Ghost Box will release the debut album by Roj on September 28.

Entitled The Transactional Dharma of Roj, it’s the work of Roj Stevens, a former member of Warp-signed Broadcast. The label describe his music as "psychedelic tone paintings…executed with a battery of exotic percussion, analogue electronics, and tape." 

Certainly the sounds and moods harnessed and conjured in The Transactional Dharma of Roj will be familiar to followers of Ghost Box and its artists (for a good introduction to the label and its operations, read this). It’s a peculiarly British and haunting take on electronic music, and is presented – like all Ghost Box releases – in fabulous artwork by label co-owner and long-term Broadcast associate Julian House.

Ghost Box are strong believers in the idea that words and pictures can do much to enhance the aura of a musical work, to magnify its effect and widen its associations. Thus, as well as House’s characteristic cover design – strongly remiscent of Penguin sci-fi and education titles from the 60s and 70s – there is accompanying text by writer Ken Hollings, whose recently published Welcome To Mars: Fantasies of Science in the American Century, 1947-1959 happened to tackle a subject very close to Ghost Box’s heart. Says the press release:

"Hollings collaborated in extensively in the concept and hit upon the perfect textual environment of snappy, far out aphorisms. As if the reality tampering tape experiments of Burroughs and Gysin were neatly delivered by Marshall McLuhan. This album imagines a kind of cultural and psychic revolution exploding in the rigid confines of a small English town."

The album is available to purchase as either CD or download from ghostbox.co.uk, where you can also listen to short clips from several tracks. Here’s one of ’em for the lazy among you:

Listen: Roj – Inhale Exhale Love [excerpt]