Pieced together with musty samples from children’s exercise records, vintage drama, clunky British jazz and library records, this is an archaeology of emotion, an exploration of the power of not only childhood memories, but of the collective unconscious.

Julian House’s own The Focus Group; oddly assembled sampledelic collages, stitched together from fragments of library cues and forgotten soundtracks. A beautiful, unhinged stream of consciousness that seems to prod at buried memories.

REVIEWS

Julian Houses's Focus Group should appeal to anyone who grew up in Britain in the '70s: its a condensed memory of that decade's daytime and after hours television. These 19 soundbites ape the incidental music for The Tomorrow People, The Clangers and Follyfoot, jazz drums, bass flutes, continuity men and grubby science-lab electronica. Like Boards of Canada minus beats, the feeling of smothered innocence evokes powerful intimations of the uncanny.

Rob Young, UNCUT

June '05

Tracklisting

1. Icicle wheel

2. You do not see me

3. Clockbell

4. Echo release

5. Xylophone signal

6. Modern Harp

7. Inside the rubber box

8. Lifting away

9. Today’s rhythm people

10. Hey let loose your love

11. String Sine romance

12. The Moon Ladder

13. Planning for urban green

14. Swinging phantom

15. The Thre

16. Jam-jar carnival

17. Baroque face

18. The Leaving

19. Reflected message