Breaking in to the schedule of SoundArt Radio's annual "Jingle Hell" playlist and after a 24 month break, MuhMur Radio is back with the 4 Hour 'Festive Feast' of live radio broadcasting. This year's programme is more of a Vid Slutet Av Året, an In Fine Anni, an "End Of The Year" show than others have been. You will hear some of what has come through the doors of MuhMur Radio HQ in the past 12 months. Some of the sounds are old ... but I have only managed to get hold of them in 2022. This year SoundArt Radio lent its' playlist and air time over to Radio Art Zone for 3 months over the summer and MuhMur Radio stopped broadcasting, so I have tried to select sounds / releases from this period as they didn't get air time.
"Horde returns to the topic of emptied places, both artificial and authentic. And once again, those spaces are populated by various forms of decomposed resurrection, both artificial and authentic. Listeners will hear the familiar, the archaic, as well as some territory that hasn't been previously explored ... If you or someone you know isn't familiar with our work, this is probably the place to start".
Fossil Aerosol Mining Project spent a lot of 2022 releasing their material as files for download via their Bandcamp page, "Horde" was also a limited double CDR release : https://fossilaerosol.bandcamp.com/music for more details.
Both Fossil Aerosol Mining Project and Pinkcourtesyphone appear on the 2019 10 x Cassette compilation "On Corrosion" released by Helen Scarsdale Agency. As an aside and jus' sayin' apart from the inclusion of Alice Kemp, Neutral and Francisco Meirino this compilation introduced me to the sounds of Himukalt and Relay For Death. Both of which I have come to love and adore. Pinkcourtesyphone is the solo project of Richard Chartier, a Los Angeles based sound artist. "But It Felt / In Other Dreams" is from the 2022 double album "Shouting At Nuance", the album contains material released on the "On Corrosion" compilation as well as two pieces from the 2017 cassette "Something You Are Or Something You Do", released by The Tapeworm. https://www.3particles.com for more details.
This year I discovered the sound of Deux Filles. I bought the double CD "Silence & Wisdom & Double Happiness", a compilation of their first two albums (originally released in 1982 + 1983) on a bit of a whim. I was 'bulk' buying from LTM and the more I bought, the cheaper the postage became. I was familiar with the name of project, seeing the albums in the 'Experimental' or 'Avant Grade' sections in independent record shops at the time, but I never delved and my friends at the time certainly weren't buying so I left the vinyl in the racks. (Sanctuary Records in Lincoln had a great 'experimental / avant garde' section back in the 1970's/80's ... I bought LPs by This Heat and A. More because I liked the look of the sleeve ... and LPs used to be around £3 back then).
Deux Filles were Simon Fisher Turner and Colin Lloyd-Tucker. I have just finished reading Dorothy 'Max' Prior's autobiography and learnt that Simon Fisher Turner was a van driver / roadie for the original line ups of The Monochrome Set and Adam & The Ants back in 1977. "John Clare's Garden" is from the 2021 album "Shadow Farming", whether these are new recordings or archival, I do not know. Brilliant LP though. Available as download here : https://glassmodern.bandcamp.com/album/shadow-farming.
Earlier in the year I managed to get a copy of the Drone Records / Substantia Innominimata promo CDR 'Volume 6' that includes a piece by Joe Colley. The track is called "Limit" and is on a forthcoming 10" which I hope to get my hands on ... Joe Colley is a name I see cropping up on distro' lists and such like so I thought I'd try and discover more. "Trying To Play Nothing" is a 7" on the Dutch Meeuw Muzak label released in 2021.
"A recording of Samuel Beckett's 'Text For Nothing #8' read by Jack McGowan in 1958 (used without permission) is burned to a CDR with 99 index points. A Sony Discman in shuffle mode attempts to play the disc. Electromagnetic signals of struggling CD player mechanics are recorded, edited and collaged into two extracts".
It is a beautiful single and Jack McGowan has always been a favourite since I saw him in Polanski's "The Fearless Vampire Killers" and "The Exorcist". (Two of my favourite films). I have only recently discovered the Joe Colley is the man behind Crawl Unit and the Povertech Industries label of both I have many releases ... 2023 and I shall be discovering more Joe Colley.
