So, it comes to that time of year ... it was the best of times, it was the worst of times ... the MuhMur Radio Four Hour Festive Feast Of Fun, the end of year programme. A big big huge thank you to all the folk who have listened to MuhMur Radio throughout 2023, providing comments, congratulations and tips and to all the folk who have mailed me sounds to play on the radio .... it is always and much appreciated.
SoundArt Radio is on the move. We change studio locations in the new year so I am uncertain as to when the next MuhMur Radio Broadcast will be, but I shall announce the date on the blog in the new year. It's a larger studio space with possibilities of live sound / performance. Very exciting. It's still situated in the grounds of Dartington Estate, you'll still be able to hear the sound of the steam trains and the doggers* in the distance ...
(* folk who walk their dogs in the fields close by).
The broadcast starts with a live set by Colin Potter recorded at the Café Oto in Dalston (London) 2016. In 1981 ICR (Integrated Circuit Recordings) put out the album "We Couldn't Agree On A Title". A compilation featuring Colin along with Missing Persons, The 012, The Instant Automatons, The Digital Dinosaurs, Mic Woods ... and others. 42 years later and ICR (Integrated Circuit Recordings) have reached their 100th release, so the Colin Potter album is called 'We Couldn't Agree On A Total'. It features recordings from two live appearances at the Café Oto and a studio piece from 2023. Available from : https://icrdistribution.com. Der Bekannte Post Industrialle Trompeter follows with 'Stille Nacht' to get the festive mood going ... D.B.P.I.T. was Flavio Rivabella who also played trumpet from Mushroom's Patience. The piece here is from a split 7" with Feine Trinkers Bei Pinkels Daheim.
Great to see Modelbau join the rota of RRRecords "Recycled" series. I am guessing that there are nearly 400 releases in this series. The first one I got hold of was by Smell & Quim back in the 1990's. Frans kindly mailed me the file so I got Chris at SoundArt Radio to put it on a CDR for me. I find the Recycled Tapes hard to come by. If anyone in the UK has any of the releases they don't want anymore ... please get in touch. 2024 should see a book on Ron Lessard and his RRRecords activity. It will be published by Korm.
'Black Ribbon' by Anji Cheung is from the 2021 cassette album "Fearless Body" released on her own Oakseer label. https://anjicheung.bandcamp.com. The saxophone on this track is from Colin Webster, a name I know by his work with Dirk Serries (aka Vidna Obmana).
"My Cherry In Sherry' was the debut single by Manchester band Ludus.
Matt Atkins is a London based sound artist. 'Edgeland' is from his latest cassette album 'A Quiet Ritual' on the Scottish based Molt Fluid label. https://moltfluid.bandcamp.com. I have been listening to Matt since I first heard his contribution to the Blank Tape Compilation(s) on the wonderful Steep Gloss label. Another sound artist I follow is Lausanne based Francisco Meirino. Over the four hours I play three pieces by Francisco. The first being from the 2012 album (and wonderfully titled) "Undetected (Untreated Recordings From On-Site Testimonies Archives)". It does exactly what it says on the tin .. or in the title.
ICR (Integrated Circuit Recordings) release number 101 is the album "Little Dipper Minus Two Plus (Echo Poeme Sequences)" by Nurse With Wound.
There are three versions of this album. Vinyl (Side A played here), CD and file. I imagine there are differences.
I remember picking up the Kenotaph cassette "Japanese Go To War" when Dieter Müh played at the OJC Kompas in Saint-Niklaas, Belgium. 1998. Kenotaph were Stefan Roigk and Eric Metz from Germany. After the cassette release Stefan went on to be Skalp and release a great 10" EP on Tesco Organisation. (1996) and a split tape with Keimbefall - another one of Stefan's projects. Confused yet? The next time I came across Stefan's work was in 2019 and the album "Suffering For The Promised" on Fragment Factory. Last month saw the release of "De-Composed" a book of Stefan's artwork, installations and performance on the Berlin based Errant Bodies Press label. The book also comes with a soundtrack on two compact discs. http://www.stefan-roigk.com for further information.
Hypnopazäzu is the collaborative work of David Tibet and Youth. I apologise for the playing at the wrong speed.
