The Path is the latest album from Belbury Poly (aka Ghost Box records founder Jim Jupp). It's available for pre-order now and is out on 4th August on LP, CD, download and streams. The LP version comes with a free download code card, and the CD and digital versions include four bonus instrumental versions.

This time round Jupp has recruited a full band roster to expand his own unique electronica. Pictured left to right, Jupp is joined by Jesse Chandler of Midlake, Mercury Rev & Pneumatic Tubes, on flute, clarinet and keyboards, author and narrator Justin Hopper, regular Belbury Poly guitar and bassist Christopher Budd and, (not pictured) Max Saidi on drums.

Musically it takes as its starting point a particular moment of early 1970s British film soundtracks by the likes of Roy Budd and Roger Webb; a soundworld of easy-going jazz and funky rhythms gently coloured with pastoral strings and flutes. The Path, however, is unmoored from time or place thanks to Hopper’s narrative style, Chandler’s rustic flutes and keys, Budd’s soulful psychedelic guitars and Jupp’s production and electronics. Hopper's words form a loose, open-ended narrative and it's not just a continuous reading.  The vocal passages are interspersed at intervals in a very musical way amongst the instrumental passages. It's very much an album with spoken word rather than a spoken word album.

The next release on Ghost Box will be the second album from Large Plants, The Thorn, due September-ish. Our re-issue series has been slightly delayed and will continue in the Autumn with the Focus Group's freaky classic Hey Let Loose Your Love. 

Ghost Box Records
Facebook Twitter Instagram Spotify Soundcloud