The best laid plans of mice and moles.
Broadcast #290 is dedicated to the book "Cassette Culture : Homemade Music And The Creative Spirit In The Pre-Internet Age" by Jerry Kranitz. Originally published by Vinyl On Demand back in 2020, I have just managed to grab a copy of the second edition on Monger Publications. (I'm in the UK so grabbed a copy from Waterstones. It's the best place to buy books on the Internet. Avoid Amazon!). The book is divided into 3 chapters : I. The Cassette Recorder : YOU Too Can Be An Audio Artist. II. The Global Network Emerges .. And Flourishes. III: Cassette 'Culture'? I am at the moment finding it a fascinating read. So, this broadcast is from tracks pulled from cassette releases old and new ...
The Nails Ov Christ tracks are from the 1986 release 'Dark Night Of The Soul". Released in the US on the Sound Of Pig label and in Europe on Disabuse Transmissions. Trev Ward (aka Nails Ov Christ) also put it out on his Zeal SS imprint. Earlier this year Disabuse Transmissions reissued the cassette as a downloadable file https://disabusetransmissions.bandcamp.com/album/dark-night-of-the-soul. It is a 'pay what you feel' download.
Two Daughters were a mysterious duo based in London in the early 1980s. "Kiss The Cloth/Gloria" was originally released on their own Anthony & Paul label. United Dairies reissued the cassette in 1987. This the cassette I have but here I play the reissued vinyl version that Vinyl On Demand put out in 2019. It's a lot clearer and my cassette has been played quite a few times over the years.
I was hoping to play this Contagious Orgasm cassette on the last broadcast, but unfortunately the Royal Mail let me down. "Abandoned Prayer Place" is from "The Chaotic March Of Pagans" album released in the first week of this year. https://sssm.bandcamp.com. It was whilst playing this cassette I noticed that the sound was slipping / dropping ... only for a split second but still enough to disrupt the listening and for this I apologise and was where the playlist was altered. Apologies also to Kazuya Ishigami and Mattias Gustafsson whose pieces I had lined up to play ...
The "Cassette Culture" book features a piece on the cut-up works of Brion Gysin and William S. Burroughs.
'What we did on our own was to play around with the very limited technology and wattage we had in the old Beat Hotel. 40-Watts a room was all we were allowed. There is something to be said for poverty, it makes you more inventive, it's more fun and you get more mileage of what you've got plus your own ingenuity. When you handle the stuff yourself, you get the feel for it" (Brion Gysin).
William S. Burroughs "Inching" comes from the 1981 LP "Nothing Here Now But The Recordings" on Industrial Records. The album has been re-released a few times over the years but strangely enough never on cassette.
History's Bunkum.
I was 'involved', if not involved then 'part of' the cassette culture. In 1980 I created the label "Don't Dance ... Collide Tapes". I was making noises with my friend Dave (Uden) under the banner of So Commercial. (Yeah, I know it's a shite name but there were reasons) and I was buying cassettes from the likes of Industrial Records, Deleted Records, Fuck Off Records amongst others so I thought. .. why not? Don't Dance ... Collide Tapes released one cassette. A compilation. A C60 featuring 15 minutes of punk c/o The Exitz, 15 minutes of abstract noise c/o ESP Disk-rd (the new and not so shite name for So Commercial) and 30 minutes of Agitprop Punk trio Collide. I did put on an evening of Don't Dance ... Collide sounds at a school hall in North Hykeham (hometown), but none of the bands on the cassette played. By this time both The Exitz and Collide had split and ESP Disk-rd just weren't ready. The gig did feature Collide's PA, but Sinking Ships, The Void and The Cigarettes played through it! The cassette sold well. Advertised through the music weekly and Zig-Zag magazine, and a mention in the 'International Discography Of New Wave : Volume Two - 1982-83' by B. George & Martha Defoe. By the start of 1982 ESP Disk-rd also gave up, so no more releases.
