Mugwood and Landshipping

Seems a little strange opening this particular mention with what is, in effect, the b-side, but there’s something hymnal, perhaps more so spiritual about the beautifully stilled and eerily elegant ‘At the Sea’s Retreat’ that subtly lengthens it’s sphere of influence to gently reach back into the fading memory to touch Stylus’ lost classic ‘pluen eira’. The similarities are acute, both deceptively arrested by a spoken word haunt etched over a somewhat, disconnected and isolated, Autumnal ghosting, with both strangely tingling with a curious out of step seasonal warmth, which beyond their shiver, exudes a glow brought to bear by a softly euphoric reverential burn. This be Mugwood and Landshipping, together making, what might be seen for some, as a last gasp attempt to turn your affections and provide a year ending surprise. Landshipping you’ll be, or should be, familiar with is John Brenton nee Tonfedd Oren and Metrotone, responsible for the beloved ‘sleep hath arrested us’ via the missed Liquefaction imprint released when we were oh so much younger and more playful, a track that still sets a fuzzy glow upon us. Mugwood on the other hand, is ISAN’s Antony Ryan, here found re-forging a collaborative partnership stretching back some twenty years by way of a limited two track outing pressed up on clear fragile 5 inch lathe cuts in a strictly limited edition of just 77 (with CD and the usual assortment of inserts). Over on the flip, (the lead out track as it happens), of this essential happening you’ll find the equally attractive ‘Lundy, Irish Sea’. Dreamily drawing heavily upon the trademark strengths of both classic Landshipping and ISAN personas, there’s a faraway intimacy here, tender and lost in the moment, both reflective and shaded in regretful awe, much like an accidentally intercepted memory bubble gliding through space, a fleeting apparition trimmed in a delicately mesmeric misty mirage of murmuring orbital signatures which all said had us with a brief urge to go seeking out our adored Swimmer One platters. www.staticcaravan.org