Another hot summers night. Another hot summers MuhMur Radio Broadcast.
I got to befriend Howard Stelzer through 'social media', a couple of years ago he was putting sections of his record collection up for sale ... and I wanted some of it. At this time I hadn't heard of Howard's work so I began to explore and found it all on the 'noisier' side of experimental electronic music. File under Wiese or Marhaug. Good stuff but not necessarily what I want to listen to at this moment in time, but I found the addition of the name Frans De Waard on his latest collaborative release intriguing. Now I find out that this is their umpteenth collaborative release in the past 26 years, I'm going to have to spend time hunting for tapes on Discogs.
Their new collaborative release is the cassette "The Rebels Fold Scratchy, Relaxed Meanings Into Their Smallest Actions" on Park 70. The tape is built of component sounds from all past Stelzer / De Waard collaborations from 1996, and it is an incredibly intricate and masterfully built sonic building held together by musique concret. I was pleasantly surprised on first listen and now it's a firm favourite here at MuhMur HQ.
I got a package of sounds through from Sirenwire. Sirenwire is the label run by artist Susan Matthews.
Operating since 2005 the label has seen some great releases by Susan and her prolific collaborative works with the likes of Tony Wakeford (as Window Tappers), Thorsten Soltau, Alistair Crosbie, The Dead Mauriacs, Rainier Lericolais and Clint Newton (as Harme) to name a few. It was through her collaborative releases with The Dead Mauriacs and Thorsten Soltau that I became aware of her work.
In June and July of this year Susan exhibited at the King Street Gallery, Carmarthen (Wales). The exhibition was called "Transference" and was a collection of her "Graphic Scores". Susan invited various artists to interpret her 'scores' and this played as soundtrack for the exhibition. "Strange Variations" is a collection of these sounds and was released as a CD in July. The Thorsten Soltau piece "A Sheer For Fallen Kings" is part of this compilation. The CD (with booklet) is available here : https://sirenwire.com/portfolio/strange-variations/
In the past few days I have been rediscovering and revisiting some old records, hence the inclusion of Five Or Six and The Transmitters. The Transmitters track is on the 1981 album "And We Call That Leisure Time" on Heartbeat Records. I discovered The Transmitters in a backwards kind of way, first hearing this LP in 1981. I probably bought it because it featured ex-Glaxo Babies singer Rob Chapman. I certainly didn't buy it for the cover.
Working backwards I bought the 1979 Step Foward Records 12" EP "Still Hunting For The Ugly Man". This is a great record ... well recommended. I then made the mistake of buying the 1978 album "24 Hours" on Ebony Records. I think I found it for 20p in "Mary's Records" on Broadgate in Lincoln circa 1984/85. Bland and tame as I remember. I don't have a copy now as it sells for around the 40 bob mark and that still is too expensive. In 2006 Elsewhere Records released a collection of The Transmitters on CD, unfortunately not from the Heartbeat Records period but from their Ebony/Step Forward days. Called "I Fear No-One" it is worth getting for the hard to find 12" tracks and a B-Side track called "0.5 Alive".
Dirty Swords are the new project of Marky Loo-Loo and Andy Jarvis. Marky + Andy were founder members of seminal UK noise group Dogliveroil along with Ashtray Navigator Phil Todd back in the early 1990's. Marky went on to be part of Target Shoppers with Phil Todd and Tea Culture whilst Andy joined forces with Filthy Turd to become Vile Plumage as well as releasing solo work for Sheepscar International, First Person and Fencing Flatworm labels (to name but a few). And now they are back together as Dirty Swords. Their releases can be found here :
https://dirtyswords.bandcamp.com/music
In December this year I shall be performing as Dieter Müh once again in Switzerland and Germany. My first live performances since last years Dronefest at Space Studios in Darlington Hall. On the 14th I shall be in Freiburg with BºTong and Grodock. The Grodock piece here is from the album "CD 2 - Verwerfungen" on the US label Obsfucated Records. It's a reinterpretation of "Lady In The Radiator" song from "Eraserhead". I remember seeing Bauhaus use the original as an intro tape a few times back in the early '80's. (Useless Information as Chris & Cosey would say).
The Tarkatak and Contrastate pieces are from the new compilation "Troum Transformation Tapes : The 20th Anniversary Celebration 1997 - 2017" double CD on Transgredient Records. I had planned to play them on the last programme but left the CD back in the player at MuhMur HQ!
The Altar Of Flies track is from the split 7" with Darksmith on Hästen & Korset Records. Over the past 12 years of listening to Mattias Gustafsson's project he has never disappointed.
The programme ends on some kind of 'post-punk' revision with two tracks from the 1983 album "For A Reason". Lifetones were the project of Charles Bullen after the crumbling of This Heat. Recently US label 'Light In The Attic' have re-issued the album on CD. The second of August 1982 saw the release of the Modern English single "I Melt With You". It's about the last decent Modern English single ... I stopped following them around this time. The track here is from the album "After The Snow". I don't know if it's a different version to the single. Like The Transmitters I have a fear that they are still treading the boards. The programme finishes with a classic B-Side from The Bush Tetras. Please take a listen to the programme here :
https://www.mixcloud.com/muhsteve/muhmur-radio-soundart-radio-broadcast-august-2-2018/
Playlist :
01: Howard Stelzer & Frans De Waard : "The Rebels Fold Scratchy Relaxed Meanings Into Their Smallest Actions (Side 2)" (Park 70) 2018.
02: Susan Matthews : "End Of The Want" (Sirenwire) 2018.
03: Throbbing Gristle : "AB/7A" (The Grey Area) 1991.
04: Chris & Cosey : "Useless Information" (Wax Trax! Records) 1990.
05: The Conet Project : "2 Letter N U" (Irdial Discs) 1997.
06: Thorsten Soltau : "A Sheer For Fallen Kings" (Sirenwire) 2018.
07: Five Or Six : "Consider This" (Frizz Bee) 1982.
08: The Transmitters : "The Beat Goes On" (Heartbeat Records) 1981.
09: Dirty Swords : "Touching The Apex" (Death Slap) 2018.
10: M.O.W.E. : "Vom Leben Ins Tod" (90% Wasser) 2001.
11: Tarkatak : "vs. Brinnan" (Transgredient Records) 2018.
12: Grodock : "Lady In The Radiator" (Obsfucated Records) 2013.
13: Altar Of Flies : "Brittle Bones" (Hästen & Korset) 2011.
14: S.P.K. : "Another Dark Age" (Side Effekts Records) 1983
15: Susan Matthews + Rainier Lericolais : "On Solomon's Mountain" (Sirenwire) 2008.
16: Contrastate : "The Silent Fish" (Transgredient Records) 2018.
17: Mark Vernon : "Love In The Form Of A Personal Attack" (Research Laboratories) 2018.
18: Lifetones : "For A Reason" (Light In The Attic) 2016.
19: Lifetones : "Good Side" (Light In The Attic) 2016.
20: Modern English : "I Melt With You" (Sire Records) 1983.
21: Bush Tetras : "Das Ah Riot" (Fetish Records) 1981.
The next broadcast will be on August 16 and then there will be the official SoundArt Radio summer hiatus where they wipe all the spit off the microphones and solder some wires back together for the new schedule starting in September. Unfortunately the mighty Dave Mutch won't be with me on the next broadcast as he will be in Aberdeen, but he'll be back in September.
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