MuhMur Radio Broadcast March 18 2021.

 

The playlist for this broadcast was compiled / worked out before I heard of the death of Lou Ottens. Lou died on March 6. He was 94. Lou was the inventor of the compact cassette tape and player. This was in the year 1963 (a year after I was born). Cassette tapes have always been in my life. I got a small portable cassette player for my 11th birthday - an ASDA special. As well as playing cassettes I used to record stuff off the TV - TOTPs naturally - and conversations with friends. By the late 1970's I had an Amstrad Hi-Fi to tape John Peel and the radio programme Richard Skinner used to present on a Saturday afternoon. By the turn of the 80's I had a rather big Amstrad portable tape x tape machine to copy tapes, make tapes for friends, bootleg bands and record tape letters to friends abroad. (Hello Dan!). In the winter of 1983 when the flat in Manchester got burgled the first thing that's replaced was a portable cassette player .. despite having the light bulbs and door handles stolen (along with everything else - they were thorough I'll give 'em that) the burglars did leave a cassette of The Famers Boys c/w Aztec Camera. That was on rotation for a few weeks. And now, the main bulk of my collection is cassettes. When artists release their sounds and it's either CD(R) or Cassette I will buy the cassette everytime. No brainer. 

So, this broadcast has a few cassette releases in the playlist, starting with Gavin Morrow's untitled piece for "Kantoor 3" released last year by Staaltape. "Kantoor is a series dedicated to found sounds and found tapes.Recorded material that goes back as far as the mid 1950's are found in fleas markets or in the trash. A small group of artists has a particular fascination for these recordings. The Kantoor series is an attempt to share this fascination and give listeners an insight in a world that has disappeared." Earlier this year "Kantoor 4" was released. All releases come on an old (overdubbed) cassette with a magazine. For his piece Gavin has built a track collected from old cassettes sourced from thrift stores, swap meets, charity stalls and car boot sales primarily in the United States and UK. Some of these tapes are used and manipulated in Gavin's project Grey Frequency but here they are presented as raw material - voices from the past out of context - out of time. The compilation also features Angélica Castelló, Jon Sheffield and Claudio Fernandez. It was limited to 60 so probably all sold by now but "Kantoor 4" is available via Staaltape here : https://staaltape.bandcamp.com/album/kantoor4

I am afraid I don't know too much about Hari Hardman. The piece here is from his latest CDR release "Thrust Your Palm Into The Best Haystack". The album came to me through the post ... thank you very much Hari. 

The "On This Day" section of the broadcast begins with a couple of 7"'s, first is Pere Ubu and "Final Solution". Originally released in 1976 by Hearthan Records the version I play here is from the 1980 "Datapanik In The Year Zero - A" 7" put out by Rough Trade. This is followed by Young Marble Giants.

"Testcard E.P." features six instrumentals in praise and celebration of mid morning television. I play "Clicktalk" at the wrong speed - slower than suggested on the label ... but if I didn't mention it you'd never have known. Also on this day Fad Gadget released the single "Make Room". I must say that I don't think this is one of Fad's greatest singles but the B-Side is a classic. I saw Fad Gadget live a few times 1981-1983 and "Ladyshave" was always the show stopper, great synth work too from Daniel Miller. 

Thanks to Steve Underwood and his generosity I (over the past few weeks) have been discovering the work of German trio AG Geige. "America" is from their debut album "Yachtclub + Buchtein" released originally in 1987 on the GDR label, this version is from the 2018 Major label re-issue. AG Geige albums will soon be available at all good record shops ... in Hastings. 

On this day The Fall released their debut LP "Live At The Witch Trials". An album that is surely in everybody's top ten of greatest albums ever! I bought this on the day of release, I have always owned a copy .. and when I didn't I have always had a copy (back up) on a TDK D cassette. (the B-Side is Ultravox!'s debut LP). When I hear The Fall I always want to hear more ... one track is never enough so "Frightened" is followed by tracks from other The Fall favourites "Dragnet" and "Slates". "Dragnet" also came out in 1979 - two classic albums in a stretch of about nine months. Genius. 

Kalata is the project headed by Joke Lanz. Other members are Utke Tavil on drums and Dirar Kalash making the electronic noises. "Blue Sky" is from the self released cassette EP "Hot Glue". I shall be playing more from this EP on the next programme. I don't know where the cassette is available from but you can contact Joke here : http://www.suddeninfant.com I have recently been listening to Prag VEC a lot here at Hartop Towers. They only put out 2 7" singles on their own Spec Records label before splitting. There's a fascinating interview with Prag VEC vocalist Susan Gogan here : http://www.furious.com/perfect/pragvec.html Prag VEC did play Lincoln back in 1979 when they supported Magazine on their "Secondhand Daylight" tour. I have never been keen on Magazine and certainly not around this time so I didn't bother and decided to go and see Secret Affair & Squire a few days later  ... if I'd only known Prag VEC were going to be the support!

