The music of The Advisory Circle feels like a half-remembered afternoon spent in front of a classroom television. It is built from the warm, slightly unstable oscillators of vintage synthesizers, wrapped in the soft hiss of magnetic tape. There is a distinct sense of 'institutional comfort' - the sound of a narrator explaining the water cycle or a public safety film warning about electrical pylons. It is polite, orderly, and deeply British, yet it carries a persistent, unplaceable melancholy.
What sets Cate Brooks apart is the surgical precision with which she recreates the sonic palette of the 1970s without falling into parody. The melodies are often simple and repetitive, echoing the 'library music' used by television studios of the era. By incorporating acoustic elements like woodwinds and guitars into later works, she bridges the gap between the synthetic and the pastoral, creating a world that feels both futuristic and ancient. It is the sound of a future that was promised in 1973 but never quite arrived.
Start with 'Other Channels' to experience the project at its most conceptually focused. It perfectly captures the 'everything is fine, but something is wrong' atmosphere that defines the hauntology movement. From there, 'As the Crow Flies' offers a more organic, folk-influenced take on the same ghostly nostalgia.
The Advisory Circle is an alias of English electronic musician Cate Brooks (formerly Jon Brooks). Her releases as The Advisory Circle are on the Ghost Box label. The Advisory Circle's first release was Mind How You Go, issued as a 3" CD in 2005. An extensive feature in The Wire magazine explored Brooks' fascination with public information films from the 1970s. They describe her sound as "Everything's fine, but there is something not quite right about it." Cate Brooks also releases music, under her own name and a variety of alter-egos, including King of Woolworths. Her projects have similar musical influences (such as soundtrack music and library music), emotional atmospheres, and conceptual themes to The Advisory Circle material, through the Clay Pipe Music label, own label Café Kaput, and the band The Pattern Forms (in collaboration with Ed Macfarlane and Edd Gibson of Friendly Fires).
Shares ambient techno, downtempo, modern classical (subgenres); tape saturation, lo fi, field recordings (production style)
Shares analog warmth, tape saturation, minimalist (production style); ambient techno, downtempo (subgenres)
Shares ambient techno, downtempo, synth-pop (subgenres); analog warmth, tape saturation, minimalist (production style)
Shares downtempo, ambient techno, modern classical (subgenres); tape saturation, minimalist, field recordings (production style)
Shares analog warmth, tape saturation, minimalist (production style); ambient techno, downtempo (subgenres)
Shares ambient techno, downtempo, synth-pop (subgenres); mysterious, contemplative, nostalgic (moods)
Shares analog warmth, tape saturation, minimalist (production style); ambient techno, downtempo, modern classical (subgenres)
Shares ambient techno, downtempo (subgenres); analog warmth, tape saturation, minimalist (production style)
Shares ambient techno, downtempo (subgenres); analog warmth, tape saturation, field recordings (production style)
Shares downtempo, modern classical (subgenres); analog warmth, minimalist, tape saturation (production style)
Shares modern classical, nostalgic, field recordings, library (subgenre)
Shares public information film aesthetic, library, eerie, narrating (detail)
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