Jumping ahead five years and a couple of friends visited from Manchester and told me that they were starting a label called "Carnifex Organisation". The idea was to release cassettes, tracts, posters and (live) events. They wanted to put out cassettes of my then active project (along with Tim Bayes) <<I.B.F.>> . A year later and I was living back in Manchester (Hulme) and giving my full energies towards Carnifex Organisation. In 1987 and after a few cassette releases and live events we planned to release a Carnifex Organisation sampler (on cassette, a C90). For one reason or another, this never happened but years later Tim did manage to put some of the contributions onto a CDR. The Muhviertel tracks and Schuster piece are from this (unreleased) CDR.
Small Cruel Party are prolific when it comes to cassette releases. In the late 1980s Small Cruel Party released a handful of cassettes on their own Retching Wrecks label. Small Cruel Party (aka Key Ransone) appeared on a host of compilation cassettes at the start of the 1990s. The two tracks here are from "Methods Of Achieving Satisfaction In A Goal-Orientated Society" (Apraxia 1992) and Nature Morte 2" E'ostrate 1992). Both pieces appear on the Harbinger Sound 3xCD collection of Small Cruel Party's work "An Accident In Substance" released in 2012.
And this is where the gods were smiling upon us ...
Chris brought a CDR copy of the upcoming album by Water Is The Sun. Water Is The Sun is the new project from Mkl Anderson (Drekka) and Adam Parks (Timber Rattle). The album will be 'launched' at a live performance of Water Is The Sun at SoundArt Radio Studios, Dartington Hall Estate on March 21. It will be available on vinyl via Trome Records and on cassette via the Italian label Trocco Magico. All are very welcome. Support will be from Al Fresco Skronk Squadron and I might even be spinning a few discs! Water Is The Sun will also be playing UK dates in Sheffield, Norwich, Wellington (Somerset) and London (New River Studios). I will be providing more information about the live event later, or find out now at :
https://soundartradio.org.uk/events/water-is-the-sun-al-fresco-skronk-squadron/.
One of the first cassettes I bought (in the new wave era) was the 1980 album "The Graveyard And The Ballroom" on Factory Records, 'Do The Du' ends the broadcast.
The programme is archived on MixCloud. Please take a listen here :
Playlist :
01: Nails Ov Christ : "Dark Night Of The Soul (VIII)" (Disabuse Transmissions) 2025.
02: Two Daughters : "Gloria (I - V)" (Vinyl On Demand) 2019.
03: Contagious Orgasm : "Abandoned Prayer Place" (SSSM) 2026.
04: William S. Burroughs : "Inching" (Industrial Records) 1981.
05: Muhviertel : "Kugel Aktion (Studio Version)" (Carnifex Organisation) 1987.
06: Small Cruel Party : "Even The Lives Of Our Grandfathers" (Harbinger Sound) 2012.
07: Small Cruel Party : "Some Movements" (Harbinger Sound) 2012.
08: Water Is The Sun : "Inward She Turns Her Feathered Hand" (Tocco Magico) 2026.
09: Water Is The Sun : "Western Grave" (Tocco Magico) 2026.
10: Water Is The Sun : "Peace, My Constant Prayer" (Tocco Magico) 2026.
11: Water Is The Sun : "Charmed Of Lesser Beasts" (Tocco Magico) 2026.
12: Nails Ov Christ : "Dark Night Of The Soul (V)" (Disabuse Transmissions) 2025.
13: Muhviertel : "Muhswaan" (Carnifex Organisation) 1987.
14: Schuster : "The Cat's Algebra (Edit)" (Carnifex Organisation) 1987.
15: A Certain Ratio : "Do The Du" (Factory Records) 1980.
Thanks as ever to Chris and Tamsin for taking me there, being there, and bringing me back again.
I made it on the SoundArt Radio DJ 'wall of fame'!
Murmur Radio returns on March 15. 18:00 GMT.