Finishing the "On This Day" feature is Throbbing Gristle who (in 1980) released "24 Hours", a suitcase containing 24 one hour cassettes of Throbbing Gristle an other Industrial Records associated acts. 

The contents of the box varied because the tapes represented the most 'up to date' releases from Industrial Records. I have never owned (or even seen) a copy, I think it was somewhere around £80 back in the early 1980's. I play the full version of "Slug Bait" from the 1977 performance in Southampton, released on Industrial Records in 1979 and catalogued IRC 6. 

Alien Brains was the DaDaist Noise project of Nigel Jacklin, the man who Brought Throbbing Gristle to Oundle School. It was originally a solo project but grew to include Mark Lancaster (from The Instant Automatons and the Rupenus brothers from The New Blockaders). The track played here may or may not be called "Conclusion". The CD lists 7 tracks, the CD player registers 23. Anyway, the track is from the recent re-issue of the debut album "Menial Disorders" originally released by Deleted Records in 1980. More information can be found here : https://www.alienbrains.co.uk

Staying with the DaDa, Phillipe Blanchard (Lieutenant Caramel) and Shaun Robert (factor X & Mutant Beatniks) have collaborated for the album "Cartes Postales Des Archipels". On this album Phillipe and Shaun make "postcards of the archipelagos, they chose to work with sound machines, toy drums, bass guitar, violin, radio waves, field recording and distorted voices. So to live a common experience they went beyond known landscapes. They came out of their terrestrial bodies to describe these amazing astral journeys. They made strange discoveries and found new friends along the way. At the end, there was only one way out of this story: move forward and backward in space until reaching eternity to no longer endure time and float like birds above these remote regions". Contact Phillipe here : http://caramelos.free.fr or Shaun here : https://shaunrobert.bandcamp.com

Traag is the solo project of Detroit, Michigan based musician Travis Galloway. Travis also plays in the bands Roachclip and The Bibs. "Tropical Fruit" is from the cassette "UPN 50" released by the Italian Gang Of Ducks label. 

The sounds of the 90's are represented here by Clock DVA and the "Voice Recognition Test" 12"EP.

"The She-Butterfly" is the fourth in a series of collaborations between Pharmakustik (Siegmar Fricke) and Thorsten Soltau. The series began in 2017 with "Tektoplastie Art" on Craniotapes, in 2018 came "Periapsis 2251" on Holy Geometry, followed a year later By "Murgang 1971" on GeräuschManufaktur. "The She-Butterfly" is on the American label Park 70 with great packaging and design (as always) by Ryan Collins. The sounds on this album are assembled from the 1973 Yugoslavian vampire film "Leptirica (The She-Butterfly)". Watch it here : https://archive.org/details/LeptiricatheShe-butterflyyugoslaviaHorrorFilmEnglishSubtitles1973 The cassette is a C36 release and available from Park 70 here : https://park70.bandcamp.com/album/the-she-butterfly-2

The programme ends with the new 7" release by Bladder Flask. Bladder Flask are Phillip and Richard Rupenus (aka The New Blockaders) who released their debut LP "One Day I Was So Sad That the Corners Of My Mouth Met & Everybody Thought I Was Whistling" in 1981 on the Orgel Fesper Music label. In the past couple of years they seem to have resurrected with collaborations with Kommissar Hjuler and The Broken Penis Orchestra. The 7" appears on the American Anomalous label and available here : http://ribexibalba.com/mailorder.html copies in the UK are available via Electric Knife Records. https://electrickniferecords.co.uk

Please take a listen to the broadcast here : https://www.mixcloud.com/muhsteve/muhmur-radio-broadcast-18-march-2021/

Playlist :

01: Gavin Morrow : "Untitled Piece" (Staaltape) 2020.

02: Hari Hardman : "U Can Be U" (Hari Hardman Produkts) 2020.

03: Pere Ubu : "Final Solution" (Hearthan) 1976.

04: Young Marble Giants : "Clicktalk" (Rough Trade Records) 1981.

05: Ditterich Von Euler-Donnersperg : "Der Schraubkappen Das Kleinen Fritz" (Die Stadt) 2000.

06: Fad Gadget : "Ladyshave" (Mute Records) 1981.

07: AG Geige : "America" (Major Label) 2018.

08: The Fall : "Frightened" (Step Forward Records) 1979.

09: The Fall : "A Figure Walks" (Step Forward Records) 1979.

10: The Fall : "An Older Lover etc ..." (Rough Trade Records) 1981.

11: Kalata : "Blue Sky" (Not On Label - Self Released) 2020.

