This is the third in a brace of broadcasts where I play the sounds that arrived at MuhMur Radio HQ over the three month sabbatical taken earlier this year. A kind of 'I Know What You Were Listening To Last Summer'.
A record that I always used to see in the racks marked 'Experimental' or 'Industrial' in the early 1980's was "Silence & Wisdom" by Deux Filles on Paper Maché Records. The sleeve art and/or track titles never grabbed or intrigued me at the time - it was obviously two guys in drag - so I never investigated further.
I now know that it was a mistake to pass the record by. Recently I bought the double CD re-issue of Deux Fille's "Silence & Wisdom" album coupled with their second album "Double Happiness" on the wonderful LTM label, and I have fallen in love with both albums.
"The short, mysterious career of aptly named French female duo Deux Filles is bookmarked by tragedy. Gemini Forque and Claudine Coule met as teenagers on a holiday pilgrimage to Lourdes, during which Coule's mother succumbed to an incurable lung disease, and Forque's mother was killed and her father paralysed in a grisly auto accident. The two teens bonded over their shared grief and worked through their bereavement with music. However, after recording two acclaimed albums and playing throughout Europe and North America, Forque and Coule disappeared without trace during a trip to Algiers in 1984, where Forque had lived from birth to the age of five.
In the years since not a trace of the duo has surfaced, save for a letter purportedly written by Coulee which claimed that the pair had journeyed to India on a spiritual quest, only to meet with further hardships. Indeed the short and terribly unhappy lives of Forque and Coule are at the root of the small but fervent cult following the mysterious dup have gained since their disappearance, not least because the placid, largely instrumental music on both albums betrays no hint of the sorrow that framed their personal lives .
This would be a terribly sad story if a word of it were true ...
In reality Deux Filles were Simon Fisher Turner, former child star/teen idol and future soundtrack composer and songwriter/technician Colin Lloyd Tucker. Turner and Tucker left an early incarnation of The The in 1981 to pursue a different musical direction. Turner claims that the idea of Deux Filles came to him in a dream, and the novel fiction/roleplay would be strictly maintained throughout the girls' short career. As well as posing in costume for the album covers, the duo even performed live without the audience realising that the girls on-stage were actually a pair of blokes from South London having a giggle." The double CD re-issue is available from LTM.
https://www.ltmrecordings.com. I have just bought a 2021 LP by Deux Filles called "Shadow Farming" on the Glass Modern label, expect to hear more in the coming broadcasts.
I always keep an eye on the releases from London label Horn Of Plenty <0 label. In July this year they released the first vinyl album by Polish multi-disciplinarian Mateusz Woś. In the sound-art world Mateusz works under the moniker of Samutek. I first came across Samutek with his cassette album "Omamy" on the Evening Chants label in 2020. "Muzeum Historii Naturainej" is a dream like visit to a natural history museum, although the album was recorded at Mateusz's home in Suwalki in 2021. Small vignettes of spoken words, discordant keys, spooled tapes and minimal electronics. Two twenty three minute pieces making this an essential album.
The album comes with a 25 page A5 booklet and an A4 art card. Copies are available from Horn Of Plenty <0 : https://horn-of-plenty.bandcamp.com/album/muzeum-historii-naturalnej.
I have always thought that the best Muslimgauze album is the 1984 "Buddhist On Fire" on Recloose Organisation. Although I must admit that I have never heard the two tapes he put out in 1983 on the Product Kinematograph label. I bought the E.G. Oblique Graph "Triptych" 7" on release and followed the career of Bryn Jones from thereon. I bought everything Muslimgauze until 1987's "Coup D'Etat" album on the French Permis De Construire label. I found myself getting a little tired of the Muslimgauze 'sound'. Since then I have found myself buying the odd Muslimgauze release, just to keep my toes (or ears and senses) in the waters of Muslimgauze. In the 1990's they put out a great brace of 7" singles "Red Crescent Part 3" on The Way Out Sound label and "Nile Quatra" on Jara Discs. It was either 1991 or 1992 and I went to Leeds to see Bettie Serveert play at The Duchess Of York, only to find the gig cancelled and to rub salt into the wound I saw a poster on the wall for a live Muslimgauze performance, a rare UK live performance by Muslimgauze had happened days earlier.
"Zealot" is a single sided postcard sized Flexi-Disc on Staalplaat. I don't know when the track was recorded but it reminds me of mid 80's Muslimgauze. I like it a lot. It's available from Staalplaat, a second edition has just been released :
https://staalplaat.bandcamp.com. As well as re-issuing the Muslimgauze back catalogue they have also began to re-issue the works of Het Zweet.
I became aware of the work of Het Zweet in 1985. I was one half of a band called Ideas Beyond Filth (<<I.B.F.>>) and we were asked to be part of a compilation LP for Recloose Organisation that included Het Zweet, Bourbonese Qualk and Muslimgauze amongst others. Het Zweet had to be discovered. Het Zweet released two eponymous albums. Firstly "Het Zweet" in 1983 on their own Zweepslag imprint, this album was re-released on Sound Of Pig in 1986. The "Het Zweet" LP re-issued on Staalplaat is the 1987 album originally released by Dossier Records. This re-issue is a double album including unreleased studio material and live recordings made around the same time.
Het Zweet was the project of Breda (Holland) based artist Marien Van Oers. Between 1983 and 1987 he released four albums for labels and released a handful of self released cassettes. Marien passed away in 2013. Contact Staalplaat at :
https://staalplaat.bandcamp.com/merch.
