With a new record full of the strange, sometimes deviant lullabies they are known for, THE FOCUS GROUP (aka British collage music maker Julian House) have traveled back onto our radar. We might once again be aware of this music, but it remains as murky as ever. This stuff causes me to dreamily reach for that term sampleadelica, because it embodies that bastard term so very well. THE FOCUS GROUP makes psychedelic music but by pulling together sounds culled from the deep goldmines of 1950s electronic music experiments, 70s library music, and in particular the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. And then there’s the obscuro film samples that sometimes float along amidst the music like the ghosts that they are. The whole thing creates an otherworldly feel somewhere in between THE CARETAKER and ONEOHTRIX POINT NEVER at his woozy nostalgic best. I’ll be driving up to the White Mountains in New Hampshire late night after playing a show in Gloucester tomorrow night, and I’m already enjoying the ride as I plan to be listening to this for the duration of my descent into the darkness of the forest. This new record is called THE ELEKTRIK KAROUSEL and it is out on House’s own long running label GHOST BOX MUSIC. “Spolk” brings forth the ancient organs right out of the gate. Joined by some jazz drumming pitter patter a groundwork is laid for xylophone and reverb drenched guitar strum that winds up sounding something like wind chimes doing their thing in the gentle breeze. Eventually all that remains is a sonar like electro bleet as the song retreats into nothing. A beautiful and stirring audio concoction hitting me just as I was looking for it.