I wasn’t aware of “hauntology” as a musical term (or any other sort of term) until I came across Belbury Poly. Philosopher Jacques Derrida coined the term to describe the relationship between the past and the present. The music that falls under the label is a mixture of old and new electronic sounds. It’s generally quiet music, with occasional vaguely sinister undertones.

Jim Jupp (Belbury Poly) described his own music in this way in a 2009 interview:

Part of a theme that’s ongoing in all the Belbury Poly records . . . is a tradition of British science fiction, where you’ve got on the one hand the setting of a very traditional background, with very ancient things, but you’ve got this weird, cosmic stuff happening [at the same time]. A lot of old British sci-fi books – John Wyndham, for instance – have these really mundane, quaint little village settings, but all of a sudden something really freaky and cosmic appears in the middle of it.

What is freakish is not necessarily overt – a nuclear war, or a sudden landing of carnivorous aliens – but a more subtle, unsettling sensation that the ordinary world is lying side-by-side with any number of other, stranger ones. It might only take turning a street corner at the right (or wrong) moment; opening a door that you’d never noticed before; switching on the television in time to catch a sinister glitch in the broadcast: any momentary gap in the border between here and elsewhere might thrust you into a new – or an old – reality.

I like all of the Belbury Poly albums, but if I had to choose one to recommend starting with, it would probably be From an Ancient Star.

A couple samples (Youtube links):

• Adventures in a Miniature Landscape
• Chapel Perilous

The Advisory Circle is another artist in the same genre and on the same record label. As the Crow Flies would also make for a good introduction to this type of music.

A couple samples (Youtube links):

• Everyday Hazards
• Wildspot (a Belbury Poly cover)

A heavy influence on hauntology music is library music of the type produced by BBC Radiophonic Workshop. One example of their work that I like a lot is Fourth Dimension by Paddy Kingsland.

A couple samples (Youtube links):

• Tamariu
• One-Eighty-One

I happened to discover Kingsland’s music through a independent game called Space Funeral. It’s quite an interesting game, and I recommend trying it if you think a very short, very unusual RPG sounds like fun. You can get it for free here.
 

After mentioning 4mat, one of my favorite chiptune musicians, I thought I’d note a few others that I’ve come across in recent years.

For some time, this album was available only on CD-R, directly from the artist. (I have a copy, its title hand-written in permanent marker.) But you can now download the album here for free.

Tugboat announced in 2008 that he wasn’t creating this type of music anymore, and I haven’t come across anything else by him, but I think this album is excellent.

Belgian composer Pierre Slinckx released a chiptune album under the name Peer. It’s unique and very good. You can find it here.

And you can find more of his music here.

This one isn’t by a single composer–it’s a compilation of 50 songs by many different artists. I think it’s available only on CD and not as a download.

I have the CD set and I highly recommend it, but if you’re just looking for free music you can download the 20-track “bonus disc” here. These are songs that didn’t make the 2 CD set, but I found them to be just as good as the ones that were included.

I could list many more, but I suppose this is enough for one post.

Ronald Jenkees released his third album Days Away today, so I suppose it’s a good time to mention him here.

Jenkees first became famous-on-the-Internet when he began posting videos of himself playing his synthesizer on Youtube. He began each video with the greeting “Hello, Youtubes!”

He’s certainly talented, and I’ve listened to his previous two albums many times. And his latest seems to be at least as good as the previous two.

From a 2008 interview:

Days Away seems to be his first instrumental-only album, the others each featuring two rap songs (their titles helpfully including “rap” in parentheses). Whatever your opinion on rap, I’d recommend listening to 56K (rap) and Let’s Ride (rap) at least once–but try some of his other songs first.

• His Web site
• His Youtube channel
• His Bandcamp page

In the early 1990s, I liked to collect and listen to MOD music files. Some the best ones I came across were by 4-mat of Anarchy.

About twenty years later, I discovered that 4mat (now without the hyphen) was once again releasing new music. His 2010 album Decades was excellent, and has since been followed by several more. His latest, Sans Titre, was released just yesterday. Simmonds is prolific, but manages to maintain a high level of quality.

Although his music falls within the chiptune genre, there is more variety to his work than that label might suggest. There is a consistent “warm” sound to many of his songs that, in addition to their catchiness, distinguishes them from a lot of other chiptunes out there.

To sample his work, I’d recommend starting with Decades and just moving forward through the releases. As for individual standout tracks, these are a few of my favorites from the first two albums:

• “Affectation“
• “Chipmusic Is Dead“
• “Paper Dolls“
• “Surrender“

Simmonds also does sound design for video games. I was interested to learn that he worked on Silent Hill: Origins and Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (both of which I enjoyed, especially Shattered Memories).

You can find an interview with him here, in which he talks about his music and his work on games (including a game that he created himself).

Winsor McCay was an influential artist who worked in comics and animation in the early 1900s.

I first came across Little Nemo in Slumberland in “The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics,” a book that my grandmother gave me when I was young. It was some years later that I discovered Dream of the Rarebit Fiend. Both are creative comics involving dreams.

Here is a quote from McCay:

I would embed a few of my favorite Little Nemo comics here, but as they were intended for full newspaper pages, you really need to see them as large images. Fortunately, you can find nice collections on sites such as this one:

 
Little Nemo: The Dream Master, which was based on McCay’s comic (or, more accurately, based on a Japanese animated film that was based on his comic) was one of my favorite games on the Nintendo Entertainment System. I couldn’t beat the final boss, though.

 
Here is an example of Dream of the Rarebit Fiend:

Unfortunately, collections of Little Nemo in Slumberland comics in book form tend to be expensive and to go out of print quickly. I own “Little Nemo: 1905-1914,” which was published in 2000 at a reasonable price–but it doesn’t seem to be so reasonable anymore. Dream of the Rarebit Fiend books are much cheaper and easier to find.

McCay’s comics entered the public domain a few years ago, so they should remain easy enough to find in some form.

There is also a nice book about his life and his art.