Friday, 7 July 2023

MuhMur Radio Broadcast July 6 2023.

 


A very varied and eclectic programme which proves the point that MuhMur Radio is just an old man playing his record and tape (and CD) collection and hoping that you like to listen to it too .... Following on from the last broadcast the programme begins with a track from the 2021 album "Hydra" by Greek artist Conjecture. "Cygnus" ends the album. To my ears it has a great 'TG' trumpet / cornet sound. It's a great album available on the Polish Zoharum label. Conjecture has his own Bandcamp page where this album (CD) is available : https://conjecture-project.bandcamp.com


On the last programme (June 22) I played four pieces from 'Öga För Öga' the latest album by Loopsel. The piece here is from 'The Spiral'. Originally released in 2020 on the (essential) Swedish label Förlag För Fri Musik, 'The Spiral' has been re-issued twice, once on Mammas Mysteriska Jukebox and once on the US label Digital Regress. Digital Regress have also released gems by Mosquitos and Slugfuckers in the past. Also tidying up from the last broadcast. Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words is the B-Side to the Ronnie Sundin track I  played. This piece is inspired by Hawkwind's "Born To Go". 

The irregular 'On This Day' feature usually finds me playing records that were released on the day of broadcast. There are a few in this programme but the feature starts with a track by Throbbing Gristle because on July 6 1981 it was declared that the 'Mission Is Terminated' and TG had split. 


A sad day for us all. I was a member of the TG Fan Club, the TG Army back in the late 1970's. We had a salute! (as well as the badges and camouflage uniform). 'See You Are' is from the live cassette 'At The Factory, Manchester' recorded on the evening of May 18, 1979. In memory of July 6 and Throbbing Gristle I also play the single 'Five Knuckle Shuffle', released in 1979 on the Sordide Sentimentale label and re-issued in 1981 on the American Adolescent Records imprint. And, finally 'Damaru Sunrise', a live recording from the June 10 1980 performance at Sheffield University. This track is from the LP 'The Mission Is Terminated'. 


Eric Lunde. Where do you start with Eric Lunde? I was slightly surprised, when cataloguing this programme, that in the 11 years of MuhMur Radio that I have never played Eric Lunde. I became aware of Eric in the 1980s with the split LP with F/I on Ron Lessard's RRRecords imprint. At this time Eric was part of the group Boy Dirt Car. (Note to self .... play more Boy Dirt Car on MuhMur Radio!). Over the past thirty years or so I have been picking up Lunde releases where and when I can. Recently grabbing the cassette 'Neither Lot Nor Sums' on Banned productions (2011) ~ it has a side dedicated to my good friend Chris Sienko, and the Boy Dirt Car cassette on Industrial Coast (2022) entitled 'Old Ways'. 


'The Occulatiomorbit' : "The English language is taken apart and reassembled into 'new' words then made to speak of which the audio is the degenerated into fundamental units, another long ride down the opcay tunnel". Available as a download on Eric's Kanshiketsu! band camp page, it is also available as a box set with a 4" lathe and a lathe cut postcard (both ending in lock grooves) a 15 page booklet and some loose hand printed artwork. https://kanshiketsu.bandcamp.com/music
Thomas LaRoche is a regular on MuhMur Radio, his latest work is on the compilation CDR 'Burslem Accomplice Volume 2' on the Burslem Crypt Recordings label. 


The album also features pieces by Karen Constance, Yol and Vile Plumage. Artwork is by Mark (Idwal Fisher) Wharton. https://burselmcryptrecordings.bandcamp.com/music. Whilst shifting some 7" singles around at MuhMur HQ I found a copy of the John Wiese and Bob Marinelli split single on Gameboy Records, so I gave it a spin and thought it worthy of playing on the radio. I know little of Bob or his work apart from a split tape with Government Alpha which was released the same year as this 7" in 2000. 
Back with 'On This Day' and Adam And The Ants "Zerox" 7" released by Do It Records in 1979. This single features the classic line up of Adam Ant, Dave Barbe (drums), Andy Warren (bass) and Matthew Ashman (guitar). 
Comus have had their classic song "Diana" re-released, this time on the UK based Trading Places label. 


