Next up on Polytechnic Youth is quite possibly the label’s final full length (although a slew of killer 45s await including Pye Corner Audio, Richard Formby|Spectrum amongst others) and it’s an absolute beauty which is flying on pre sales currently. 

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 & 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!