Ghost Box
| Ghost Box | |
|---|---|
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| Founded | 2004 |
| Founder | Julian House Jim Jupp |
| Distributor(s) | The state51 Conspiracy |
| Genre | Electronic Electronic pop Hauntology |
| Country of origin | UK |
| Official website | Ghost Box Records |
| Twitter handle | @GhostBoxRecords |
Ghost Box is an independent, UK based record label, launched in 2004 by Julian House and Jim Jupp.
Contents
Background
A record label established in London in 2004 by producer, Jim Jupp and music industry graphic designer, Julian House. It 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 both music and design would allude to House and Jim Jupp’s shared imaginary landscape; a very British parallel world of TV soundtracks, 60s and 70s horror movies, vintage electronic music, folk song, English psychedelia, supernatural stories and folklore.
Music journalist Simon Reynolds coined the genre term hauntology to describe Ghost Box's uniquely haunting visual and musical output.
Visual Style
What sets Ghost Box apart from other independent record labels is its strong sense of narrative and fictional setting. Jupp and House have described the label as existing in an imagined or misremembered past. It’s a world outside of time where cultural references from a roughly 30 year period (say 1960-1980) are happening all at once.
Influenced by library album covers 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”.
Artists and Guests
Ghost Box’s key artists are House's own The Focus Group and Jupp’s Belbury Poly and also The Advisory Circle the recording name for the work of producer and longest serving Ghost Box collaborator Jon Brooks.
Ghost Box have also released albums by Pye Corner Audio, Mount Vernon Arts Lab, Hintermass, The Soundcarriers and Roj.
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, Cavern of Anti-Matter, Sean O'Hagan, Steve Moore The Listening Center and ToiToiToi.
Press Quotes
“...some of the most delightful electronica to arise in Britain since Aphex Twin, the Black Dog and Global Communication.”
The Sunday Times
“...music that’s both highly atmospheric and melodically rewarding.”
The Wire
“...what's most impressive about Ghost Box is the aesthetic consistency and sheer quality of the material, recalling the heydays of labels such as Factory, 4AD and Warp.”
Quietus
“Delving into Ghost Box is a bit like reaching into a magician’s trick bag: rummaging around among a seemingly endless ream of surprises, with hidden latches opening back hatches to a bemusing world where library music meets a re-imagined olde England filtered through primitive electronics. That something can be so simultaneously warm and comforting, yet unsettlingly off-kilter, is testament to the majesty with which the GB team straddle their multiple parallel worlds.”
Record Collector Magazine
Discography
Seven Inch & Download Singles
| Musician | Title | Catalogue Number |
|---|---|---|
| Belbury Poly and Moon Wiring Club | Study Series 01: Youth and Recreation (2010) | GBX701 |
| The Advisory Circle with Hong Kong in the 60s | Study Series 02: Cycles and Seasons (2010) | GBX702 |
| Belbury Poly and Mordant Music | Study Series 03: Welcome to Godalming (2010) | GBX703 |
| Broadcast and The Focus Group | Study Series 04: Familiar Shapes and Noises (2010) | GBX704 |
| Hintermass | Study Series 05: The Open Song Book (2011) | GBX705 |
| Jonny Trunk | Study Series 06: Animation and Interpretation (2011) | GBX706 |
| Pye Corner Audio with The Advisory Circle | Study Series 07: Autumnal Activities (2011) | GBX707 |
| Belbury Poly and The Advisory Circle | Study Series 08: Inversions (2012) | GBX708 |
| Listening Center with Pye Corner Audio | Study Series 09: Projections (2013) | GBX709 |
| Belbury Poly and Spacedog | Study Series 10: Message and Method (2013) | GBX710 |
| Brooks and O'Hagan | Other Voices 01: Calibair/ Mulcair (2014) | GBX711 |
| Listening Center | Other Voices 02: Quotidian Forgotten/ Our Material (2014) | GBX712 |
| The Pattern Forms | Other Voices 03: Fluchtwege/ The Sacrifice (2015) | GBX713 |
| Steve Moore | Other Voices 04: The Moon Occults Saturn At Dawn/ Val Sans Retour (2015) | GBX714 |
| Pye Corner Audio with Belbury Poly | Other Voices 05: Machines are Obsolete/Pathways (2015) | GBX715 |
| ToiToiToi | Other Voices 06: Odin's Jungle/Golden Green (2015) | GBX716 |
| Cavern of Anti-Matter | Other Voices 07: Pulsing River Velvet Phase/Phototones (2015) | GBX717 |
Download only label sampler album
| Title | Work | Catalogue Number |
|---|---|---|
| Various artists | Ritual and Education (2008) | GBXSAMP01 |
