Over the past 18 years the Finnish label Hyster Tapes has been gathering quite a cannon. In 2003 they put out the cassette "Doin' It Dresden Style" by Dieter Müh (the title being a mashed up homage to two of my favourite bands, Slaughter & The Dogs and Swell Maps). The catalogue number is HYSTER 002, I don't think there was a 001. All Hyster Tapes releases come on 'recycled' tapes, rather like the RRRecords "Recycled Music" series of old and it's a tradition carried on now by Vacancy Recs of Canada. I mention this because Hyster Tapes have just put out a great cassette by Finnish artist / Berlin Resident Lost Snivel. In 2015 Hyster Tapes put out the split Lost Snivel / Tietokoneduo J&J release but the sounds didn't really grab these ears and I thought nothing more of these artists, but now "Further Down The Spora" by Lost Snivel is never far from the tape player.
"Once I made a track that had an industrial sounding part, like Nine Inch Nails.... And I came up with a pun on the remix album of 'The Downward Spiral', 'Further Down The Spiral'. I called mine 'Further Down The Spora', since Spora is Helsinki slang for a tram". So the cover was for me an attempt to deliver the essentials of a drunken person in a tram, whose objective was perhaps to make it to the next exit and get off to have another beer from their bag. The associations are rather Finnish ... including the shopping bag".
Before Lost Snivel there was RST, a collaboration with Grey Park member Heikke. They put out a cassette on Totes Format called "Haikus" before resorting to the project name RNP No.2, but neither of them can remember why. Both RST and RNP No.2 appear on Hyster Tapes compilations.
"I don't really do that much music, but once in a while I get this impulse ... like bzzz, OK .. I'm going to make a track. And I take whatever I have around to make it. It's mostly embarrassing, but sometimes I like it enough to send to people or to play live ........ Last year I moved to a flat above an empty flat. Last spring I heard some shouting from our yard and looked out the window to see someone pushing out a mattress. Poof. Once the mattress was there out came the furniture .. softly breaking apart on the mattress. I was just taking my trash out and I noticed a keyboard against the wall. 'You guy's throwing all this out?' 'Yeah'. 'Mind if I take something?' 'Go ahead' .... hence "Dead Man's Synth".
Releases by the likes of Re:Clip, Varropas, A Handful Of Dust, D.D. Dobson, Sick Days, Grey Park and of course Lost Snivel can be found here : http://www.pcuf.fi/~plaa/hyster.html Tapes are (as a rule) only 2€ plus postage and Hyster Tapes have a great distribution list too.
The Skull Defekts track is another from the excellent Fang Bomb CD compilation "Gothenburg 08". In the last broadcast I played the short version of Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words song "Faceless Erases Every Trace Of Humanity", here I play the nineteen minute version.
The long version appears on the eponymously titled cassette released by When Skies are Grey. It's a limited edition of 49 copies that were only available at the Norberg festival on July 25th 2008. When Skies Are Grey have a great and informative website : http://www.whenskiesaregrey.se Copies of "Gothenburg 08" can be found at Fang Bomb. https://www.fangbomb.com
An extensive "On This Day" section spreading over five years of great releases.
I have done a few interviews in the past where I have been asked 'what my favourite album is'. Nine times out of ten I answer "Ha! Ha! Ha!" by Ultravox! It was my big sister Julie that turned me on to Ultravox! She went to see them live in 1976 at Lincoln Tech College (could have been Bishop Grosseteste College, but I'm sure it was the Tech Coll). She bought the first album, she had a huge AO poster for the LP (jealous). By the time "Ha! Ha! Ha!" came out (October 14 1977) Ultravox! were my band. I didn't get to see them live until the following year on the "Systems Of Romance" tour. I used to have an AO poster for that album! Back in those days I was one of those kids who would go in the dressing room afterwards for a chat and try and grab something off the rider*, so I got to chat with John Foxx and Chris Cross. It was at Lincoln AJ's where Chris taught me how to open a bottle of Holsten Pils without the aid of a bottle opener. I was 15.
* This is how I have arm wrestled with Esso Manic (The Lurkers) and seen Jenny Darren in her underwear.
