Four clever releases on Ghost Box. The Advisory Circle take direct influence from the spooky electronic sounds that soundtracked many a 1960's/70's public information film and successfully evoke the Government fueled paranoia that these films provoked. The Focus Group, probably the most successful of all the Ghost Box acts - given their amazing collaboration with Broadcast, have created an album filled with irritatingly short (there's 24 tracks over the 2 sides) sketches and samples from obscure library music. It's splendid stuff but the shortness of the tracks makes it hard to concentrate long enough before the next piece comes buzzing along. Sometimes lumped in with hauntological others, Belbury indeed invoke distant memories of half remembered British TV soundtracks. These are the soundtrack pieces that you think you remember but, when you come to actually hear them again, normally sound shit in comparison to your (false) memories. It's like Belbury Poly exist to satisfy our desires for a perfect past, when really our past's were a bit rubbish. The LP is the better of the two in that it it has a slightly sinister air - it's more Hammer house of horror to the 10"s Robin's Nest.
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