Moonbuilding - Back To School 2023

Various Artists

Moonbuilding 4

Cor. Issue Four. There’s some parenting wisdom that says after you’ve had three children you might as well have a few more as it makes no odds. Four to six is the sweet spot, apparently. Less stress they say. So here’s to our fourth. Check back in on those stress levels when we get to six.
Mags, not kids.

Do we need to remind you that Moonbuilding is brought to you by former Electronic Sound commissioning editor Neil Mason and published by Colin Morrison’s Castles In Space label? Or is that the sort of thing you know by now? Good, good. Let’s crack on.

On the cover of our Back To School issue we have star-in-the-making Maria Uzor whose debut solo album, ‘Soft Cuts’, is going to be fusing itself to turntables when it lands in October. You know Maria, right? From Sink Ya Teeth, the one lending her formidable pipes to Acid Klaus and Chk Chk Chk, that’s the one. We caught up with her in Norwich, her own back yard, for a freewheeling chat about everything from why art is magic to the new album and all points in between.

Elsewhere, we profile label-of-the-moment quiet details, there’s a frankly incredible interview with Captain Star creator Steven Appleby, and Ghost Box’s Jim Jupp gets busy with our There’s A First Time For Everything questions.

We review a big pile of the latest releases from labels including Castles In Space, Woodford Halse, Persistence Of Sound, Assai, Ahora, DiN, Werra Foxma, Ghost Box and many more as well as a look at new books by The Bunnymen’s Will Sergeant, The Cure’s Lol Tolhurst, one about The Radiophonic Workshop and a brilliant bio of The Chemical Brothers by the excellent Robin Turner. We’ve got a column from The Orb’s Alex Paterson and there’s the Captain Star cartoon strip, which you will know all about once you’ve read the incredible feature with creator Steven Appleby. We’re repeating ourselves now so it’s clearly time to stop.

Oh, hang on. Forgot the CD. This issue’s disc is ‘The Moonbuilding Miscellany – Volume One’. You should see the state of our inbox. Full isn’t the word. We figured a compilation of the more interesting corners wouldn’t go amiss. This first volume is put together by our Colin. He sweated bullets over this collection, and it shows as it’s a corker featuring tracks from the likes of Lo Five, Lone Bison, Twilight Sequence, Ojn, NCHX and more… righto, we are really stopping now.

tracklisting

1. Maria Uzor – Yeah Yeah 03:40
2. Paul Cousins – Relative Memory (Lone Bison’s “I Was Expecting More Synths” Remix 03:30
3. Lo Five – I’m Sorry, Kenno 03:10
4. Ojn – Diary of a Thin Client 01:35
5. Lone Bison – In Midnight Run 05:02
6. NCHX – Stoplight Loosejaw 05:22
7. Hydro Fyter – Escape #11 04:21
8. BUNKR – Speckled Doves 03:30
9. Faysha – Just To Be With You 05:13
10. Human Concept – Cyclic Void 06:36
11. Spectrin – Benfro 06:05
12. Twilight Sequence – Mindful of Woodland Phases 04:42
13. Wealdham – Kingdom of Hall 08:19
14. Stone Anthem – Into The Forest 04:30
15. Fields We Found – Spheres 08:12

credits

Neil Mason has been at the sharp end of music publishing for a long time. He worked as a sub editor on dance music title Muzik before becoming albums editor, then reviews editor, at Melody Maker, features editor onNME.COM and the editor of War Child’s pre-iTunes music download site,warchildmusic.com. He was commissioning editor at Electronic Sound until April 2022.

Colin Morrison set up Castles In Space in 2015 and has released over 150 titles including acclaimed albums by Polypores, Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan, Paul Cousins, Field Lines Cartographer, The Twelve Hour Foundation and many more. In November 2021 he held the label’s first two-day Levitation festival in Whitby. It was so good it continues as an annual event.