Once in a while there will be a MuhMur Radio Broadcast that happens on or is one day either side of my birthday. These programmes are usually eclectic and as random as a bag of Dolly Mixtures. The programme was recorded sometime in mid November, but knowing it would be broadcast a day after my 59th I kept the eclecticism prevalent.
The programme starts with a track from Flutwacht. I have recently got my hands (and ears) on a copy of "Puls" released in 2017. Flutwacht is the solo project of German noisician Daniel Simon. I first came across Flutwacht with the album "Nebel" released in 2011 by Licht Und Stahl and have been slowly collecting his releases since. Daniel also works under the name of Fieberflug and has collaborated with French industrialists Muckrackers. "Plus" is on Daniel's own 'Mask Of The Slave' label, a co-release with 'The Tourette Tapes'. Available here : https://flutwacht.bandcamp.com/album/puls
The Aube track is from the 4x&" Box Set "Quadrotation", the 'glow & fluorescent lamp' single. I thought the Cabaret Voltaire track "Obsession" fitted well afterwards. The Severed Heads track is from the "City Slab Horror" album originally released in 1985. The copy I have is on the Medical Records label, a label in Seattle (USA) that specialises in house music and disco re-releases. I saw Severed Heads live in 1985 at The Leadmill in Sheffield. Just Tom Ellard. He was supported by Hula and a band I have never heard of since called Fabricata Illuminata. Tom did a 40 minute improvisation to a group of 20 year olds stood around in long raincoats and khaki trousers. A couple of years ago a friend went to see Severed Heads play live in London and said the venue was packed with teenage 'rave' types all dancing along to the Severed Heads sound .. the move to Medical Records seems to have been a good one.
When recording this programme I knew I would be in Lincoln a few days later. Whenever I head back to Lincoln (the place of my birth) I usually walk past old venues and bore the wife and kids with stories from my youth. The New Penny, The Cornhill Vaults, AJ's, Trilbys, The Drill Hall, The Art College, The Regency Ballroom ... the list goes on and on. Anyway, The impending trip back to Lincoln made me dig
out some old records by Lincoln bands. I know Ultravox! are not from Lincoln but (I think) the best gig I ever saw in Lincoln was Ultravox! in 1978 at AJ's on their "System Of Romance" tour. "Someone Else's Clothes" is from this album.
Three of my favourite Lincoln 'punk' bands around 1978 - 1980 were The Cigarettes, Pseudo Existors and Whizz Kids. Whizz Kids were the perennial support band at AJ's. If a band turned up without a support then nine times out of ten the Whizz Kids would be playing on a couple of trestle tables set up in front of the stage. (AJ's had a really small stage). I saw them a couple of times when The Lurkers came to town, and Cyanide and I am sure they supported Ultravox! too. 1979 was a great year for singles by Lincoln bands with The Cigarettes releasing the great "They're Back Again, Here They Come" EP on Company Records. "All We Want Is Your Money" is from this EP. There's a great website with an interview with The Cigarettes with some great photos here : https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2012/09/the-cigarettes-interview-with-stephen.html. 1980 and The Cigarettes moved to Dead Good Records and released the excellent 7" "Can't Sleep At Night" .. and then that was it. Two singles and a John Peel Session. In 2019 Optic Nerves Records released a compilation of The Cigarettes singles, live tracks, Peel Session and Demos called "You Were So Young". Copies are only £6! Get one here : https://opticnerverecordings.com/collections/the-cigarettes. Pseudo Existors released their only 7"EP on Dead Good Records in 1979. "Coming Up For Air" is from the "Stamp Out Normality" EP. A decent copy of this EP can cost up to £100 but luckily those good folk at Harbinger Sound re-issued the EP as part of an album that includes live and Demo tracks. Hunt one down via Discogs.
"Cheek To Cheek" always finished the Whizz Kids live set, it was their version of Sid doing "My Way". The track is from their debut single "PAYE As You Earn". In 1980 Dead Good Records released the obligatory compilation album highlighting the 'sound of Lincolnshire' called "East". It features The Cigarettes, Whizz Kids, Pseudo Existors from Lincoln. Fatal Charm from Nottingham, B Movie from Mansfield (listed as B Movies) and Half Life from Louth. There's also tracks by Sincere Americans and Vick Sinex & The Nasal Sprays. I still have no idea who these bands are / were. A shame Sinking Ships and X-S Energy weren't on there instead. The LP is compiled by Chris Hall who used to run Playground Studios in Wragby so perhaps it was contractual. The LP also has one of the worst covers ever!
