- Ian Hodgson's Moon Wiring Club and Jim Jupp's Belbury Poly are distinct. Over an intimidating number of albums, Hodgson has explored weirdo electronics while maintaining a perverted command of the dance floor. Jupp has kept within the parameters of repurposed '60s and '70s library music, producing a different sort of kaleidoscopic listening experience through records laden with synths and otherworldly melodies. And yet, the two projects share uncanny similarities. They each represent alternate realities with their own backstories, psychogeography and visual identities. When you listen to a Moon Wiring Club or Belbury Poly album, you pack up your things and leave the present.
The pair first collaborated back in 2010 with Youth And Recreation, a two-track drift between their respective worlds that came out through Ghost Box's 7-inch series. This reunion is for a different 7-inch series, Other Voices. "The Music Room" evokes The Caretaker's 1999 LP Selected Memories From The Haunted Ballroom. But where The Caretaker's world is dreary, terrifying and decaying, "The Music Room" is luminous and foolishly fun. It's cheeky like Luke Vibert's Wagon Christ project, with bizarre samples and a silly ending. "Moonling" is more serious, finding a sweet spot between new age serenity and a last call to sway on the dance floor. Samples swim among the synth wash as lethargic machines reel out a rhythm.
TracklistA The Music Room
B Moonling