MuhMur Radio Broadcast 23 July 2020.

A chance meeting at weird garden event last year in Lincoln with Gavin Morrow has brought me in to the sonic world of Grey Frequency. Gavin records and performs under the moniker of Grey Frequency. His latest release is a split cassette with London based electronic musician Steve Nolan. 

"Intercept" is released on Nolan's own label 'Spun Out Of Control'. Copies are limited but still available. Try here : https://spunoutofcontrol.bandcamp.com/album/intercept

The Maeror Tri track is from a new compilation of early singles (A & B Sides) released by Belgian label EE Tapes. Imaginatively called "The Singles" the track "Phyein" was originally released in 1995 on Fools Paradise Records. 

The Steve Roden piece is from a compilation CD that was given away to subscribers of The Wire magazine back in 2006. At a recent clear out and tidy up at SoundArt Radio Studios I chanced upon this CD lying on the floor ... so I picked it up. I am not a subscriber to The Wire magazine.

Tech Riders are Frans De Waard and Sindre Bjerga. This summer they have (had) released two essential albums. "Double Factorial" on the UK based Sleep Fuse label and "Of The Lost Ark" on the Finnish Ikuisuus label. "(Do) The Rotation" is from the "Of The Lost Ark" album. Limited to 60 only it is available here : https://ikuisuus.bandcamp.com/album/of-the-lost-ark

The regular 'On This Day' feature returns with a couple of singles from 1982. The Stranglers "Strange Little Girl" and Blancmange's "Feel Me". Between 1980 and 1985 I saw Blancmange live a few times, from Lyndsays Disco Bar in Lincoln to the grand Apollo Theatre in Manchester. It was at the gig at the Apollo that the support was from Portion Control.

"Raise The Pulse" was a 12" on Illuminated Records. "Abbo Dabbo" comes from the mini LP "Hit The Pulse" released in the same year on Portion Control's own label In Phaze Records. 

One of the most interesting releases this year is the cassette "_____________" on the new Steep Gloss label. 

__________ is a blank cassette compilation. The 10 artists were asked to submit an audio piece, with a duration of no more than 4 minutes, utilising blank tapes as the sole sound source. The pieces were then combined, top-to-tail, exquisite corpse style, to create a gestalt, resulting in the two distinct side long pieces presented here. The artists were also asked to submit a 'blank' image, leaving the interpretation of which up to them. These images were then incorporated into the 5 double-sided panels serving as the art accompanying the tape. "Nothing has an unlikely quality. It is heavy." Jeanette Winterson "Blankness. Oblivion. Nothingness. Pure, undiluted primeval nothingness. Finally, after aeons of nothingness, millennia of chaos, a voice: We have torn it down, said the voice, now we begin to create" Norman Spinrad SG00 credits released June 19, 2020 "The silences are searing. The absence of the usual motifs means you have to pay attention to the nothingness, which creates its own all-consuming noise. Some pieces are just tape hiss, others are glitchy drones, others feel like a hangover, some sounds like machinery being recorded from a distance, others might be the sound of a car engine cooling down on a driveway, but all of them have a claustrophobic vibe that gets under your skin." Nick Roseblade for Vital Weekly

The Throbbing Gristle tracks are from the double LP "The Mission Is Terminated". This LP is 'partly official' only the Throbbing Gristle tracks credit them as a Sinclair/Brooks production. Two tracks are edited / compressed versions of recordings from the "Journey Through A Body" sessions (1981), whereas "You Don't No" is a live recording from Sheffield. The other LP is a compilation of artists that appear on the Italian Nice Label. 

The Skullflower 7" is from 1992 on the highly collectable Dying Earth label, and features the dulcet tones of Stuart Dennison on vocals. 

Please take a listen to the broadcast here :

https://www.mixcloud.com/muhsteve/muhmur-radio-broadcast-23-july-2020/

Playlist :

01 : Steve Nolan & Grey Frequency : "Been" (Spun Out Of Control) 2020.

02: Maeror Tri : "Phyein" (EE Tapes) 2020.

03 : Steve Roden : "22 Letters And The Resonance Of A Three Pointed Star" (Wire Magazine) 2006.

04 : Tech Riders : "(Do) The Rotation" (Ikuisuus) 2020.

05 : Pere Ubu : "Cloud 149" (Radar Records) 1978.

06 : The Stranglers : "Strange Little Girl" (Liberty Records) 1982.

07 : Blancmange : "Feel Me" (London Records) 1982.

08 : Portion Control : "Raise The Pulse" (Illuminated Records) 1983.

09 : Portion Control : "Abbo Dabbo" (In Phaze Records) 1983.

10 : Diurnal Burdens/George Concrète/Phil Maguire/Richard Garet/Rovellasca : "_________" (B) (Steep Gloss) 2020.

11 : Ora : "The Sun Sheds A Golden Tear" (Die Stadt Records) 2004.

12 : Throbbing Gristle : "Medicine For Catholic Sex (Love Song For Paula)" (Nice Label) 1983.

13 : Throbbing Gristle : "Exotic Violence Della Morte" (Nice Label) 1983.

14 : Family Underground : "Sand Between Us" (I Dischi Del Barone) 2020.

15 : Skullflower : "Bad Alchemy" (Dying Earth Records) 1992.

16 : Throbbing Gristle : "You Don't No" (Nice Label) 1983.

The next broadcast is on Aug 6, kick off time TBA.

Sorry this is a little brief / rushed - I am just about to head up North and will be away from a computer for a few days ......