Stewart
Lee, Sunday Times Culture Magazine
April 2007, Review of The Focus Group, We are all Pan's People
The
graphic designer Julian House conceived the Focus Group as a
package. Musically and visually, it exists in a
half-remembered, prelapsarian, mid1970s paradise of BBC
schools programming, weird children's-TV sci-fi soundtracks
and lost library music. Nerds will enjoy spotting the
samples - there's Hans Keller reviewing Pink Floyd at QEH in
1967 - and the cultural references. Should the Pan's People
of the title conjure up the alluring, glam-era Top of the
Pops dance troupe or the devil women of Arthur Machen's
decadent 1890 novel The Great God Pan, quoted on the inner
sleeve? Currently, the Ghost Box label is an internet-only
concern, but albums like this will rapidly raise its
profile.
