The Belbury Poly

Belbury Poly has often explored the realm of imaginary soundtracks. Jim Jupp’s synth work has balanced between the hypnagogic havens of 80’s electronic, prog, synth, and seance. Past releases have seen Jupp slip through the veil of folk and film soundtracks, but this time he digs deep into fantasy. The figment of fantasy has always existed on the periphery The Belbury Poly, but now the band dives deep through hand-painted paperback covers and into the arms of ‘80s sword & sorcery films with an engrossing zeal. Somewhere in the outback badlands of Beastmaster, Krull, and Conan, Jupp is lurking with a synth in hand and a percolating riff that rolls down like poisoned sweat.

The new album dispenses with much of the whimsy that marked Belbury’s catalog. The band has often been heavy on the synths, but they go hand in hand with flutes, fogged aesthetics, and eiderdown charms. The atmosphere on Sorcery is much starker, more fraught. The synths take the center stage, tensing and twitching with an anxious energy that stops short of the aughts synthwave that peaked with a cross into the canon as the official soundtrack to horror nostalgia. The Poly doesn’t dig too far into the Carpenter genes, instead giving a camp twist to the sound that gallops with horses and weary travelers across the kinds of deserts that grace the excellent Arik Roper cover. The listener is lost in a world of wonder, intrigue and chyron-crisp magic effects. With a dash of copper in the firelight, the glow of the record grows stronger with each track, an eerie dive into a past that exists at the edge of formative memories and forgotten dreams.

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