To badly borrow a quote from a bygone confectionary advert,

"DarkCompass, with these broadcasts, you are really spoiling us."

This time though it's Once Upon A Time, at number 10 on the list in the most recent show, which in Roman numerals is X. X is in both Precurxor and CURXES, which started in 2010. Coincidence? Yeah, probably.

We've also been sitting on our Asimov over at 3Fach, which is playing a host of amazing music over in Switzerland and our sombre spaceward track, The Stars, Like Dust. Listen in, float away.

Finally, for anyone who picked up the CD bundle of issue 79 of Electronic Sound (I mentioned it previously here), you can say "been there, listened to that, got the t-shirt", as there is a wearable version of the cover artwork available from the Electronic Sound website. 

Halloween is almost upon us and it just so happens that my creepy orange child (an almost perfectly doom-y accompaniment to the spooky season), Gilded Cage, is five years old this year. For that reason, I've decided to put the instrumental version of it online for all your gloomy soundtrack and karaoke needs.

Ungilded Cage is up now for Neighbourhood folks.

Large thanks to the ever-supportive Rob Harvey for playing In Your Neighbourhood on his lovingly-curated Synth City show and just a little reminder that the song is up as a free download when you join the mailing list (I generally send them a few months apart from one another because I'm not a plugin company). Go grab it!

They're back! Bandcamp will be resuming Bandcamp Fridays in 2022. They'll be on February 4th, March 4th, April 1st, and May 6th.

As a small token of appreciation, every order (at least until we run out) placed on Bandcamp Friday will get a shiny new "Fidoratone" sticker, inspired by a long, meandering thread on synth logos and locally, lovingly made by our friends over the water at Sticker Freak (they're fellow fans of retro design and everything hauntology and horror-adjacent, so have a virtual wander over there). Now you can say you've heard the word about the bird and all that.

Start the countdown!

As it turns out, I’ve accumulated quite a lot of my own space junk (some of which you can see in the video for The Stars, Like Dust) and whilst you can find Apollo moon landing commemorative plates, NASA mission patches and everything from Sputnik t-shirts to Cosmonaut Christmas decorations, there really isn’t much beyond a first day cover for BLACK ARROW or Prospero (and I only know that because Marlene, who I interviewed for BLACK ARROW, told me about having this lone souvenir at home - with a copy archived at Wight Aviation Museum), so I designed a few things that I thought might keep it in people’s memory a little longer, based on wayback space graphics and the kind of things I used to collect as a kid. Go here for ace new patches on Bandcamp, here for them on the main site or let lots of bright colours orbit your eyes over at Teemill. There may even be some tapes to follow shortly, but that deserves its own post.

P. S. If you email or tweet me a picture of you wearing either the Prospero print or any of the puppet designs from Teemill land, I’ll send you the corresponding Bandcamp code for either In Your Neighbourhood or ETHER/ORBIT. Seems only fair, right?

Potentially your city, even, depending on where you're tuning in from. Anyway, nice to hear In Your Neighbourhood get a little play here whilst I'm working on some new bits and pieces.

Also, on the subject of synth cities, if the idea of owning a wall of vintage synths appeals but storage is a problem, then these might be the answer. They are made by a graphic designer called Ronaldo Lopes Teixeira Rolt and I love them. Check out the gallery (including a mini Space Echo) or watch one of my favourites, the D-50, below, complete with related soundtrack!

Orange you glad you took some time to read this blog? Because Youth Ascension, from the album with the fright-filled front, is on Resonate's staff pick playlist for February. You can listen to this month's top of the co-op pops here.

Start your weekend listening with our February 'staff picks' playlist 🎧 link in bio 👆#resonatecoop #playfair #ethicalstreaming #digitaldignity #musiccooperative #stream2own #futureofmusic #staffpicks pic.twitter.com/UB0NuxnllC

— Resonate (@resonatecoop) February 19, 2021

Additionally, if you've been following a lot of the recent discussion around streaming and you're wondering about alternative ways of listening, I've now added several links on Twitter to folks rethinking the current offerings. Sweet streams are made of this, etc.

These ones are. ⚡

Always exciting to hear a blast of In Your Neighbourhood over the airwaves, especially when it's followed up by Sufjan Stevens (probably the only time I will ever get to say that) and we're coming up to three years since Gilded Cage was released. This edition of The Electric Wave show also includes Not Really (Virtual Reality) by Blancmange, who we shared a stage with back in 2017 (probably some of my favourite live outings with venue The 1865 having a notable part-Shining, part-Butlins carpet) as well as new Erasure and Róisín Murphy. Yes! 

You can listen below and I tip my socially-distanced hat to Rob for a fine selection of music.

Pretty pleased with my pumpkin carving efforts. Really realistic.

Set your controls for the heart of the Solent and listen to 'The Stars, Like Dust' on BBC Solent Introducing here.

I've just seen that it's National Pet Day, which is a great day to be a good boy. 

Milo the chihuahua features in the new video for ‘The Stars, Like Dust’ and The Most Radicalist wrote an excellent little review for an excellent little dog.

Really enjoyed talking to @styleofsound about the nature of silence, horror synths and a few of my favourite Isle of Wight haunts. Have a read.

Turns out that I only live a few minutes away from a real-life version of The Stars, Like Dust. There’s an extensive article here about the Isle of Wight’s role in the space race, which is amazing and kind of weird.

Worth a read/view too, is this incredible project by Katayoun Dowlatshahi, which was based on the above discovery about rocket testing on the island. 

Thanks to Joe from Horseflies for the link!

I also saw a 1940s robot made from part of an RAF Bomber radio set, among other things.

The Stars, Like Dust is the first song in space (if space is a DOPECAUSEWESAID playlist)! Click here to listen.

New in the neighbourhood, mugs featuring your favourite finger puppet band (includes download of In Your Neighbourhood)!

Join us for beers and bears when we play the @Kashmir_IW stage at @IsleOfWightFest for #IOW50!

In dust we trust. The Stars, Like Dust can now be seen from this new playlist via US friends DOPECAUSEWESAID. No telescope required. ⭐

An image taken from an upcoming book of famous photographs recreated in miniature, which I read about today on @atlasobscura. 

Dry cement powder also worked surprisingly well when recreating the surface of the moon for the cover of The Stars, Like Dust.

Thanks to @yesnomusic for letting me blast off about nostalgia gone awry in the night sky.

Eye/I can name that tuna in one! It's The Stars, Like Dust, rounded up among this week's music video picks from The Devil Has The Best Tuna.

Beaming more "ominous organs" and sombre space dust out of your screen, thanks to Fifteen.Gallery.

Thrilled to see ‘The Stars, Like Dust’ playlisted on @Radio3FACH alongside lots of great music like Jon Hopkins and Beach House! View the playlist and tune in here.

Those stars at DOPECAUSEWESAID have made The Stars, Like Dust their video of the week and I'm over the moon! ⭐

Galactic gratitude to Mark from Electronic North for this astronomically good review of The Stars, Like Dust. Still taken by @zomtographer.

Thanks to Eleanor from One More Open Heart music blog for getting lost in space with us. Read what she had to say about new video The Stars, Like Dust here.