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Selected Memories From The Haunted Ballroom is an album from the artist Leyland James Kirby (The Caretaker, a prominent hauntology artist) released in September 1999.

Leyland James Kirby (The Caretaker)
Also known as	Billy Ray Cyrix Butcher Claus Butcher Claws CV[ev] Dr. Fred Edgeley Musher The Caretaker Leon And Hits MC V/Vm Notorious P.I.G. Pole (disputed) Stranger V/Vm Allstar Marching Band V/Vm And The Hog Chorus
Born	May 9, 1974 (Age 46)
Origin	Stockport, England
Genres	Experimental music, ambient, ballroom, hauntology, plunderphonics
Occupation	Musician
Years active	1999-present

This album was the first of the "haunted ballroom trilogy", along with A Stairway To The Stars and We'll All Go Riding On A Rainbow. It was the first album that The Caretaker had published. After this, he would release several other albums, including Patience, An Empty Bliss Beyond This World, and Everywhere At The End Of Time.

Jon Fletcher, an English actor and writer said it was:

"instantly recognizable musical identity of British tea-room pop (dance-band and swing music from the from the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s) plugged into a multitude of effects to create a Proustian Replicant inverse. It's a stranger’s past relocated within your own memories, a re-imagined history from an alien past. The mannered romantic swing of a bygone era is rendered beguilingly uncanny....These first releases flitted from bursts of noise (September 1939) to gaseous ambience (We Cannot Escape The Past) to subtly-soaked moments of outright beauty (Stardust - a moment so captivating that this writer got married to it (not to the song itself, oh you know what I mean))... despite the uncanny affect and despite the eeriness, there is something warmly seductive about this debut triptych. Kubrick’s film, like the best horror, still injects a thrill and there a remnant of comfort in being haunted, a strange warmth. These early forays have the allure you find in childhood ghost stories. By the time of the third release though, it was hard to imagine what more could be done with the project. Never less than beautiful, it was just hard to conceive of actually needing any more of it."

Influences on this album

One of the more known influences for this album is from the movie "The Shining". The Caretaker also has a fascination for memory, the mind, recalling, recognition, and its degradation. Other influences are Pennies from Heaven, Carnival of Souls, Al Bowlly' music, and Mark Fisher's work.

"He was the golden voice of his generation, but he was killed by a parachute mine outside his London home. Bowlly always sang as if haunted; his voice is otherworldly. It's very strange music from this time between the two world wars: optimistic, but also very much about loss and longing, ghosts and torment. It seems haunted by the spirits of those who went to the trenches and never returned."

Key collaborators

One of the main collaborators for this project is artist Ivan Seal. He made the cover art of Everywhere at the End of Time, Patience, An Empty Bliss Beyond This World, and We, so tired of all the darkness in our lives. Mark Fisher, a cultural theorist, was another major collaborator in The Caretaker and other projects of Leyland Kirby. LUPO, the mastering and mixing producer for some albums has also been a good part of helping with the project. weirdcore.tv, a visual artist group has made visuals for some of Everywhere at the End of Time and other works by Leyland too.