Comus were a band I was unaware of until 2009 when we (Dieter Müh) played together at the 'Equinox Festival' held at Conway Hall in London. To complete my ignorance, I was aware of the Current 93 song 'Diana' but was unaware that it was a cover version. I enjoyed the Comus live set and got a copy of their double CD 'Song To Comus (The Complete Collection)' on Castle Music (2005). Comus were originally formed in 1969 by Glenn Goring and Roger Wootton, hanging around with David Bowie being part of the British Progressive Folk Rock scene. They originally split in 1972 before reforming for one album in 1974 before splitting again. The gig at the Conway Hall was their first in the UK for 37 years. Wootton also played with Slapp Happy alongside MuhMur Radio favourite Anthony Moore. Comus news and activity can be found here : https://comusmusic.co.uk
The other week I picked up a copy of the 4x7" box set 'Rare Peel', a bootleg box of old John Peel sessions from 1977 by The Models, The Cortinas, The Drones and The Crabs. The Drones version of 'Be My Baby' is from this box. 
Playing Comus 'Diana' I couldn't resist playing the Current 93 version. I do like a cover version. This track appears on the triple album box set 'Horse / Lex Talionis / Lumbs Sister', an album each by Current 93 / Sol Invictus / Nurse With Wound. 


The Current 93 version of 'Diana' features Dave Tibet, Steve Stapleton, Douglas P, Tony Wakeford and Dik. Back in 1990 I thought the Dik on this album was Dik the guitarist from the Virgin Prunes. There was no internet back in 1990, and if it was it certainly wasn't available in York (where I was living at the time).  I now know Dik is the bassist from the hardcore punk band Toxic who appeared on the Crass Records compilations 'Bullshit Detector'.  


William A. Davison is a multi-talented audio / visual artist based in Toronto. This is from the online 'The International Encyclopaedia of Surrealism' : " (... Hausner has contributed to a wide range of surrealist publications), as have her friends and colleagues William A. Davison (b. 1962) and Sherri Lyn Higgins (b. 1966), two multidisciplinary artists who moved to Toronto from Nova Scotia and who, like many younger contemporary surrealists in Canada, came to surrealism through punk rock or industrial music by groups like Throbbing Gristle and especially, Nurse With Wound. Davison and Higgins have focused on chance and automatic processes in their work, and have been equally drawn to magic as a mode of engagement with the real. In 1984, while still in Nova Scotia - and before coming aware that there were still groups and individuals who identified as surrealist - Davison invented the term 'Recordism' to describe the projects he engaged in, and from 1994 to 2004 he and Higgins maintained the International Bureau Of Recordist Investigation" ... 
"In Toronto, the recordist collective and William A. Davison formed a number of groups or alter egos. They perform in costumes and masks, with homemade instruments and objects with electronics. They are very active in the local experimental music and arts scene and also have a regular collective drawing and collage sessions".
I first met William and Sherri when I went to Toronto in 2008, they acted as my guide(s) to the Toronto underground and the secondhand record stores. In the late 1990's William was part of Canadian industrialists Phycus (as Bill Satan) with Monty Cantsin. Whilst shopping in Toronto William pointed out an album by Gastric Female Reflex he was also involved with. 


Since the turn of the century William has been releasing sounds under a variety of masks and pseudonyms. The Big Prongs, The W bbl r, Wax Infant (with Jim DeJong), Urban Refuse Group Panic Engines and M. Stactor to name a few ... he is a busy man. He operates a radio show and has a You Tube and Vimeo channel. Go to http://www.recordism.com for all the links. A few weeks ago William mailed me a one-off 5xCDR collection of his workings throughout the pandemic. "The Pandemic Years". The two Bandaged Man pieces are from CDR#1. Bandaged Man films / soundtracks are available via his Vimeo channel. Expect to hear more in the upcoming months .. the next programme features the group Six Heads which both William and Sherri are involved with. 


