The first issue of Moonbuilding, which touched down back in May, was one of those finger in the wind, run it up the flagpole and see who salutes sort of projects. The A5, 48-page full-colour title, put together by former Electronic Sound commissioning editor Neil Mason and published by Colin Morrison’s Castles In Space label, went down rather well. There seemed to be a fair bit of saluting and lots of kind words. In fact, the debut issue came within a whisker of selling out. So Neil and Colin thought they’d do it again.

While Moonbuilding is a Castles In Space publication, its aim is cover the full nine yards of like-minded DIY labels and artists. The new issue, which they’re calling the Autumn Collection, stars Bristol’s rising electronic star Kayla Painter on the cover and comes with a bumper 13-track CD featuring contributions from artists appearing at the Castles In Space Levitation festival in Whitby in November. 

Inside there’s some lovely interviews with Where It’s At Is Where You Are’s John Jervis, A Man Called Adam’s Sally Rodgers, Kevin “DJ Food” Foakes and pop culture author extraordinaire Paul Gorman. There’s reviews of the latest releases from CiS and labels including Zen FC, WIAIWYA, Cavendish House, DiN, Tigerforce, Blackford Hill, Woodford Halse, Impossible Objects Of Desire, Clay Pipe Music and Front & Follow and more… There’s our thoughts on the latest music books including Simon William’s ‘Pandamonium’, Ted Kessler’s ‘Paper Cuts’, Nige Tassell’s ‘Whatever Happened To The C86 Kids’ and Rory Sullivan-Burke’s excellent John McGeoch biography. 

The cover illustration is once again by the rather talented Nick Taylor, who also provides additional bells and whistles for the cover feature itself. With a second issue Moonbuilding can now lay claim to having regulars - The Orb’s Alex Paterson turns columnist and Steven Appleby’s all-new Captain Star strip, which first appeared in NME in 1986 and enjoyed spells both in The Observer and SFX mag, really hits its stride.