12: Prag VEC : "Wolf" (Spec Records) 1978.

13: Throbbing Gristle : "Slug Bait" (Industrial Records) 1979.

14: Alien Brains : "Conclusion" (Klanggalerie) 2021.

15: Noiseconcrete x 3CH15 : "Strange Prosperity (Joke Lanz Remix)" (Dizcollag) 2019.

16: Lieutenant Caramel + Shaun Robert : "Une Fois Trouvé" (Bruit De La Neige) 2020.

17: Traag : "Tropical Fruit" (Gang Of Ducks) 2014.

18: Kein Zweiter : "Komm Herein!" (90% Wasser) 2016.

19: Clock DVA : "Voice Recognition Test" (Contempo Records) 1993.

20: Pharmakustik & Thorsten Soltau : "The She-Butterfly (Pupation)" (Park 70) 2020.

21: Bladder Flask : "I Am As I Have Spoken" (Anomalous Records) 2021.

Next broadcast will be on April 1 (I'm not fooling!) - 20:00 GMT - and feature some new sounds from O Yuki Conjugate, Dave Phillips and Nick Edwards along with sounds from Shame, Exposure, Cranioclast, Steve Roden and The Cramps (amongst others) .. 

Comments always welcomed ... 

MuhMur Radio Broadcast March 4 2021

 A shifting of boxes, a reorganisation of a room and I find the boxed edition of the M:S:B:R & Blazen Y Sharp split/collaborative album "Mass For Dead Insects". I hadn't heard this in years and is not as I remember it. I was given the box by Koji Tano when Dieter Müh shared the bill with M:S:B:R at the first Harbinger Soundclash in Nottingham 1998 ... we did that exchange of merch' thing that folk did back then. I also got some great Government Alpha and Ashtray Navigations releases and Steve Underwood gave me a test pressing for his Contagious Orgasm album release. T'was a great night! 

Since getting this album I have discovered more about Blazen Y Sharp (who were a new project to me at the time). Blazen Y Sharp were Chris Blazen and John Sharp, based in New York they operated from 1995 to 2002. John Sharp also played in Praying For Oblivion at the turn of the century before Andrew Seal took the project to Europe. He also played with The Haters. The bulk of their material was released on their own Gender-Less Kibbutz label. John died in 2014. 

Rediscovering this box makes me think, perhaps I should include a 'hidden gem from the 90's' in the next few playlists. (Answers on a postcard, please).

It's a busy start to the year for Francisco Meirino. January saw the release of the LP "A New Instability" on the American Helen Scarsdale Agency label. A label that is becoming more and more desirable. 

"In 2019, the Swiss power-acoustic musician Francisco Meirino presented 'A New Instability'. A commission for the venerable ina-grm of Paris. Of course, this institution is the pre-eminent centre for research and study of electro-acoustic music dating back to founding of 'groupe de recherches musicales' in 1958 by Pierre Schaeffer. To this day ina-grm continues to be at the vanguard of the electro-acoustic composition, and it is quite an accomplishment and very appropriate for Meirino to receive such a commission. This recording for "A New Instability" condenses the 32-channel original piece down to a very still active stereo version, here Meirino continues to amplify and refine his compositions that walk a fine tightrope between raw expressivity of brutalist noise and conceptual rigour of more academic pursuits. Such a work ranks him in with the likes of Zbigniew Karkowski, Dave Phillips, Puce Mary and Illusion Of Safety. Field recordings from a martial arts dojo in his hometown of Luasanne cast a pugilistic, combative arch to these recordings which snap, burst, explode and erupt with utterances of men and women engaged in hand to hand combat. Searing frequencies build, swarm and amass, out of these episodes rise to psychologically tense crescendo that rupture at their heights, quickly turning attention towards a violence that originates from within. It is as if the objective observations of those martial arts recordings are sublimated within a subjective experience of psychic unease, disquiet and imbalance". (From the Helen Scarsdale Agency Website). 

                                                              Francisco in Lausanne.

You can grab a copy of the LP direct from Francisco here : https://franciscomeirino.bandcamp.com/album/a-new-instability Next on the horizon is a 4xCD box set on the American Misanthropic Agenda label, although copies can be got from the same address. A few years back I spent an evening with Francisco in Lausanne, we went for a Chinese. A fascinating and funny man. 

Feral Copse is a new project created by Andy Jarvis (Vile Plumage, DogLiverOil), Chandoor Gloomy (Cromlech Shadow, Hair's Abyss) and Paul Harrison (Expose Your Eyes, Smell & Quim). Their first outing is an eponymous cassette released on two separate labels. There's a standard edition on the American SpleenCoffin label and a limited edition (25) that comes in a hand tied lotka-bush A4 wrap with art cards on the UK MuzaMuza Music label. Standard copies and a download are available still, go to : https://spleencoffin.com/portfolio/feral-copse/

The Robert Turman piece is from the album "Beyond Painting". Originally released in 2010 on the Actual Tapes label this version here is from the recent CD re-issue.

