The Focus Group
Sketches and Spells (LP)
LabelGhost BoxGenreExperimental
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Tip! The Focus Group is the recording alias for Ghost Box co-founder and well respected graphic designer and film maker Julian House. This debut album was first release in 2005 on a burn to order CD-R. Now packaged in a 4 panel digipack with the original sleeve art by Julian House that established the rules for the primary Ghost Box artwork layout. It’s a design grid that the label has continuously revisited and tinkered with ever since.
“...it often sounds like hip hop if it had been invented in England in the late fifties. House turns library music's 'science of mood' against itself by creating barely classifiable emotions (macabre whimsy, pensive rapture, 'reverie and efficiency') or making atmospheres clash and mingle like colours on a paint wheel going muddy.”
- Simon Reynolds, Retromania
“Intimately acquainted with this uncertain hinterland between yesterday and tomorrow, The Focus Group are also smart enough to realise that anyone can pass for modern if they still listen to Pierre Henry, Tom Dissevelt, Jacques Loussier or Dave Brubeck.” - Ken Hollings, The Wire
Format
Issued with a printed die cut inner sleeve. Contains a download card with a code for obtaining the album in MP3 format (320 kbps). [Sticker on shrink wrap:] Free download code inside [Rear sleeve:]
Release notes
Issued with a printed die cut inner sleeve. Contains a download card with a code for obtaining the album in MP3 format (320 kbps). [Sticker on shrink wrap:] Free download code inside [Rear sleeve:] (P) Ghost Box 2004 (C) Ghost Box 2022
| A1 | Stringed Winds | ||
| A2 | Verberations | ||
| A3 | Open The Gate | ||
| A4 | Activity And Scales | ||
| A5 | Corn Holes | ||
| A6 | Verberations Exp. | ||
| A7 | Bells Hazes | ||
| A8 | Alsh | ||
| A9 | Hocusing Fee | ||
| A10 | Colouring Toys | ||
| A11 | Danse & Atoms | ||
| A12 | Free Psych & Mirrors | ||
| B1 | Jout Sections | ||
| B2 | Geometree Hou | ||
| B3 | Sun Groof | ||
| B4 | Verberation Int. | ||
| B5 | Diagonalam | ||
| B6 | Underwater Pries | ||
| B7 | Jass Tarp | ||
| B8 | Hocusing Loe | ||
| B9 | What Are You Seeing? | ||
| B10 | Bromiding Place | ||
| B11 | Kasratu | ||
| B12 | Swirling Paths | ||
| B13 | Starry Wisdom |
- Julian House
- Cover [Cover Design By], Design [Cover Design By]
- The Focus Group
- Written By, Performer [Performed By], Producer [Produced By]