Meeuw Muzak can be contacted here : http://www.meeuwmuzak.net. Meeuw designed the original Modelbau label back in 2012 (the year MuhMur Radio started). The tenth year of Modelbau was an incredibly busy one culminating in the release of the book "Modelbau X" published by Korm Plastics and the first in the 'Vanity Series'. (available here : http://kormplastics.nl/modelbau.html). @022 saw Modelbau release on the labels : Grisaille (Germany), Astipalea (New Zealand), Maneki Neko Tapes (Germany), Sounds Against Humanity (Italy), Hyster Tapes (Finland) and Dark Passage (UK). Modelbau also self released files available through their Bandcamp page on the Form Digital and Now DAT's What I Call Music imprints. There was also a series of collaborations with Dutch artist Pool Pervert and a double LP called "Loess" - a collaboration with Scanner released on the excellent Moving Furniture Records label. "Buchstaben" was released in June. An impressive six cassette collection on Maneki Neko Tapes. Limited to 23 copies, I wrote about it in the summer : https://remuhmuration.blogspot.com/2022/07/modelbau-buchstaben.html.
Modelbau can be contacted here : https://fransdewaard.com.
Plans are afoot for a 7" single by Modelbau on my Haemoccult Recordings label for early 2023.
"Let Me Tell You About Sweden".
2022, and some great sounds are coming out of Sweden. I seem to have discovered a direct line through to the Gothenburg based record shop and label Discreet Music. (Discreet Music are also behind the labels I Dischi Del Barone, Förlag För Fri Musik and Fördämning Arkiv).
Also there is Millstone Vinyl in Stockholm, the home of Verlautbarung who released records by Ochu and Jim Haynes this year. At the time of typing these records are somewhere between Stockholm and Torquay but hopefully I will get to include them in a MuhMur Radio broadcast in the near future. The same goes for the latest Arv & Miljö album "Vålnad Av Fornskog". Anyway ... I dedicate an hour (or so) to some of the sounds that came out of Sweden in 2022 starting with Bolivian Fireships.
"From Stockholm sails the majestic Bolivian Fireships, bringing pieces of home-spun and field-gathered ambient electronica to enrich your shores ... Bolivian Fireships is the nom de plume of James Buchanan, a sound artist and noisemaker resident in Stockholm, Sweden. James is also behind J.G. Sparkes; an artist referred to as a creator of 'deep ambient sound and light from a place between dreams and reality' by Waltz founder Taro Tusunoda, and is a founding member of the elusive radiophonic explorers The Wyndham Research Institute, alongside renowned producer LesserThanOne".
Amateur Hour are a trio of noise-explorers from Gothenburg comprising of Discreet Music stalwarts Hugo Randulv (Skiftande Enter, Typical Girls, Enhet För Fri Musik a.o.), Dan Johansson (Sewer Election, Ättestupa, Heinz Hopf, Enhet För Fri Musik, Enklav a.o.) and Julia Bjernelind (Typical Girls, Westkiust). The two pieces here are from the double LP "Krökta Tankar Och Bräanda Vanor" recorded between 2020 and 2022.
The Skiftande Enheter 7"EP arrived by mistake. I bought a copy of the Sprigs tape "Before I Glare Up At The Sun Through The Top Soil" and when it arrived there was a copy of the Skiftande Enheter 7". I apparently got someone else order, I did offer to pay for the EP (naturally) but Matthias at Discreet Music said it was their mistake and enjoy the single. Which I did and still do! Skiftande Enheter are a trio of nine-pop explorers from Gothenburg comprising of Discreet Music stalwarts Hugo Randulv (Amateur Hour, Typical Girls, Enhet För Fri Musik a.o.), J.J.Ulius (Monokultur) and Elin Engström (Monokultur, Liechtenstein). In 2020 Treasury Of Puppies released their eponymous debut album on Förlag För Fri Musik following in 2021 with the excellent "Lollos Dagbok" 7" single on I Dischi Del Barone. This years release was the album "Mitt Stora Nu" on Discreet Music. Always wanting to hear more I decided to look in to the history of Treasury Of Puppies and discovered the sound of Facit. Facit is / was the electronic project of T.O.P. mainman Joakim Karlsson (not to be confused with fellow Svenska noise merchant Joakim Karlsson of Karmanjakan Intonarumori & Bestializer). "Om Igen" is from the 2013 12"EP "Mat Åt Duvorna" released on the New York label Cititrax.