At the start of the year a friend asked me if I had a copy of the new Hive Mind album "Elysian Alarms" as he had a spare copy ... I hadn't so he kindly mailed .... anyway, this made me dig out what I have by Hive Mind and give them a spin, it made me buy a couple of collaborative 12"'s with Workbench which I found floating around cheap on Discogs. The two pieces here are from "Elysian Alarms". 

"Bish Bash Bosh" by Howard Stelzer and Steffan De Turck is from the cassette "For Charlie Mopps" released last year by UK label Steep Gloss. 

"All the sounds on this album have been generated by beer: bottles, cans, glasses, beer itself and the act of drinking it.

Steffan lives in Tilburg in The Netherlands, and I live in Massachusetts, USA. Via the super-nerdy social media app Untappd - which allows people to track, rate and comment on beers they drink - Steffan and I discovered that we have a similar taste in beer as well. One of us remarked that if we should ever find ourselves in the same country, it's be fun to get together for a beer .. even better, we could tour together and stop at breweries along the way. Actually, I'd be happy just to visit the breweries and skip playing shows altogether, but I suppose playing a gig would fund the next day's beers.

Our lovely idea isn't going to materialise for any time soon ... but we decided to have some beers together anyway and make an album out of it. All of the sounds on this album have been generated by beer"

"Pour yourself  something delicious, sit back and enjoy this sonic session ale. 

Charlie Mopps, by the way, is the mythical inventor of beer .. at least, according to a British folk song from the 1800s called 'Beer, Beer, Beer', which is a pretty good title. You probably noticed that his name rhymes with Barley and Hops. This album is dedicated to him......"

(Howard Stelzer).

The download is available here : https://steepgloss.bandcamp.com/album/for-charlie-mopps the tape is long sold ... 

In one of those strange coincidences that happen once in a while, I was only thinking the other week that there hadn't been new studio recordings from Feine Trinkers Bei Pinkels Daheim for some time, not since the 2016 CD "A Bug's Life", then the next day I see that there's a new FTBPD CD out called "Swinging With The Pinkels" on the Wolkenschädel Studios label. This CD is limited to 200 copies and comes attached to a plate. Each plate is different. Copies are being distributed by Drone Records of Bremen : https://www.dronerecords.de 

In the same way as FTBPD, Astral Social Club releases are getting rarer, Neil Campbell (Mr Social Club) seems to releasing more under his own name and in collaborative mode. The two pieces here are from the new cassette "Space Draft Extended Play" and available exclusively on the Neil Campbell bandcamp page. https://theneilcampbell.bandcamp.com There's also a chance to grab his new collaboration cassette with Nick Edwards (Ekoplekz, Holy Moloch). I shall be playing some of this tape in an upcoming broadcast. 

The Rebel is Ben Wallers, formerly of the Country Teasers. "Yes" is from the 2014 12" EP "Really?" on the German Slowboy Records label. 

The broadcast is on the MuhMur Radio Mixcloud Archive page. Please take a listen here : 

https://www.mixcloud.com/muhsteve/muhmur-radio-broadcast-04-march-2021/

Playlist :

01: Blazen Y Sharp : "Balungan" (MSBR/Gender Less-Kibbutz) 1997.

02: Francisco Meirino : "A New Instability (Part One)" (Helen Scarsdale Agency) 2021.

03: Feral Copse : "The Crack In The Sky Was The Sign We Had Waited For" (MuzaMuza Music) 2020.

04: Robert Turman : "Al Qa'ida" (Chronditic Sound) 2020.

05: Hive Mind : "Come Alone" (Difficult Interactions) 2020.

06: Hive Mind : "Pawns Put Back Together" (Difficult Interactions) 2020.

07: Francisco Meirino : "A New Instability (Part Two)" (Helen Scarsdale Agency) 2021.

08: Howard Stelzer & Steffan De Turck : "Bish Bash Bosh" (Steep Gloss) 2020.

09: Feine Trinkers Bei Pinkels Daheim : "Menschenfrosch" (Wolkenschädel Studios) 2021.

10: Astral Social Club : "Simple Mind Module" (Not On Label) 2021.

11: Astral Social Club : "Skank Of The Ancients" (Not On Label) 2021.

12: The Rebel : "Yes" (Slowboy Records) 2014.

The next broadcast will be on Thursday March 18 at 20:00 GMT, available on the FM dial id you're in or around Totnes or listen to the live stream via the SoundArt Radio website : https://www.soundartradio.org.uk