Name: Rendlesham
Brand: A Farewell to Hexes

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

PY160

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Colour

Black

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2022-07-29

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

Polytechnic Youth & Deep Distance

Tax rate GB

Standard:20

UPC / Barcode

Total Cap

1 / Extended format: No / LP / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No / black

Artist

A Farewell to Hexes

Genre GB

Electronic

Label GB

Polytechnic Youth

A part-time label run from home in Crouch End, North London. Polytechnic Youth is inspired by a love of key era 1978-82 DIY minimal synth, early Mute, The Sheffield electronic scene, John Bender, Krautrock/Berlin School etc - especially private press/DIY and handmade packaging.

Self-distributed and fiercely pro vinyl only, the label was arguably the first to truly embrace what could be done with pre-agreed social media announced lathe cut releases. Small "art editions" always wonderfully packaged on often shaped disks were gobbled up within minutes of release. These were accompanied by wider scale releases available in all usual outlets across UK & EU.

Operational between 2014 and 2022 and run by Dom Martin (who also ran Earworm and The Great Pop Supplement as well as Deep Distance and more recently Feral Child), the label enjoyed a hugely loyal fanbase. Gideon Coe on BBC6 music and "Electronic Sound" magazine were hugely supportive. However, post-Brexit, the label faced challenges due to losing its strong EU customer base alongside rising costs of vinyl production.

A Farewell to Hexes is one of a number of pseudonym / side projects of Adam Leonard who has quietly – and noisily – tinkered at the edges of eccentric English folk, electronic music, and more recently garage art-rock with Invaderband, (issuing a plethora of original music to critical acclaim via highly regarded boutique labels such as The Great Pop Supplement, Northwestern Recordings, Tectona Grandis, Polytechnic Youth, Castles In Space, Bibliotapes and TDO Cassettes) attaining a ‘Northern Ireland Music Prize’ nomination in the process. The Rendlesham LP is an incredible record of often eerie, Radiophonic workshop-esque electronics and the story behind it is equally momentous. The events across two nights December 25 and 26 1980 in Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk, have gone down in history; nowadays often dubbed the UK’s most famous UFO incident or “Britain’s Roswell”. While Adam himself reveals more to the story below, artist and label strongly urge you to further investigate, it’s an incredible passage of events with long lasting repercussions to the present day. Returning to the record here, and by way of introduction Adam himself says: “the album is an instrumental, electronic record, soundtracking arguably Britain's most remarkable UFO occurrence, from Suffolk 1980. Side 1 soundtracks the bizarre Christmas/Boxing Day case (which includes local Sergeant, Jim Penniston encountering and receiving a binary code from a "craft of unknown origin") and Side 2 which brings to life the curious events witnessed by Lt. Colonel Charles Halt and his team in the forest in the early hours of 28th December 1980, incorporating original micro-cassette recordings (‘The Halt Tape’) captured at the time. The album ends with ‘Aftermath’, featuring the voice of Attorney Patrick Frascogna speaking at a 2011 U.S. court hearing attempting to gain access to Penniston, and colleague John Burroughs’ medical records (both airmen suffered life-threatening ailments after coming into contact with the “craft” in 1980). The music on the record is intentionally redolent of British underground electronic music at the time of the Rendlesham Forest incident. For best results this album should be listened to in the dark with eyes closed. You will enter the forest...” A wonderful record, released as a limited pressing of 250 in reversed board sleeves with accompanying insert, it is expected not to hang around long as it’s predecessor cassette release went within a day!

Rendlesham

Music GB