"Ha! Ha! Ha!" has been re-issued a few times and available on vinyl and CD quite easily. Try Discogs. I like The Damned "Music For Pleasure" album, it's their difficult second album. The one where they're a five-piece with the addition of Lu Edmunds on guitar. The album that is produced by the Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason. "Problem Child" was the first single from the album released in 1977. Lu Edmunds didn't last long in The Damned ... I think they split soon after the LP was released with Brian James forming Tanz Der Youth and Dave Vanian going to sing with the Doctors Of Madness. (There's no research here .. this is from memory so may be wrongish)! Rat Scabies formed The White Cats and a few months later when they did reform they called themselves The Doomed. Anyhow ... it's a great single. Lu Edmunds went on to form The Edge before joining bands as diverse as Jane Are & The Belvederes, 3 Mustaphas 3, Shriekback, The Mekons and Public Image Limited. Also released on this day back in 1981 was "Alternative Hits", a compilation of singles and album tracks by Chelsea. "Urban Kids" was released as a 7" single in August 1978 on Step Forward Records. ATV members Mark Perry and Alex Fergusson wrote the lyrics. It comes as no surprise that Chelsea are still recording and gigging. I saw them in December 1978 at Lincoln Technical College (it was a great venue) supporting The Adverts. To take a trip down memory lane go to http://www.chelseapunkband.com/index.htm
"Life During Wartime" is one of the singles pulled from Talking Heads' "Fear Of Music" album. Also on this day in 1981 the Slits released their second album "Return Of the Giant Slits". A slight departure from the "Cut" LP with Steve Beresford and The Pop Group's Bruce Smith contributing, it took me quite a time to get in to this album ... "Difficult Fun" is from this LP.
Max Julian Eastman is the main operator of US label Tribe Tapes, Active since 2019 I became aware of their existence earlier this year when they put out the cassette "Prey" by Modelbau and since then have bought releases by Howard Stelzer, Tantric Death, En Nihil and the Max Julian Eastman tape "Pygmalion Styled & Out Of Vogue". Tribe Tapes are based in North Carolina and have releases by Gen Ken Montgomery, Dave Phillips, Dog As Master, K2 and Territorial Gobbing amongst others. Check them out : https://tribetapes.bandcamp.com "Out Of Vogue" is available here.
A busy last few months for Mark Vernon with the release of two great albums, "Magneto Mori : Vienna" a CD on Canti Magnetici and "Sonograph Sound Effects Series Volume 2 : Public And Domestic Plumbing And Sanitation". A vinyl LP on the Calling Cards Publishing imprint. It's an album of recordings of plughole, washing machine draining pipes and toilet cisterns all in various locations. A fascinating piece of art. It should be filed alongside the MuhMur Radio favourite "Cattle Grids Of Dartmoor" by John Levack Drever. The two Vernon tracks here are from the 'sound effects' LP. Calling Cards Publishing are contactable here : https://callingcardspublishing.bandcamp.com
"Hairy FM" by Mark Dicker is from last years cassette album "Carrier Waves". Copies are still available from the label here : https://hominidsounds.bandcamp.com/merch. The pre-Trepaneringsritaulen project of Thomas Ekelund, Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words end the broadcast with a piece from his album "Fall, Fall, Falling". It was recorded in 2005 and released on the Kalligrammofon label in 2007. I think the CD is sold out but reasonably priced copies are available via Discogs. (It's where I picked up mine from).
Thanks for listening : https://www.mixcloud.com/muhsteve/muhmur-radio-broadcast-14-october-2021/
Playlist :
01: Lost Snivel : "Intro" (Hyster Tapes) 2021.
02: Lost Snivel : "Further Down The Spora" (Hyster Tapes) 2021.
03: Lost Snivel : "Für Esa". (Hyster Tapes) 2021.
04: Lost Snivel : "Many" (Hyster Tapes) 2021.
05: Lost Snivel : "Squirrel Swirl" (Hyster Tapes) 2021.
06: Lost Snivel : "Dead Man's Synth" (Hyster Tapes) 2021.
07: The Skull Defekts : "Invocation Of Brother Rune Linblad" (Fang Bomb) 2008.
08: Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words : "Facelessness Erases Every Trace Of Humanity" (When Skies Are Grey) 2008.
09: Ultravox! : "The Man Who Dies Every Day" (Island Records) 1977.
10: Ultravox! : "Artificial Life" (Island Records) 1977.
11: Ultravox! : "RockWrok" (Island Records) 1977.
12: The Damned : "Problem Child" (Stiff Records) 1977.
13: Chelsea : "Urban Kids" (Step Forward Records) 1981.
14: Talking Heads : "Life During Wartime" (Sire Records) 1979.
15: Slits : "Difficult Fun" (CBS Records) 1981.
16: The Mekons : "Frustration" (Pure Freunde) 1981.
17: The Mekons : "Never Been In A Riot (Live)" (Pure Freunde) 1981.
18: Max Julian Eastman : "Out Of Vogue" (Tribe Tapes) 2021.
19: Mark Vernon : "Kitchen Sink Plughole During Washing Machine Cycle" (Calling Cards Publishing) 2021.
20: Mark Vernon : "Wet Room Drain" (Calling Cards Publishing) 2021.
21: Mark Dicker : "Hairy FM" (Hominid Sounds) 2020.
22: Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words : "I Could've Sworn I Heard Them Sing" (Kalligrammofon) 2007.
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