In November this year I went to see Joke Lanz perform live in Cardiff, and it was one of the best live performances I have seen in years. 'Zungsang, Sankt Jokem II' is from the cassette 'Zungsang'. Zungsang is Javanese for Back. Limited to only 80 copies this cassette was released by Vice De Forme in 2021.
"Necropolis, Amphibians & Reptiles (The Music Of Adolf Wölfli)" is a 1986 compilation album released on Musique Brut, a side label of Graeme Revell's Side Effects Records. The Revell track here is from that album, although it is from the CD re-issue in 1994 which was couples with Graeme's solo LP "The Insect Musicians" also released in 1986.
Dayin is the project of Bulgarian musician Angel Simitchiev. Angel also records under the names of Vague Voices, Leaver, Zen Died Orchestra and (until recently) MyTrip. Angel has ceased the MyTrip project to begin again as Born Erased. I always see Dayin as Angel's 'guitar' project ... a little like Frans de Waard and his Shifts project. 'Lasting Distress' is from Dayin's fourth album "Warm Like Crystal Throats" on Mahorka. https://mahorka.bandcamp.com/album/warm-like-crystal-throats. Angel also operates the excellent Amek label. Please contact at : https://amekcollective.bandcamp.com.
Ordeal is the project of Dan Johansson (Sewer Election, White, Organ Of Corti and Neutral to name but a few). 'Vist' is one side from the new LP 'Vätterns Pärla'. Vättern is a lake in Sweden where pearls can be found. Out on Aguirre Records. https://www.aguirrerecords.com.
I never really 'got' Renaldo & The Loaf when I first heard them ... must've been John Peel ... they sounded too much like The Residents. I am not a great fan of The Residents. I first saw them on the Old Grey Whistle Test (it was a TV show in the UK .. for younger readers), I think Bob Harris introduced some short films, figures dressed in KKK outfits made out of newspapers, fascinating stuff, so I bought an album and thought it wasn't that good. Years later I saw The Residents live at the Hacienda in Manchester (13th Anniversary Show with Snakefinger). Excellent live show but I didn't fancy buying all the back catalogue! But, back to Renaldo & The Loaf. Earlier this year I picked up a copy of their first LP "Play Struvé & Sneff" and really enjoyed it, then I read about them in the Some Bizarre book "Conform To Deform" by Wesley Doyle and they sounded like decent folk so whilst in Cardiff the other month I picked up their 'Songs For Swinging Larvae' album. It does sound a bit Residentsy but I am now partial to a bit of that sound these days ... still not going to buy The Residents back catalogue though ..
Three classic 7" singles starting with ...And The Native Hipsters and 'Larry's Coming Back' from the EP "Going Steady With Larry And Emma" released on their own Plattekop Volume label. Lester Square of The Monochrome Set plays guitar on this track. ... And The Native Hipsters were William Wilding and Nanette Blatt. I sat next to Nanette on a train between London and Newton Abbot (Devon ... it's my local station). I had been in London for a few days buying records and seeing Feine Trinkers Bei Pinkels Daheim play live in Stoke Newington so I was going through my bag of treasures when she commented on some of the records and told me she used to be in a band, but ... I'd of never heard of them ... so ... She told me the name of the band and I started singing 'Oh look, there goes Concorde again' to her. Oh how we laughed. Her stop was St Ives in Cornwall and we have never met on a train again.
A book I would love to read would be a book about The Homosexuals. Is there one? I know the sleeve notes that accompany the triple CD "Astral Glamour" (on Hyped To Death) are pretty extensive, but a book on the exploits and activities of Jim Welton would be a great read. The Four Plugs were John Irvine. John went on to work with Reeves & Mortimer as writer and 'tape jockey' for their live shows.
After a few years of releasing up to three albums, singles , EPs etc a year the years of 2021/22 were quite quiet for Astral Social Club. These years saw Neil Campbell (the man behind ASC) releasing a lot of collaborative work under his own name, working with Howard Stelzer, Paul Harrison, Nick Edwards and Shit Creek to name a few. I thought probably Astral Social Club had been put to bed. But, 2023 has been an active year for ASC with four albums released since February. 'Null Three Four One' is from the CDR "Null Three Four". go to https://theneilcampbell.bandcamp.com/merch, contact Neil and grab a copy.
