8/10 Jamie 03 May 2016

Well, if the words: "Mort Garson -- 1971 -- Modular synth -- official -- reissue -- limited edition of 500" aren't enough to excite you, how about this: "UK -- exclusive!" Piqued your interest? Well, I'm sitting up; but I have to -- we're not allowed to review records here at NR any other way. Not that I'm aware of. Anyway, we're all pretty excited, even now that the post has gone.

So, 'Lucifer' then. Trippy? Why yes. Satanic? Um, I'll get back to you on that one. Melodic and surprisingly pretty synth oscillations with a few quiet moments -- pauses, I think they're known as -- and spooky moog. I do love a spooky moog. Track 3, 'Incubus', even has a slightly muffled female voice groaning and panting away; whether in agony or ecstasy I wouldn't like to say, although if I were to hazard a guess I'd probably say both. 'Black Mass' oscillates ominously, with some evil noodles sprinkled o'er top. It's frenetically paced and pretty groovy. 'The Evil Eye' has some BBC Radiophonic Workshop type atmosphere, before descending into something altogether more Italian-horror-film-soundtrack scary.

Flipping over the record reveals manic synths attempting to exorcise some light demonettes, on 'Exorcism'; music for creeping around on tiptoe in the dark to on 'The Philosopher's Stone', the soundtrack to conjuring up the ghosts of your dear departed ones on 'Voices of the Dead (The Medium)' and the faintly ridiculous, unscary but still interesting timbres on remaining two tracks; 'Witch Trial' with its syncopated wobbliness and a brief tremolo on closing track 'ESP'. It's actually all pretty delightful.