Sunday 13 October 2019

MuhMur Radio Broadcast 10 October 2019.



Due to a hectic and jet-setting lifestyle over the last few weeks I was unable to gather the playlist around the old h-fi and take a picture ... (as is usual), apologies for that .. but here's a picture sent in by a couple of listeners who wanted to hear more Frans de Waard!

The programme opens with HomoErotic Plague and their piece from the "Scandinavian War Crimes Volume One" compilation cassette. This compilation features Arkhe, Blitzkrieg Baby, Capers and Koeff alongside a few unfamiliar names whose output seems to be only on this 2015 cassette. HomoErotic Plague being one of them as well as Cops and Vader Has Meg Near Mitt Timeglass Utrinder. It does make me wonder if these 'one-off' projects are projects from the labels' owner Andreas Johansson (AKA Arkhe, Backasvinet and Pestdemon). It has happened with other compilations before.


If HomoErotic Plague do exist and someone reading this knows how to get in contact can you please let me know as I would really like to hear more. I also look forward to Volume Two. There are a few copies of Volume One available via : https://arkhetriumvirat.wordpress.com/kafe-kaos/

One of the highlight releases of the year has to be the fifteen album box set "Chåsse" by Soviet France. (I think I covered the S/Z thing in the last post ... not to be confused with S/Z who released a great split 7" with Last Few Days on Touch Records back in 1985). Fortunately Frank at Vinyl On Demand has decided to release a limited number of the albums individually. The Lp version of "Gris" (originally a 10"EP) comes with bonus tracks recorded around the same time (1983/84), and I still think "Mohonomische" is one of the greatest albums ever recorded.
I have been fortunate to play alongside Soviet France back in 1995, back then they were the solo project Ben Ponton, it was fascinating to watch him with a handful of cassette decks and effects boxes create a sonic soundtrack to (what I think was) "Koyaanisqatsi".

                                                                    "Mohonomische"

Around the same time as releasing "Chåsse" Vinyl On Demand released "Recordings 1979-1981" by Two Daughters. A double album containing their 1980 debut eponymous cassette and 1981 LP "Kiss The Cloth/Gloria" which was originally self released then re-issued on cassette by United Dairies. I first came across Two Daughters when they had a track on the "Perspectives & Distortion" compilation LP released by Cherry Red Records in 1981. An air of mystery surrounded the project then .. pretty much as it does now. The Internet seems to think that Two Daughters were Anthony Burke and Nick Rogers. Nick Rogers was also part of Current 93 and The Bombay Ducks, both aligned to Nurse With Wound at the time. The only credit I have seen is that Jon More played clarinet on "Return Call/We Are" that appears on the compilation and the first eponymous cassette. According to Discogs Anthony Burke passed away in 2004.


There is also the 'theory' that Two Daughters were Anthony Burke and Simon Fisher Turner. A couple of years after the demise of Two Daughters the project Deux Filles appeared - Deux Filles being French for Two Daughters, but this theory is widely dismissed despite the sounds being very similar.

The "On This Day" feature of the programme comes in two parts. Deux Parties in French. On October 10 1979 The Human League released the first (and in my opinion best) album "Reproduction" and Pere Ubu released the 7"EP  "The Fabulous Sequel (Have Shoes Will Walk)". This was the EP from the "New Picnic Time" album. 

                     The Human League (Insert from Portuguese pressing of "Reproduction").


The Cent Ans De Solitude piece is from the compilation CD "Tonwellen 3 Konferenz". It was produced for the Tonwellen Festival that took place in Leipzig earlier this year. I played the Nocturne piece from the same album on the last programme. Cent Ans De Solitude is the solo project of Jean-Yves Millet. Originally from Tours, when I played with Cent Ans De Solitude in 2013 (in Lille) he was living in Paris. Jean also formed the label Les Nouvelles Propagandes in the mid 1980's releasing French industrial and drone projects. 

                                                              Cent Ans De Solitude.

I bought a few singles to fill the gaps in my Frans de Waard collection the other week, one of those being the split 7" with Howard Stelzer. I wasn't too certain if it was a split or collaboration. Frans and Howard collaborated last year for the excellent "The Rebels Fold Scratchy, Relaxed Meanings Into Their Smallest Actions" cassette on the Park 70 label. On this split single Frans uses sound sources from Stelzer material and on the flip side Howard works with sound sources from their 2002 collaborative album "Torn Tongue". (Also on the Absurd label). Interestingly packaged in a butterfly shaped brown paper cover. 