The second piece from Francisci Merino in this four hour feast is side two of the split cassette with Altar Of Flies. Released on the excellent Second Sleep label, it's called 'Exhausted We Fall'. Contact Second Sleep at : http://www.secondsleep.org/home.html. The name Hamilton Mist sounds like a Vegas crooner from the 1970's. I like the name. Hamilton Mist are an anonymous project whose first album 'The Age Of Shadows' has been released by the Finnish label Institute Of Paraphilia Studies. Five pieces of multi-layered pastoral drones and ethereal soundscapes. The Institute is operated by Mikko Aspa of Freak Animal Records. http://freak-animal.net for further details.
Jim Haynes continues his Variant project with the album 'Inauspicious' on his own Helen Scarsdale Agency label. The album contains two variants; numbers fourteen and fifteen. I managed to get a copy from Industrial Coast in the UK, I haven't seen anyone else distributing it here. Drop a line to : https://industrialcoast.bigcartel.com or https://www.helenscarsdale.com in the USA for a copy. The aforementioned Mikko Aspa also operates as Grunt. Grunt began in 1993, so this is their 30th year. My first exposure to the sound of Grunt was with the 1998 split CD with Bad Kharma and Lasse Marhaug, 'Scandinavian Noise Manifesto', this lead me to another Mikko project Alchemy Of The 20th Century and their excellent "Birth Of A Lifeform" cassette on Kaos Kontrol. 1999, the same year we Dieter Müh appeared on the compilation "Halogen Ball" (Negative Foundation) which also included Alchemy Of The 20th Century, Grey Park and MNEM. A year later Dieter Müh played live with Grunt in Mäntsäla, Finland. 'Vieraat Huulet' (Foreign Lips) is from Grunt's latest CD "Vieraat Aivot". (Alien Brain). The CD is built from two live private performances made this summer.
Grunt appear on the 2006 eight album compilation "Viva Negative! - A Tribute To The New Blockaders" (Vinyl On Demand), The New Blockaders have a new album out on Nihilist called "Denn Das Schöne Its Nichts Als Des Schrecklichen Anfang". It's a collaboration with S.R. Meixner of Contrastate, Ice Yacht (Two Pieces) and Das Synthetische Mischgewebe. https://nihilistrecordings.bandcamp.com/merch for more details.
The Het Zweet track is from a CD that comes with the book "Nul Nul - Industrial Culture Fanzine (1985 - 86)". Published by Frans de Waard's Korm Plastics label. Nul Nul ('Zero - Zero) was a precursor to his Vital Weekly fanzine running for 4 issues only and concentrating on the Dutch / Belgian industrial cassette 'scene' of the time. The book has all four issues reprinted in English as well as the Dutch language originals. Old names, characters and projects pop up throughout. I have a fascination for this time and the accompanying CD is a joy to listen to with names such as Kapotte Muziek, Dal, Clinique Lutetia, Viana Obmana, THU20 and Narzisse amongst lots of others. There's a track by Sluagh Ghairm an early version of Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia and no surprise ... it's excellent. The book and accompanying CD are essential. https://www.kormplastics.nl.
After the Francisco Meirino & Altar Of Flies collaboration comes another great collaboration. Grey Park & Sick Days 'Work Gothic'. Recorded throughout 2023 'Work Gothic' is a journey by sea between Canada and the Finnish mainland. The journey is told through six pieces / sections. Presented here is section 2 - 'The Boat'. Released in an edition of 40 by Vacancy Records (Sick Days label) and available from https://vacancyrecs.bigcartel.com.
For regular listeners of MuhMur Radio you'll know that as sure as sugar is sweet there'll be a track by Cabaret Voltaire.
The third piece from Francisco Meirino in the Festive Feast is 'Focus On Nothing' from the split album with fellow Swiss artist Kiko C. Essieiva. "Focus On Nothing On Focus" was recorded in 2012/13 from hours of recordings as a duo, then each one went in to the studio to assemble their own piece. Released by Aussenraum Records and available from : http://www.aussenraumrecords.com.
