Reading List
Hauntology
Hauntology - as I use the term - is a trend in the 00s, of artwork evoking ghostly memory and possibility. I can't overstate how influential discovering hauntology was, and it led directly to my considering what I was experiencing on my walks was a form of haunted landscape. When I look down this list, I don't see a lot of things that I would expect my imagined students to read or get - that it meant something to me does not imply it'll mean much to anyone else; and I feel conflicted between labelling these either the most or least important works on the RL. I leave it to you to decide.
Music Has The Rights to Children (1998)
★★★
Album | Pre-empting the 70s hauntology music trend by quite a few years, this is cited by Bob Fisher, Simon Reynolds and others as an especially affecting example of the genre. It's never had that impact on me, but it is pretty good; recommended only for fans of the genre or for those exploring this area. Its energy is broadly Lunar-Stellar, something of memory, something of grey, great to space out to.
Ghosts of My Life (2014)
★★★★
Book | We understand the Landweird as a kind of haunting; and so this book is a good read, with its strange, Stellar mood, and exploration of other fiction and film which is in some strange way haunted. One of my favourites. Should you read it? It's highly recommended if this is a part of the faith you wish to look more into. Time spirals, stuttering, the return of the forgotten from the landscape, and enough recommendations to pad your Reading List for years.
✪ The Weird and the Eerie (2016)
★★★★★
Book | An exploration of fiction and film, and the characteristic of Weird fiction and the Eerie. Really good: the Landweird is more eerie than weird, but both halves of the book are good, and a very fertile source of recommendations. Stellar.
Retromania (2011)
★★
Book | Friend of Mark Fisher, Reynolds explores the trend of retro music - from reproduction concerts and the music Hall of Fame, to the influence of youtube and hauntology. This is a great read, you're constantly learning something new; but isn't an immediate priority unless hauntological music is a specialist area for you. For this reason, 2 stars; but if I was rating for my personal enjoyment, I'd give it 4. Related to Disconnection as well - he discusses how the internet has shaped our perception of time, the way we enjoy music, and the way we remember.
The Farmer's Angle (2004)
★★
Album | First album in the Ghost Box series, featuring songs that would be reprieved on the (better) album the Willows. Connesseurs only.
The Owl's Map (2016)
★★
Album | My basic take on Belbury Poly is that there is one exceptional album in amongst all of this, with there being a standout or two on every album. On this one, it's probably Pan's Garden or Scarlet Ceremony. I do listen to this stuff, well, constantly - so Owl's Map is on my rotation - but I wouldn't start with this one.
The Willows (2004)
★★★★
Album | A little folky, a little spooky, and a little ambient: I like this one very much. The Willows and Caermaen both making reference to rural weird fiction; the sung words of Caermaen is assembled from the voices of long-dead folk recordings to create a new melody sung by ghosts. Not essential, but my favourite Belbury Poly album, and a good place to start with retro-1970 hauntology music.
the Haunted Generation (2017)
★★★★
Article | The article that changed my life! And you can read it at his blog, which is jam packed with this stuff. What if there was something odd about childhood in the 1970s, something that was very, very haunted...Read online