Cheap Imitation were a duo from Gothenburg. Ann-Charlotte Rugfelt and Anders Olofson. At the start of the year I bought the Cheap Imitation 7" "Selektiv Döhvet" (mainly because I liked the sleeve artwork) and decided to delve further in to their catalogue. "Adjö Farväl" is a track from the 2018 cassette release "No More Weekend". I have a feeling Anders is now recording and releasing solo material ... but I could be wrong. Contact Anders here : https://cheapimitation.bandcamp.com/music.
Again, going back to the start of 2022 I bought a cassette by Swedish project Vanligt Folk. I bought the "Black Friday Hele Uka" cassette on iDEAL Recordings via Discreet Music. Like the Cheap Imitation single, it as an 'impulse' purchase, I like the name, I like iDEAL Recordings releases. (Vanligt is Swedish for 'plain' or 'boring'). Vanligt Folk are the Gothenburg duo David Sunqvist and Jessie Aron (aka Andreas Carlsson). "Bah Sød" is from the 2020 LP on Kess Kill / Kontra-Musik called "ALLT E'NTE".
Gothenburg Sound Workshop remain a mysterious project. With releases on the Förfall and Förlaf För Fri Musik labels in 2020 and 2021 and with a compilation of those releases being released as a double CD this year on Discreet Music I have conceded that those involved will be Discreet Music stalwarts ... maybe Dan Johansson, Matthias Andersson and Gustaf Dicksson (?). I have written and asked but I've had no reply so until I do .... All Gothenburg Sound Workshop pieces are untitled. Last year the new Swedish label Happiest Place re-released an old 1987 cassette only release of Engürdetz's 1987 industrial classic "Svin". (I say 'new' Swedish label, Happiest Place was created in 2017 in Gothenburg. Their first releases were live tapes by Neutral, Altar Of Flies and Blodvite, with an LP by Amateur Hour and single from J.J. Ulius following in 2918. I became aware of the label in 2020 and the Typical Girls 7" EP).
"Engürdetz was formed in 1986 by Anders Bryngelsson (Drajan) and Lars-Anders Orre (Launchy). The ambition was to create experimental noise, influenced by contemporary bands such as Einstürzende Neubauten, Whitehouse, The Residents, Nurse With Wound and Throbbing Gristle. The recordings were made on a modified cassette deck with a microphone, guitar and amp, a couple of effect boxes, drum machines and some radio and video samplings".
In November this year Happiest Place re-released "Sillmjölke". Originally released on cassette in 1988, it was a split release on Stånd Tapes with Lille Roger.
Happiest Place is a label worth keeping an eye / ear on : https://happiestplacerecords.bandcamp.com. Blod are another project entered around Discreet Music stalwart Gustaf Discussion. Gustaf being a member of Enhet För Fri Musik and N.V.B. This year I managed to pick up the re-issue of the 2021 album "Missväxt" on Grapefruit Records.
In 2012 Dieter Müh shared the stage with White at The Fylkingen in Stockholm. Also on the same evening Contrastate, Dusa and Kristian Olsson played. An excerpt from the White performance is on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bf-TccJ5TqM. White was the project of Discreet Music stalwart Dan Johansson (Neutral, Sewer Election, Enhet För Fri Musik, Amateur Hour a.o.). I am still a couple of releases short to complete my White collection, but this year I have managed to pick up the cassette "Tears Of Piss" on Spanking Ritual, a label run by Dan, and the compilation album "Rosehip, Scallop, Dance" on which White appears alongside Street Drinkers, Croation Amor, Vår and Marching Church amongst others.