Howard Stelzer is a prolific sound artist, and operates the excellent Intransitive Records label. He has recorded / released many many albums since beginning over twenty years ago. He is also a prolific collaborator working with (as mentioned) Frans de Waard, The Cherry Point, Brendan Murray, Jason Talbot and Jazzkammer to name a few, and this summer saw the release of "Warm Bones" a collaboration project with Ukrainian artist Edward Sol. "Warm Bones" is a CDR + 5" Reel To Reel Tape packaged in a wooden box with various ephemera and artworks. It is on Edward's own Sentimental Productions imprint. Available here : https://sentimentalproductions.bandcamp.com

Part two of "On This Day" and from 1978 comes a track from the Joy Division 12"EP "An Ideal For Living" released by Enigma Records. I don't have a copy of the 12" anymore but have taken the track "Warsaw" from the 'bootleg' CD "Warsaw". I think it is the same version. JD aficionados probably know better? "My Place" comes from the 1979 album "A Cast Of Thousands" by The Adverts. For me The Adverts were always a singles band and "My Place" was one of the singles from this album. I did see The Adverts when they were touring with this LP. They played Lincoln Tech College with Chelsea and it was one of the most violent gigs I have ever been to. I think Lincoln City had been playing a home match against Grimsby Town that day and they decided to have a battle against the 'punks' at the gig ... every man woman and child for themselves kind of thing. I think because of this evening all gigs at the Tech College stopped, which was kind of ironic because punk gigs were banned from Lincoln's Drill Hall venue in 1977 after mass fighting at a Damned gig ... and The Adverts were the support on that night. The Adverts are from Torquay where I now live, and they played their debut gig at The Links Hotel (now called The Snooty Fox) a pub that is spitting distance from Hartop Towers. 

The Expose Your Eyes track is from the Greek cassette "Harrison's Hand". E.C.T. have their own You Tube page. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdf_OKRwJ2gn045c4YpJEKw

Earlier in the evening I played the Soviet France track "Mohonomische #4" by mistake and ended with a few more minutes than planned so I slotted in Wreckless Eric's "Whole Wide World" single (I always carry an emergency track or two to play). The broadcast was always going to end with Cabaret Voltaire.

Playlist:
01: Homoerotic Plague : "Bruten Fōrtrollning" (Kafé Kaos) 2015.
02: Soviet France : "Gris" (Vinyl On Demand) 2019.
03: Soviet France : "Mohonomische #4" (Vinyl On Demand) 2019.
04: Two Daughters : "Air Lair" (Vinyl On Demand) 2019.
05: Two Daughters : "AAAAAAR" (Vinyl On Demand) 2019.
06: The Human League : "Zero As A Limit" (Virgin Records) 1979.
07: The Human League : "Empire State Human" (Virgin Records) 1979.
08: The Human League : "Blind Youth" (Virgin Records) 1979.
09: Pere Ubu : "The Fabulous Sequel (Have Shoes Will Walk)" (Chrysalis Records) 1979.
10: Cabaret Voltaire : "Why Kill Time (When You Can Kill Yourself)" (Virgin Records/Some Bizarre) 1983.
11: Cent Ans De Solitude : "Pour Des Hommes" (Atacama Records) 2019.
12: Soviet France : "Mohonomische #3" (Vinyl On Demand) 2019.
13: Frans de Waard : "Gravity At Half Speed" (Absurd) 2010.
14: Two Daughters : "Ladder Of Souls" (Vinyl On Demand) 2019.
15: Edward Sol & Howard Stelzer : "Hotel Rats" (Sentimental Productions) 2019.
16: Pere Ubu : "Humor Me (Live In London 1979)" (Chrysalis Records) 1979.
17: Pere Ubu : "The Book Is On The Table" (Chrysalis Records) 1979.
18: Warsaw : "Warsaw" (Factory Of Sounds) 2017.
19: The Adverts : "My Place" (RCA Victor) 1979.
20: Edward Sol & Howard Stelzer : "Warm Bones" (Sentimental Productions) 2019.
21: Edward Sol & Howard Stelzer : "Clerks Just Want To Have Fun" (Sentimental Productions) 2019.
22: Expose Your Eyes : "I Don't Want Your Mumbo Jumbo Bullshit" (E.C.T.) 2017.
23: Wreckless Eric : "Whole Wide World" (Stiff Records) 1977.
24: Cabaret Voltaire : "Yashar" (Factory Records) 1983. 

Next broadcast will be on September 24.

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