, Frieze magazine October 2005". Reynoldsretro. Retrieved 26 October 2018.
  5. Society of the spectral Archived 23 February 2007 at the Wayback Machine, The Wire no. 276, November 2006
  6. Interview with Jim Jupp 2017, Diabolique Magazine
  7. Mark Pilkington (12 October 2012). "Hauntologists mine the past for music's future - Boing Boing". Boing Boing. Retrieved 29 July 2014.
  8. Gabriele, Timothy (12 November 2009). "Broadcast and the Focus Group: Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age - PopMatters". PopMatters. Retrieved 6 August 2014.
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