The B Movie track "Refugee" is from "East". Using my DJ license once again and playing the 'same title different song' card I follow B Movie "Refugee" with Portion Control's "Refugee". This track is from the -LP "Step Forward".
Broken Lights is the solo project of Swedish experimentalist Martin Herterich. "In Solemn Ritual" is from the 2013 cassette compilation "Venice Of the North". I think the cassette is out of print and Broken Lights don't seem to be active anymore. Broken Lights do have an active SoundCloud page. take a listen here : https://soundcloud.com/broken-lights.
I always thought that the Ripchords were from Lincoln. I only discovered a few years back that they were from Somerset. The Ripchords 7" EP inventively titled "The Ripchords 4 Track EP" was always for sale in Sanctuary Records, always in the 7" 'shoebox' that was on the counter. The Ripchords included a guy called Morris Gould and around 1979 - 1980 Morris was treading the piss soaked beer covered boards of many Lincoln venues as The Rhythm Method. The Rhythm Method were one of the finest Lincoln bands at the time. Morris had a WASP synthesiser, microphone and some effects pedals in a suitcase he would then make a great throbbing noise for twenty minutes, pack up and disappear. For a short while Morris had a 'roadie', a good friend called Bernie who would carry the suitcase from gig to gig. Around 1981 Morris moved to Maida Vale in London to work as a sound engineer for This Heat / Cold Storage. I went to his flat a couple of times for parties and such. At the turn of the 1990's Morris became The Irresistible Force and DJ Mixmaster Morris making a name for himself on the rave and dance scene. "Ringing In The Streets" is from this EP recorded in Pater Gabriel's studio in Bath. Another group I thought were from Lincoln but never were are The Bleach Boys. Back to Sanctuary Records shop in Lincoln and just inside the door was a poster advertising the single "Chloroform" by The Bleach Boys. Itv was on the wall for months! It was a cheap DIY photocopy type poster but it was on Tramp Records and Tramp was the name of a guy who worked behind the counter at Sanctuary. He also had a job as studio engineer at nearby Playground Studios in Wragby. I put 2 and 2 together and reached 5.
Recently Rave Up Records of Rome, Italy have re-issued the 7" "Chloroform" single along with unreleased studio and live recordings and a 1982 version of their 1988 single "Stocking-Clad Nazi Death Squad Bitches". Rave Up also released a great album by Dangerous Girls called "Present : Recordings 1978 - 1982". Dangerous Girls were a prog-punk band formed in Birmingham in 1978. Both albums are available from Rave Up here : https://www.raveuprecords.com. Rave Up Records have also released a retrospective of work by English Subtitles "Ear Piercing (Oranges And Lemons Demos)". It came out last year, I am still to get a copy ... but "Tannoy" is such a good song! It comes as no surprise that both The Bleach Boys and Dangerous Girls are still recording and playing live, unlike Shoes For Industry the Bristol based band from the late 1970's. Shoes For Industry were formed by members of the theatrical troupe 'Crystal Theatre'. The tracks here are from their one and only LP "Talk Like A Whelk".
'On This Day' features The Bonus and their 7" "The Bulrushes" although I play the B Side "Automatic Doors" as I think the A Side is a bit below par for The Bongos.
The single is out of print but easily found on Discogs etc. It comes as no surprise that The Bongos have reformed. https://www.legacyrecordings.com/artists/the-bongos/.