Himuklat have just released the third journey in their 'Sex Worker' series. "Sex Worker III" is again on Total Black and available at :
https://totalblack.bandcamp.com/album/sex-worker-iii. My first exposure to the sound of Himukalt was their contribution to the 10xCassette compilation "On:Corrosion" released in 2019 on the Helen Scarsdale Agency a label operated by Jim Haynes who has just had an album released by Sentimental Productions. It's great to see Edward Sol and his Kyiv based label releasing again. "Variant, Number Ten" is from the album "Insomnia". Copies can be found via Sentimental Productions at :
https://sentimentalproductions.bandcamp.com/album/insomnia.
It has been a great pleasure over the summer months to compile the tracks for the Grey Park compilation album "Think Space, Act Local (Volume One)", the fifth release for Haemoccult Recordings. Many a happy afternoon listening to Grey Park, rediscovering sounds I hadn't played in years, great fun. The tracks on "Think Space, Act Local (Volume One)" are from the years 1999 - 2004. "Small Black Paris" is from the cassette album "All The Time In The World" originally released in 2000 on Kaos Kontrol. I am hoping to release volume two early in 2023. "Think Space, Act Local (Volume One)" was mastered by Phil Julian and available directly from me, limited to 30 copies. muhmur.radio@gmail.com for further details.
Last month saw the publication of "Hungry Beat - The Scottish Independent Pop Underground Movement (1977-1984)" by Douglas Macintyre. The title kind of gives it away, the book starts from birth of Fast Product. Fast Product was a label I followed from their first release in 1978. The Mekons "Never Been In A Riot" 7"EP (A song about The Clash apparently ... I never knew that). I must've heard the single on the John Peel Show (BBC Radio 1) because I remember the next day not going to school but walking the four miles from my house to Sanctuary Records in Lincoln (a lot of it along the River Witham to avoid detection) and buying it, then sitting in The Arboretum with a bag of chips just reading and re-reading the sleeve notes before walking back home. I also did this with the Gloria Mundi 7" "Glory Of The World". (Happy Days). The Fast Product strangely misses out on the 2.3 release and Paul Bower is not recalled to tell his story unlike the other 'Fast Acts' The Human League, Scars, Gang Of Four, Thursdays etc. There's very little being said about The Prats or The Fegs, hopefully that comes later. I am a notoriously slow reader and I've just finished the second chapter about the creation of Postcard Records and Orange Juice and Josef K.
Initial copies of the book come signed and with a 7" single featuring Josef K and The Fire Engines. Copies of the book / 7" available still from places like Rough Trade or Norman Records or Waterstones.
Thick Pigeon were an early 80's duo from New York. "Subway" was a single released by Les Disques Du Crépuscule in 1981. Potter Natalizia Zen is the trio comprising of Colin Potter, Alessio Natalizia and Guido Zen. The track here is from the split album with Cass (aka Niklas Rehme-Schlüter). Loving the album so much I decided to delve a little further and discovered the sounds of Not Waving, the solo project of Alessio Natalizia. Expect to hear some in the upcoming programmes.
I woke up one morning last summer finding myself with Cabaret Voltaire's "Blue Heat" as an earworm. It's from their 1984 LP "Micro Phonies", I then found out that I didn't have the album so hunted one down via the Internet, discovering that Mute Records had released a remastered edition in June this year. It has never been one of my favourite Cabs releases (probably why I didn't have a copy) but listening to it recently I found it quite fresh and enjoyable.
Controlled Bleeding were the trio Paul Lemos, Jack Salerno and Chris Moriarty. Formed in Boston (USA) in 1978. "Sloth Parts (A+B)" is from the 1986 compilation cassette "6x10=60 Volume 3" released by Korm Plastics. Over the past few months Staalplaat have been re-issuing remastered versions of the Korm Plastics compilation series '6x10=60' as well as old releases by Autopsia and the 'Katacombe' compilation series. Well worth hearing.
https://kormplasticsd.bandcamp.com/album/6-x10-60-vol-3. Also on Volume 3 are : Le Syndicat, Irritant, Chavez, Mauthausen Orchestra and Kapotte Muziek.
The Current 93 piece is from the 2006 split CDEP with San Franciscan doom metal band OM.
The Nurse With Wound track that ends this broadcast is from the split 7" release with Current 93 originally available with issue #5 of the Japanese Augenblick magazine. Released in 1988 copies are seen floating about on the internet.
Thanks for listening. Next broadcast will be on November 10. You can listen to the archive of this broadcast here :
Playlist :
01: Deux Filles : "Her Master's Voice" (LTM) 2015.
02: Samutek : "Muzeum Historii Naturainej I" (Horn Of Plenty <0) 2022.
03: Operation Segerpil : "The Elephant Song" (Förfall) 2022.
04: Muslimgauze : "Zealot" (Staalplaat) 2022.
05: Het Zweet : "Cry Or Laugh" (Staalplaat) 2022.
06: Het Zweet : "From The Lowland" (Staalplaat) 2022.
07: Himukalt : "My Body Doesn't Exist" (Total Black) 2022.
08: Jim Haynes : "Variant, Number Ten" (Sentimental Productions) 2022.
09: Grey Park : "Small Black Paris" (Haemoccult Recordings) 2022.
10: Deux Filles : "Children Of Clay" (LTM) 2015.
11: Josek K : "Radio Drill Time" (Creeping Bent) 2022.
12: Thick Pigeon : "Subway" (Le Disques Du Crépuscule/Factory Benelux) 2021.
13: Potter Natalizia Zen : "Schliessen 4 (Part One)" (Emotional Response) 2015.
14: Cabaret Voltaire : "Blue Heat" (Mute Records) 2022.
15: Controlled Bleeding : "Sloth Parts (A+B)" (Korm Plastics D) 2022.
16: Current 93 : "Inerrant Infallible (Black Ships At Nineveh Or Edom)" (Durtro/Jnana Records) 2006.
17: Nurse With Wound : "Scrambled Egg Rebellion In The Smegma Dept" (Augenblick) 1988.
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