Belbury Poly is the project of Jim Jupp, who co-runs the Ghost Box music label in the UK along with Julian House (The Focus Group). The manifesto of the labels influences focuses on what is described as "music for schools, cosmic horror stories, library music, English surrealism, and the dark side of psychedelia", which owes a lot to musique concrète, licenced production music, and 1970s film soundtracks. Many of the labels artists are claimed to share a warm, nostalgic feel similar to Boards of Canada by fans, both hopeful and spooky in their output.
Farmer's Angle feels like a joyous throwback to the early days of analogue experimentation that came through such artists as Perrey-Kingsley with the invention of the Moog synthesiser. The title track opens the short EP, a goofy series of bouncy synths and glooping noises coloured by strings providing a fun introduction at any rate. As with the next track,
Wildspot (which features a completely unique, eerie nostalgia in its beginning through what sounds like some kind of affected trumpet), the music presents itself through entirely comfortable repetition. Subtle layers of sound underpin the simple structures of each track, giving it just that little bit more to keep things balanced well. This is a story that continues with
The Eleventh House and
Cool Air, both short but sweet exercises in the realms of ambient with some delicious melodies breaking through. There is not much more to the EP then that, but of what there is to describe it's a certainly wonderful, short listen.
There are only four tracks on
Farmer's Angle, the EP barely scraping past 10 minutes but not for a moment is any of it weak. The music is ultra-repetitive, but given the length of the EP the vibrant qualities of the music and intricate production layering it make it completely worthwhile. There is nothing quite like the happy. warm sounds of analogue electronic music, and Ghost Box is responsible for harbouring a little gem here.