Living in deepest darkest Devon has its advantages ... I know of a record shop in a village that has some 'Record Store Day' releases, and the obscure ones hang around for months, getting cheaper and cheaper. They can't control what they get sent although it's usually the mainstream artists but I have managed to pick up old RSD gems by the likes of Wire and Virgin Prunes recently. On my last visit I did manage to get the Maximum Joy 12"EP 'White & Green Place' on Lantern Records. Maximum Joy were one of the splinter groups (alongside Pigbag, Mark Stewart + Mafia and Rip Rig & Panic) when The Pop Group split in 1980. Formed by guitarist John Waddington, ex-Glaxo Babies and Pop Group bassist Dan Catsis and Glaxo Babies drummer Charlie Llewelin. With Tony Wrafter on saxophone and vocalist Janine Rainforth. This EP has the original single 'Stretch' (reasons for buying the EP) and an 'Extra-Terrestrial Mix' of the 'White & Green Place' single. Lantern Records is an Italian label. https://www.lanterneditions.com. In 2015 Maximum Joy reformed under the banner of MXMJoY.


In the final part of the broadcast there are two more 'On This Day' classics starting with The Psychedelic Furs' 'Love My Way' single. Released in 1982, by this time Duncan Kilburn and Roger Morris had left leaving the Furs as a quartet with Richard Butler, Tim Butler, Vince Ely and John Ashton. In my opinion this is / was the last decent single they ever released. It's produced by former Utopia frontman Todd Rundgren. 
Who are the Mollbury Medical Research Centre? 'The D7 Project' is a new self-released cassette, the follow up to last year's release on Sensory Leakage called 'Zener_41'. Download copies are available from the MMRC bandcamp page : https://mollburymedicalresearchcentre.bandcamp.com/album/the-d7-project. (The first piece reminds me of The Pink Floyd).

The programme ends with an 'On This Day' classic from 1978. Whatever happened to The Leyton Buzzards? .... oh yeah .... Modern Romance!

The archive for this programme can be found here :


Playlist :
01: Conjecture : "Cygnus" (Zoharum) 2021.
02: Loopsel : "Endings" (Digital Regress) 2022.
03: Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words : "Born To Go" (Fang Bomb) 2006.
04: Throbbing Gristle : "See You Are" (Industrial Records) 1979.
05: Eric Lunde : "The Occulatiomorbit (A)" (Kanshiketsu!) 2022.
06: Eric Lunde : "The Occulatiomorbit (Postcard)" (Kanshiketsu!) 2022.
07: Thomas LaRoche : "Avian Keratin Disease" (Burslem Crypt Recordings) 2023.
08: Thomas LaRoche : "In November The Flies Still Want To Lay Eggs" (Burslem Crypt Recordings) 2023.
09: Thomas LaRoche : "Mothers Day LSD Journey To The Stones" (Burslem Crypt Recordings) 2023.
10: Thomas LaRoche : "Pleasure Drive" (Burslem Crypt Recordings) 2023.
11: Thomas LaRoche : "Britney, Club Foot Organ" (Burslem Crypt Recordings) 2023.
12: Bob Marinelli : "Electric Love" (Gameboy Records) 2000.
13: Throbbing Gristle : "Five Knuckle Shuffle" (Adolescent Records) 1981.
14: Neil Campbell : "Big Dog Daze" (Not On Label) 2023.
15: Adam & The Ants : "Zerox" (Do It Records) 1979.
16: Comus : "Diana" (Trading Places) 2023.
17: The Drones : "Be My Baby" (Not On Label) 2010.
18: Current 93 : "Diana" (Cerne) 1990.
19: Bandaged Man : "No Remote" (Not On Label) 2023.
20: Bandaged Man : "Shadows (With Incidental Sounds)" (Not On Label) 2023.
21: Throbbing Gristle : "Damaru Sunrise" (Nice Label) 1983.
22: Maximum Joy : "White & Green Place (Extra Terrestrial Mix)" (Lantern Records) 2023.
23: The Psychedelic Furs : "Love My Way" (CBS Records) 1982.
24: Mollbury Medical Research Centre : "D7 Sunrise Technology" (Not On Label) 2023.
25: Mollbury Medical Research Centre : "Standard Precautions" (Not On Label) 2023.
26: Mollbury Medical Research Centre : "Extensive Neurological Testing" (Not On Label) 2023.
27: William A. Davison : "Guitar 191018" (Not On Label) 2023.
28: The Leyton Buzzards : "19 & Mad" (Small Wonder Records) 1978.


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