Cumulus Nimbus Floats By
Hairs Abyss are the duo Paul Harrison (Expose Your Eyes, Feral Copse, Smell & Quim a.o.) and multi disciplined artist Chandor GlöOmy. Chandor operates the label Coma Kulutur. "Obscure Session For Broadcast" is a piece mailed to MuhMur Radio and 'The Institute Of SpectraSonic Sounds' radio programme for exclusive broadcast. David Warmbier (ex-The Hearing Trumpet) is the DJ / host of 'SpectraSonic Sounds' and has granted MuhMur Radio the international exclusive debut playing. Contact Chandor at : https://comakultur.bandcamp.com, and you can listen to all 'SpectraSonic Sounds' on MixCloud here : https://www.mixcloud.com/spectrasonicsound/. It's a weekly show.
I have been listening to the sounds of Benjamin Hallatt for nearly 10 years now ... in 2013 he appeared on the split 7" with Nacht Und Nebel under the moniker of Wasps or W>A>S>P>S as it was spelt, probably to save confusion over the mighty Wasps that released the punk classic "Teenage Treats" in 1977, or indeed "Rubber Cars" in 1979. Benjamin then progressed with projects such as Murder Cult, SCKE// and Windows Of Europe with many releases on his own KIKS/Girlfriend and A.N.T.I. labels. His project Kay Hill has also released on the Hairdryer Excommunications, Invisible City Records and Strange Rules labels. For the past couple of years Benjamin / Kay Hill have been quiet but 2022 sees the resurrection with the cassette "Variation" and Kay Hill becoming Cei Hill, an ancient spelling. Cei Hill are based in Nottingham (UK), expect more to be heard in 2023.
One of my favourite albums of 2022 is "Traditional Music Of South London" by Dale Cornish. The album is unique, I own nothing else that sounds like it (apart from previous Dale Cornish releases ... natch). His voice, poetry, delivery suck me in to his world, a few tracks on the album are instrumentals and the use of rhythm and space grab the imagination. Brilliant album. Released on the The Death Of Rave label, a Boomkat subsidiary, contact Dale here : https://dalecornish.bandcamp.com/merch. In the spring of 2021 Jan Warnke released the cassette "Crystalline Fragility" on his own Geräeuschmanufaktur label. In the winter of 2022 Jan re-issued the cassette as a 12" lathe cut album (limited to 15 copies). The album came with a cassette of remixes by Ato Varl, The Dead Mauriacs, Thorsten Soltau and Vanity Productions. All Geräeuschmanufaktur releases can be found here : https://geraeuschmanufaktur.bandcamp.com/merch. A couple of years ago I bought the Howard Stelzer & Steffan de Turck cassette "For Charlie Mopps"on Steep Gloss. March 2022 saw the release of another Steffan de Turck collaboration release, this time with Dutch guitarist Michiel Klein. Michiel is in bare-boned rock group Lewsberg.
"'A New City' is a collaborative album by Dutch sound artists M. Klein and Steffan de Turck. Field recordings and keyboards come together in two engaging sound collages. Diaristic everyday fragments are sequenced and layered to tell a story that remains just out of reach. There is a dream logic going on where things look oddly familiar but the proportions are not right. Things move either too slow or two fast. Overly familiar sounds like wind, rain, traffic and humming air conditioning units pass by. Simple but surprisingly melodic keyboard chords suggest a part of a song played over and over again, like a memory barely remembered but still felt".
A New City" is on the Het Generiek label, limited to 100 copies only, as I type this vinyl copies are still available at : https://hetgeneriek.bandcamp.com/album/a-new-city.
Virgin Prunes "Yeo" is from the double CD version of the 40th Anniversary edition of the classic "... If I Die, I Die" album. The track was originally the B-Side of the 7" version of "Baby Turns Blue" released by Rough Trade Records in 1982.