Rudolf's Rache are a punk band from Germany formed in the early 1980's. Recently I managed to track down an original copy of the compilation cassette "International Sound Communication #10", released in 1986 by A Man's Hate Production. The tape features IBF (that's why I wanted it), LD 50, Crawling With Tarts, Katharsis, Stress and Do Easy amongst others including Rudolf's Rache. What jumped out at me was the contact for the band was Lutz Pruditsch. Lutz I know of through his work as Tarkatak and his releases on Drone Records, Bake Records and his own Trümmer Kassetten label. I played live with Tarkatak in 2013 at Der Elefant in Bremen. All these years and I did not know we had a connection. Rudolf's Rache can still be contacted here : http://pruditsch.com/original_majorlabel/rudolfsrache-main.html, or via bandcamp : https://rudolfsrache.bandcamp.com
Tantric Death is Max Eastman and Kelly Koistinen from North Carolina, USA. I am slowly discovering the work of Max Eastman through his solo releases on Tribe Tapes and the Bristol (UK) based label Liquid Library. I managed to get a copy of the Tantric Death split tape with En Nihil (again on Tribe Tapes) and liked it so much I went after other releases discovering "Pearls Before Swine" a cassette on the UK Industrial Coast label. The programme ends with side one of this cassette. Copies can be found at Industrial Coast : https://industrialcoast.bigcartel.com, or if you're in the USA from Max direct at Tribe Tapes. : https://tribetapes.bandcamp.com
The broadcast is here : https://www.mixcloud.com/muhsteve/muhmur-radio-broadcast-9-december-2021/
Apologies in the late posting of this blog ... sometimes life, work and parties take over ....
Playlist :
01: Flutwacht : "Brachland" (Mask Of The Slave/The Tourette Tapes) 2017.
02: Genocide Organ : "Who Wants To Be King" (Tesco Organisation) 1999.
03: Genocide Organ : "Turn You Into Gas" (Tesco Organisation) 1999.
04: Genocide Organ : "Inner Crisis Conflict" (Tesco Organisation) 1999.
05: Genocide Organ : "Die Wahrheit" (Tesco Organisation) 1999.
06: Flutwacht : "Brach 3" (Mask Of The Slave/The Tourette Tapes) 2017.
07: Aube : "Para-Lux" (Self Abuse Records) 1996.
08: Cabaret Voltaire : "Obsession" (Rough Trade Records) 1980.
09: Severed Heads : "Cycle Rated R" (Medical Records LLC) 2014.
10: Ultravox! : "Someone Else's Clothes" (Island Records) 1978.
11: The Cigarettes : "Can't Sleep At Night" (Dead Good Records) 1980.
12: Pseudo Existors : "Coming Up For Air" (Dead Good Records) 1979.
13: Whizz Kids : "Cheek To Cheek" (Dead Good Records) 1979.
14: B Movie : "Refugee" (Dead Good Records) 1980.
15: Portion Control : "Refugee" (Illuminated Records) 1984.
16: Broken Lights : "In Solemn Ritual" (Unik Eld) 2013.
17: Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words : "1992 (Tape Decay)" (Kalligrammofon) 2007.
18: The Ripchords : "Ringing In The Streets" (Cells Records) 1979.
19: Shoes For Industry : "War Of The Potatoes" (Fried Egg Records) 1980.
20: Shoes For Industry : "Fear Of Wages" (Fried Egg Records) 1980.
21: Shoes For Industry : "Invasion Of The French Boyfriends" (Fried Egg records) 1980.
22: The Bongos : "Automatic Doors" (Fetish Records) 1981.
23: English Subtitles : "Tannoy" (Glass Records/Ten Seconds Too Late) 1981.
24: The Cigarettes : "All We Want Is Your Money" (Company Records) 1979.
25: Dangerous Girls : "Look At Me" (Rave Up Records) 2021.
26: Dangerous Girls : "Heavy Fish On Mandrax" (Rave Up Records) 2021.
27: Rudolf's Rache : "Sommerspressensesicht" (A Man's Hate Production) 1986.
28: The Bleach Boys : "Chloroform" (Tramp) 1978.
29: The Bleach Boys : "Stocking-Clad (Version '82)" (Rave Up Records) 2016.
30: Tubeway Army : "Bombers" (Beggars Banquet Records) 1978.
31: Tantric Death : "Pearls Before Swine (Part One)" (Industrial Coast) 2021.
Thanks for listening, again comments are always welcome (if not always published!), or contact me via Email at muhmur.radio(at)gmail.com
This was the final broadcast for 2021, although there will be the annual four hour festive feast broadcast sometime in the next four weeks, I'll announce the date when confirmed.
Cheers.
