End Times ...

 

It is that time of the year when discussions open about what was released and listened to throughout 2023. Lists start to appear on forum boards and requests come through the (electronic) mail for (my) favourites of the year. It was all going swimmingly. I document all that comes through the door into Hartop Towers aka MuhMur Radio HQ, but .... this year after coming back from a 10 day car journey to the French / Spanish border with vinyl stops in Niort and Toulouse I discovered that my computer had crashed, ceased to exist as were and all files had been lost. so, what arrived in the early part of this year I can't rightly remember. I guess that if I played it on the radio broadcasts then I really liked it! 

I didn't go to that many live shows. Nocturnal Emissions, Kemper Norton and Ubiquitous Meh! in Yeovil was fun, as were Ubiquitous Meh! a few weeks later in Exeter. Joke Lanz in Cardiff was probably the best gig I have been to in quite a few years. I enjoyed record shopping in Cardiff too and have probably found a favourite in the Cardiff Record Exchange on Whitchurch Road. 

So, the last release to come through the portal this year was the latest cassette by Berlin based project Schwund. Schwund is the project of Jo Schwund, formerly one half of Das Das. I first heard Schwund when Harbinger Sound teamed up with Phantom Records in 2019 to release the LP "Technik Und Gefühl" on vinyl and cassette. I have tried to get everything since. Over the past couple of years Schwund have been putting out tapes called "Dieezer Tube" (I have no idea what this means). The tracks were recorded as a homage to the underground sound of the 1980's. This month saw the third volume released on the Nachslag label. The sound of Schwund is (probably) best described as Synth-Punk or Post-Punk Synth. It is in the tradition of late 70's / 80's Neue Deutsche Welle. "Dieezer Tube 3" has a very 'Kleinen Und Die Bösen' D.A.F. vibe to it all. It certainly makes me want to get up and dance. There's even a Residents feel about a couple of the pieces. Schwund just keep on getting better. It's not a long tape, probably a C40. I have yet to sit down and time the tracks...too busy dancin'. Eleven tracks in all with each side ending with untitled tracks that sound nothing like what went on before them. Noises, lo-fi noises of half-speed crawling and scrapings, synthesisers assemble themselves at dawn, the sound of an unearthly choir in a restaurant for puppeteers. (Ibiza Bar and Don't Throw Ashtrays At Me). 

All Schwund sounds can be obtained at https://derschwund.bandcamp.com/music. Recommended. 

Best 7" of 2024 has to be Modelbau's "Metal & Motif" on Haemoccult Recordings. Available direct from the label here " https://haemoccultrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/metal-motif.