More festive cheer from the people behind Brachliegen Tapes. Last December George Rayner-Law released the C20 cassette "The Tryal Of Old Christmas", this year George's project Degradation released the C20 cassette "The Yule Goat". Degaradation are Rayner-Law and Vinegar Tom, in July this year they released their debut (vinyl) album "Leadlined". 2022 was a busy year for Brachliegen Tapes with releases by Jo Montgomerie, Left Hand Cuts Off The Right, Knowing, Like Weeds, Gorgeous George and the aforementioned Degradation amongst others. Always worth keeping an ear on and following. Go to :
https://brachliegentapes.bandcamp.com/merch. It is also worth checking out George's bandcamp page. In August he posted his MuhMur Radio 'session' for download : https://georgeraynerlaw.bandcamp.com/album/pieces-for-muhmur-radio-march-2022.
The final half hour of programme features (mainly) re-issues and archive recordings from 2022 beginning with Wire and "The Other Window" from the CD "Not About To Die (Studio Demos 1977 - 1978)". This is a great album for Wire fans who believe "Chairs Missing" and "154" are among the greatest albums ever released. It was fun in 1978 - 1979 going to see Wire live and hearing live 'raw' songs that finally ended up being on these two albums, and in completely different versions.
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I love The Adverts and have written about them many times on this (and the previous blog), so I won't bore you. I recently found this review on the Internet about the time The Adverts and The Damned visited Lincoln in 1977. It is from the Sheffield fanzine 'Gun Rubber' and could have be written by Adi Newton (Clock DVA) or Paul Bower (2.3) - they were the chaps behind the fanzine.
In September Fire Records re-issued the debut album by The Adverts, "Crossing The Red Sea With The Adverts" as a double LP with bonus live tracks, a booklet and their Stiff Records singles. A great re-issue. Copies from : https://theadvertsmusic.bandcamp.com/album/crossing-the-red-sea-with-the-adverts. Unfortunately I never went to this gig but a few months later I did see The Adverts live at the Technical College in Lincoln supported by Chelsea and again, it was a very violent gig with fights between the punks in the crowd and local football fans. Lincoln City FC played Grimsby Town FC on the day ... not a great combination. Anyway ....
My sister (older sister ... Julie) was at The Damned / The Adverts gig at the Drill Hall and in March 1977 brought "Damned Damned Damned" in to the house .... it changed my life, a kind of out with the old and in the new situation. Out went my old records and I was left with two albums in my collection. The Damned's first LP and Ultravox!'s first LP. I stopped shopping at Woolworths and Rumbelows and started going to Sanctuary Records (Lincoln).
Since 1977 there have been 121 re-issues of "Damned Damned Damned" and this year BMG put out a version for 'Record Store Day'. With my old copy being more snap, crackle and pop than neat neat neat I decided to invest in a new copy.
Speaking of really good record shops, at the beginning of this month I was in Plymouth and called in to Really Good Records and found Starjets "War Stories" 7" in mint condition an picture sleeve. I saw Starjets in Lincoln in 1979 supporting Stiff Little Fingers (at The Drill Hall no less)! Two years after the infamous Damned / Adverts gig and it was still as violent as ever. The only gig I have been to where I got beaten up. As The Piranhas would say "Getting Beaten Up, Getting Beaten Up, It's Part Of Growing Up, It's A Part Of Life". It's a track that appears on their first album (1980) that this year was re-released by German punk label Mad Butcher Classics.
The album was recorded in Worthing in 1980 and was to be released on the Brighton based Attrix Records label but shortly after recording the tracks the album was shelved as The Piranhas signed to Sire Records. Only test pressings exist (apparently). https://www.madbutcher.de, has more information. The sleeve is a great 'colour by numbers' picture of the band. Not as violent as any 1970's gig at Lincoln's Drill Hall (or indeed Technical College on Monks Road), I did see The Piranhas live in 1979 at Lincoln Art College. A memorable night and a varied bill with Com-Sat Angels playing one of their first gigs and local bands Collide (I was their roadie / sound guy) and XS Energy supporting. My DJ license allows me to follow The Piranhas "Fiddling While Babylon Burns" with The Ruts "Babylon's Burning", a classic, also from 1979.
The programme ends with a song from the new 5xLP/1x7" box set from Essential Logic. The track played is from the "No More Friction" album, a series of recordings from 1991 to 1998. It's on the Hiss And Shake Records label and available through Cargo Records : https://www.cargorecords.co.uk. Essential.