A new item, exclusive to this years Festive Feast is "The Request Spot". The final three songs have been chosen by close friends and associates. They shall not be named, but thanks to them all the same. Eaten Alive By Insects existed for a couple years at the end of the 1970's - early 1980's. From Bradford, they were one of the highlights of Futurama 2, a festival that took place in Leeds Queens Hall in 1980. They never released anything .... The Panik were Manchester's finest on '77 and featured Eric Ramsden (who became Eric Random) on guitar and drummer Steve Brotherdale who left to join Warsaw. Bassist Paul Hilton and vocalist Ian Nance went on to form V2.
The Country Teasers end the broadcast ......
For ease of listening the broadcast has been split in to two parts. Part one and then part two. The first part ends with Astral Social Club and the second part begins with Francisco Meirino & Altar Of Flies.
(MixCloud Archive will be posted shortly after broadcast)
Part One :
Part Two:
Playlist :
01: Colin Potter : "Live Café OTO 09/2016" (ICR) 2023.
02: D.B.P.I.T. : "Stille Nacht" (White Rabbit Records) 2005.
03: Modelbau : "Recycled #4" (RRRecords) 2023.
04: Anji Cheung : "Black Ribbon" (Oakseer) 2021.
05: Ludus : "My Cherry Is In Sherry" (New Hormones) 1980.
06: Matt Atkins : "Edgeland" (Molt Fluid) 2023.
07: Francisco Meirino : "Untitled 5" (OtO) 2012.
08: Nurse With Wound : "Little Dipper (A)" (ICR) 2023.
09: Stefan Roigk : "Unfamiliar Home (Part Two)" (Errant Bodies Press) 2023.
10: Hypnopazüzu : "The Crow At Play" (House Of Mythology) 2016.
11: Joke Lanz : "Zungsang, Sankt Jokem II" (Vice De Forme) 2021.
12: Graeme Revell : "Chimpnags-Apes Of The Union Canada:America" (Musique Brut) 1994.
13: Dayin : "Lasting Distress" (Mahorka) 2023.
14: Ordeal : "Vist" (Aguirre Records) 2023.
15: Renaldo & The Loaf : "Ow! Stew The Red Shoe" (Do It Records/Ralph Records) 1981.
16: ... And The Native Hipsters : "Larry's Coming Back" (Plattekop Volume) 1983.
17: The Homosexuals : "Soft South Africans" (Lorelei No. 1) 1978.
18: The Four Plugs : "Biking Girl" (Disposable Records) 1979.
19: Astral Social Club : "Null Three Four One" (Not On Label - Self Released) 2023.
20: Francisco Meirino & Altar Of Flies : "Exhausted We Fall" (Second Sleep) 2023.
21: Hamilton Mist : "The Age Of Shadows" (Institute Of Paraphilia Studies) 2023.
22: Jim Haynes : :Variant, Number Fifteen" (Helen Scarsdale Agency) 2023.
23: Grunt : "Vieraat Huulet" (Freak Animal Records) 2023.
24: The New Blockaders & S.R. Meixner : "Kein Stress Am Essitch!" (Nihilist) 2023.
25: Het Zweet : "Untitled" (Korm Plastics) 2023.
26: Grey Park & Sick Days : "The Boat" (Vacancy Records) 2023.
27: Cabaret Voltaire : "Do The Mussolini (Headkick)" (Rough Trade Records) 1978.
28: Francisco Meirino : "Focus On Nothing" (Aussenraum Records) 2013.
29: Eaten Alive By Insects : "John Wayne's Jacket" (Bradford Noise) 2009.
30: The Panik : "Murder" (Rainy City Records) 1977.
31: The Country Teasers : "The Last Bridge Of Spencer Smith" (Guided Missile) 1996.
Thanks for listening, thanks for all your support, comments and encouragement throughout the year, and the past 11 years of broadcasts!
MuhMur Radio will be back in the new year, please keep an eye on this blog for the date or go to the SoundArt Radio website : https://www.soundartradio.org.uk.
I am inclined to change it about for 2024 ~ drop the 'On This Day' section for a start and do a few more programmes with a 'theme'. Let me know what you think ....
muhmur.radio@gmail.com .... Cheers.
THEMES
ReplyDeleteResidents"Eskimo" is a must have, f/ Snakefinger, Chris Cutler (Henry Cow & Don Preston (Zappa).
ReplyDelete