acid house
vampires
listen to the tape
2024: what they uncovered…
The bag of cassettes.
The dictaphone.
A set of Polaroids showing the band standing in the circle, older than they were now. One of them was missing from the photos — the drummer, who’d died in ’91.
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ITEM 001: FLYER (HAND-PRINTED, 1988)
Text:
“One night only. The circle is older than time. Bring your own fire. Guardians will open the path.”
Notes:
Flyer was distributed around Bangor, but no official venue listed. Several attendees recall walking for “hours into the mist.”
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ITEM 002: LOCAL NEWSPAPER CLIPPING (NORTH WALES CHRONICLE, JUNE 1989)
“Dozens of young people were seen dancing around the Bronze Age site of Bryn yr Ellyllon. Residents reported strange lights and a persistent humming noise that continued long after the crowd dispersed. Archaeologists found evidence of soil disturbance within the stone circle. Police declined to investigate further.”
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ITEM 003: CASSETTE (SOIL-STAINED, RECOVERED 2022)
Label: RE-ENTRY
Contents (partial transcript):
00:31 – silence breaks. A man’s voice (possibly band member):
“You’ve been here before. You will be here again. Don’t trust the one with no shadow.”
03:45 – distorted 303 squelch; faint chanting in reverse.
07:12 – sudden surge in bass, meters spike beyond cassette capacity.
End of tape – mechanical grinding noise, not consistent with tape recorder mechanism.
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ITEM 004: PERSONAL DIARY (FOUND CARDIFF SQUAT, 1994)
“We thought the mushrooms were doing it, but no — the circle was alive. The tapes weren’t for us. They were for whatever waits below the roots of the mountain.”
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ITEM 006: DICTAPHONE (UNKNOWN MODEL, RECOVERED WITH TAPES, 2024)
Single track titled: Harvest Mix
Waveform Analysis:
• 00:00–02:13: Band members’ voices, older than in 1989 recordings. Nervous laughter.
• 02:14–06:00: Indistinct dragging sounds, possibly stone across stone.
• 06:01–07:59: Woman whispering: “Not yet, not yet, not yet.”
• 08:00–End: Apparent silence. Spectrum analysis shows rhythmic pulses at 72 bpm.
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ITEM 007: POLAROID PHOTOS (RECOVERED 2024)
Series of six images:
• Five show the band in a stone circle, visibly aged.
• One member absent: drummer (known deceased, 1991).
• Sixth photo is blank white, except for faint shadow-lines resembling standing stones.
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ITEM 008: CONTEMPORARY RUMOUR (2023–ONGOING)
Reports from the valleys describe low-frequency “humming” around abandoned chapels.
Some locals claim to hear music “a day before it’s played.”
Witnesses describe gaunt figures carrying speaker cabinets into ruins at dusk.
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ITEM 009: GRAFFITI (M4 UNDERPASS, DATE UNKNOWN)
“The circle is not closed. The circle is waiting.”
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“We thought the mushrooms were doing it, but no — the circle was alive. The tapes weren’t for us. They were for whatever waits below the roots of the mountain.”
from roadie Pete Sizzle;
“They showed up with a van full of strobes, a generator that barely worked, and what looked like an altar made of plywood.
No stage, just the stones.
The bass was so deep it made the sheep scatter down the hillside.
Halfway through the set, they stopped playing, but the music didn’t stop. People swore the stones were humming back at them.”
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One of the buried cassettes, labelled in dripping biro:
Side A: The Thirteenth Rite
Side B: Black Pylon Communion
Recorded content: distorted 303 squelch, indecipherable chanting in reverse, and a long section where the music collapses into heartbeat rhythms, followed by a child’s voice saying: “Play it again.”