Playlist :
01: Fossil Aerosol Mining Project : "After The Island 11.21 pm" (Afterdays Media) 2022.
02: Pinkcourtesyphone : "But It Felt/In Other Dreams" (Helen Scarsdale Agency) 2022.
03: Deux Filles : "John Clare's Garden" (Glass Modern) 2021.
04: Joe Colley : "Trying To Play Nothing (A)" (Meeuw Muzak) 2021.
05: Modelbau : "Buchstaben (C)" (Manege Neko Tapes) 2022.
06: Bolivian Fireships : "Ships III #7 (Ghost Forests)" (Not On Label) 2021.
07: Amateur Hour : "Tidens Tempo" (Appetite) 2022.
08: Amateur Hour : "Jag Släpper Dig ..." (Appetite) 2022.
09: Skiftande Enheter : "Statsepidemiolog" (Happiest Place) 2022.
10: Facit : "Om Igen" (Cititrax) 2013.
11: Cheap Imitation : "Adjö Farväl" (Oma333) 2018.
12: Vanligt Folk : "Bah Sød" (Kess Kill/Konta Musik) 2020.
13: Gothenburg Sound Workshop : "Untitled" (Discreet Music) 2022.
14: Engürdetz : "Fy Fan, I Helvete" (Happiest Place) 2022.
15: Treasury Of Puppies : "Dödens Soffa" (Discreet Music) 2022.
16: Blod : "En Dejlig Tid På Året" (Grapefruit Records) 2021.
17: White : "Sex Dwarf" (Posh Isolation) 2013.
18: Hairs Abyss : "Obscure Session For Broadcast" (Not On Label) 2022.
19: Cei Hill : "Variation (B)" (Not On Label) 2022.
20: Dale Cornish : "Foxhole" (The Death Of Rave) 2022.
21: The Dead Mauriacs : "The Evaporation Of Faces, The Birth Of Other Forms" (GeräuschManufaktur) 2022.
22: Vanity Productions : "Polycristalline" (GeräuschManufaktur) 2022.
23: M. Klein & Steffan de Turck : "Two Mountains" (Het Generiek) 2022.
24: Virgin Prunes : "Yeo" (BMG) 2022.
25: Degradation : "Forbidden Tones" (Brachliegen Tapes) 2022.
26: Degradation : "Borealis" (Brachliegen Tapes) 2022.
27: Degradation : "Julebukker" (Brachliegen Tapes) 2022.
28: Wire : "The Other Window (Demo)" (Pink Flag) 2022.
29: The Adverts : "Gary Gilmore's Eyes" (Fire Records) 2022.
30: The Adverts : "Bombsite Boy" (Fire Records) 2022.
31: The Damned : "I Feel Alright" (BMG) 2022.
32: Pisse : "Komfortzone" (Phantom Records) 2022.
33: Pisse : "U.N.I.T.Y." (Phantom Records) 2022.
34: Pisse : "Dünne Decke" (Phantom Records) 2022.
35: Pisse : "Cocktails" (Phantom Records) 2022.
36: Starjets : "War Stories" (Epic Records) 1979.
37: The Piranhas : "Fiddling While Babylon Burns" (Mad Butcher Classics) 2022.
38: The Ruts : "Babylon's Burning" (Virgin Records) 1979.
39: Essential Logic : "Do You Believe In Christmas?" (Hiss And Shake Records) 2022.
For easier listening pleasure the broadcast is available in two two hour segments. Part One and Part Two. Part one ends with White, and part two begins with Hairs Abyss.
* As it is a live broadcast there are a few mis-haps ... The CD player kept sticking at the start of a few tracks, Track 13 is Track 12 and the Essential Logic track starts at the wrong speed!
As ever and always, thanks to Chris Booth at SoundArt Radio for helping out. He brought some SoundArt Radio T-Shirts to the station .. available from the website for only £15! All sizes available. Go to https://www.soundartradio.org.uk to look as cool as these two dudes.
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