Tonights MuhMur Radio Broadcast is dedicated to the sound of John Duncan.
'Heavy, Useless, No Sense Of Humour'.
I have been listening to the works of John Duncan for nigh on 40 years now. I forget how I came across his work. I thought it was via Dan Plunkett and his ND magazine but recently I heard a podcast featuring Dan and he said he came across John through the UK 'fanzine' called "Grok". "Grok" was run by Dave Minshull in Bristol in the early 1980's. I used to get copies of "Grok", so ... maybe Dan and I both discovered John Duncan through "Grok". In 1984 Dan mailed me a cassette (we exchanged tape letters back in those days) that featured an interview with Paul McCarthy for ND magazine where he talks about his collaborative work with John ... and extract appears in the broadcast. To listen to Dan Plunkett podcast : https://www.noisextra.com/2022/04/06/in-conversation-with-daniel-plunkett-nd-magazine/
Along with John's sounds I have incorporated some of his collaborative work with Michael Esposito. 'There Must Be A Way Across The River" is from the eponymous album shared with Z'ev. The Elgaland Vargaland National Anthem features vocals by Ingrid Engarås. In 2003 Ingrid released the album "Vibradisc" on the Firework Editions Records label. "Porch" is from this album. Recorded at The Fylkingen (Stockholm) on the 24th April 2002, it was engineered and produced by John Duncan. Ingrid is the only person I know with an Elagaland-Vargaland passport ... I know, she showed me it.
In 2016 the John Duncan album 'Bitter Earth' was released, the drummer on the album is Joe Talia. Joe is an Australian born musician based in Berlin. Joe also toured with John along with Jim O'Rourke and Eiko Ishibashi. Live recordings from the tour are on the double CD "Red Sky" released by iDEAL in 2020. The Joe Talia piece here is from the split cassette with Hanna Chetwin, Andrew Chalk and Francis Plagne.
Playlist (Part One) :
01: John Duncan : "River In Flames" (Anckarström) 1991.
02: John Duncan : "Lock Groove" (Die Stadt) 2000.
03: John Duncan : "Untitled #2" (From the CD 'Seek') (Mort Aux Vaches) 1997.
04: John Duncan : "Lock Groove" (Die Stadt) 2000.
05: John Duncan + Michael Esposito : "There Must Be A Way Across The River" (Fragment Factory) 2011.
06: John Duncan : "Dark" (iDEAL Recordings) 2016.
07: John Duncan : "Creed" (AQM) 1981.
08: John Duncan : "Kokka 1 - 5" (Vinyl On Demand) 2012.
09: John Duncan : "The Elgaland-Vargaland National Anthem" (Die Stadt) 1998.
'River In Flames'.
Playlist (Part Two) :
01: Ingrid Engarås : "Porch" (Firework Editions Records) 2003.
02: Joe Talia : "12th Exit" (Nice Music) 2016.
03: John Duncan : "Move Forward" (RRRecords) 1996.
04: John Duncan : "Stay Alive" (GeräuschManufaktur) 2015.
05: Paul McCarthy : "Extract From Interview With Dan Plunkett" (Not On Label) 1984.
06: John Duncan : "The Tell" (Not On Label) 2019.
07: John Duncan : "Power Love" (RRRecords) 1996.
08: Citipati : "Untitled (IV)" (Hypnogogia) 2024.
09: Citipati : "Untitled (V)" (Hypnogogia) 2024.
10: John Duncan : "Lock Groove" (Die Stadt) 2000.
11: John Duncan : "Psychonaut" (Robot Records) 1996.
12: Francisco Meirino : "The Mute Fortress (Side B)" (Vice De Forme) 2024.
'Stay Alive' 7".
The broadcast has been split in two for easy aural digestion.
Also in the programme are two slices of new arrivals here at MuhMur Radio HQ. Firstly the 'unofficial' vinyl LP release on Hypnogogia by Citipati. This release has caused a little upset between former members of the project. Here is the 'story' as I believe it to be.
In early 1983, Ian Dobson & Gordon Hope invited The New Blockaders to release an LP on Flowmotion. However, it was originally intended that 'Changez Les Blockeurs' wound be the one and only release by The New Blockaders. Richard & Philip Rupenus were invited to join Citipati. Ian and Gordon were then interested in releasing something by this project on their Flowmotion label. Two days of Citipati recordings took place (April 1983) at Morden Tower in Newcastle, the best bits were then edited at Spectro, but Citipati were not happy with the recordings so the release was abandoned. Citipati were Paul Coates, Sean Breadin and John Mylotte, soon after Richard & Philip joining Paul left and Citipati morphed into Metgumbnerbone. Citipati were semi-acoustic / semi-electric whereas Metgumbnerbone are totally acoustic.
In 2023 Paul discovered the original recordings from the Morden Towers sessions, and Old Europa Cafe label were interested in releasing the recordings on CD as a Metgumbnerbone album. The album was just about to go into production when John Mylotte discovered that Paul had already released the recordings as Citipati, a vinyl LP on his own Hypnogogia label. John Mylotte would like it to be known that this is an 'Unofficial' release. John originally intended to still go ahead with the proposed OEC CD but came to the conclusion that would only cause more confusion and "make a bad situation even worse". There will be a Metgumbnerbone release on the American Nihilistic label later in the year.
The broadcast ends with Fransisco Meirino's "The Mute Fortress".
MuhMur Radio returns in July.
Thanks, as always, go to Tamsin and to Chris (engineer / producer at SoundArt Radio).
Chris @ SoundArt.
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