Whilst preparing the records and CDs to play for this programme I was very saddened to hear of the passing of Chris Phinney. Chris was the guy behind the project Mental Anguish. Chris was behind many other 'noise' projects, I remember Mental Anguish more than the others .. I do have some Viktimized Karcass but unfortunately the cassette deck is 'down' at the SoundArt Radio studio at the moment. I first came across Chris through his releases on the label he ran. Harsh Reality Music. In 1989 he put out the compilation cassette "England / United Kingdom" that featured IBF member Tim Bayes as Schuster alongside Smell & Quim, Michael Sefton, Factor X and Webcore amongst others. (My copy is long lost, but if anyone has a copy they would like to pass on ... please get in touch). Harsh Reality Music began in 1982 with the debut cassette by Mental Anguish called "Better Pull That Plug", going on to put out cassettes by Konstruktivists, David Prescott, If Bwana and Big City Orchestra amongst (a lot of) others. Five years ago I appeared on a fundraising CD for Chris. He had been hit by a car and needed help to pay for medical bills, the CD was organised by Arvo Zylo, called "Modus Vivendi" and on the NO PART OF IT label and featured Dieter Müh, Attrition, Content Nullity, Aaron Dilloway and PBK amongst others. The Dieter Müh piece in this programme is from this CD. The Mental Anguish track is from the compilation CD "Stanza's On Sexual Hygiene" released in 1992 on the Regelwidrig label.
The compilation also features Bourbons Qualk, Nocturnal Emisions, Due Process, (Manchester's finest) Contact With A Curve and The Grey Wolves amongst others. Regelwidrig was a curious little label existing for just 3 years at the start of the 1990s. It was run by a chap called Simon Kelly assisted by Michael Sefton (Jouissance) and I think Xper Xr (from Hong Kong). I could be wrong though. More information about Chris can be found at http://www.haltapes.com/harsh-reality-music.html. Chris will be missed.
"Brat Moj" (Brother Of Mine) by Laibach is from the debut 12"EP by Laibach. Originally released in February 1984 I managed to pick up a 1988 re-issue at last months Torquay Record Fair and I've fallen in love with it again .. I did manage to see Laibach live a couple of times in 1984. The performance at Manchester Boardwalk still stays fresh in the memory. The venue decked out in banners and posters and the support was an old man chopping at a tree trunk with an axe. The trunk was mic'ed up and going through various effects / delays and equalisation. Beautiful.
Remembering my old friend Jacques Beloeil who passed away three summers ago in 2023. I first met Jacques in 2005 when he and fellow Entr'actean Allon (Kaye) were spinning discs at a Dieter Müh w/ Lon Milo DuQuette and The Groop gig at a fetish club in Vauxhall (London) and became friends from thereon. Most times I went to London I would met up with or bump in to Jacques at various drinking establishments in Stoke Newington, Islington and Dalston. Always a joy, always laughter. The three track CDR "Look" has just been released on Final Image. https://finalimage.bandcamp.com.
the track 'Look' is partly inspired by a book on funeral marched. All three pieces on this CDR were produced with and on cheap equipment in the early 2000s. "Guillotine" is an edit of piece that was originally released on Entr'acte in 2011. (a visualisation in slow motion of an uncomfortable moment).
In my boxes of CDs I keep my copies of "Modus Vivendi" (2 copies ~ different coloured sleeves y'see) next to another benefit CD on the NO PART OF IT label. "Pattern Recognition" was a fundraiser for the artist Bradley Kokay who in 2020 lost his studio of 20+ years in a devastating fire that destroyed five towns in Oregon. https://www.artwanted.com/artist.cfm?ArtID=55248&Tab=Gallery. Bradley is based in Eugene Oregon. The Eric Lanzilotta piece is from this compilation. The album also features Modelbau, Mental Anguish, Howard Stelzer, Illusion Of Safety and Torturing Nurse amongst others.
I did get to see UK Decay live a couple of times in 1981/82, although I didn't buy their records. My mate Mark (Collins, former guitarist of The Exitz) was a big fan so bought all their stuff and taped them for me. It's what we did back in those days, natural practice, although I think there was an attempt to market the practice in the 1990s and call the a TDK C90 made of various singles, album tracks and the odd Peel Session as a Mixtape. "hey, I made you a mixtape'. My wife has a few cassettes from her youth that have the legend Mixtape emblazoned on the spines. It is sneaking in again by the backdoor and podcast. The phrase 'cassette culture', it has to have a marketable name, a genre, a pocket to put it in. It is of course and indeed all bollocks. OK. Rant over. Back to UK Decay. John Peel played "Werewolf" on his radio programme back in 1982. I didn't want it on a TDK C90 I wanted to own it so I went to Sanctuary Records in Lincoln and bought my first UK Decay single. It is still aching of beauty, and released on this day (August 2) in 1982. As was Modern English's "I Melt With You" 7", that single ends the broadcast.
UK decay formed in 1978 in Latin (Bedfordshire, UK). There debut release was a split 7" with fellow Lutonians Pneumonia. Shortly after release Pneumonia split and their guitarist Steve Spon joined the ranks of UK Decay. They were signed to Fresh Records until that label went bust and was bought out by Jungle Records. Crass' label Corpus Christi released the "Rising From The Dread" 12"EP, a few months before they split in 1983. Spon left to form In Excelsis with ex Shy Tots drummer Colin Rocks and members of the
Posi-Goth band Ritual. The rest of UK Decay became Furyo with ex-Gene Loves Jezebel guitarist Albie de Luca. I have the first Furyo LP but it wasn't as attractive as UK Decay (to these ears). UK Decay have reformed (of course they have) and are still treading the boards. They have rather good website at :
https://uk-decay.co.uk.
As a precursor to the upcoming CD release "SET (With Manipulation, Intervention & Commendation By The Hafler Trio)" the Melbourne based project Automating put out "
སྟོང་པ་ལས་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་དུ་བླུག་པ། (Plumbing By The Hafler Trio)", a 3" mini CDR. Information about these releases can be grabbed from Automating's Bandcamp at :
https://automating.bandcamp.com/music. It was around 10 / 12 years ago that Sasha Margolis (of Automating) got in touch mailing a package of releases from his label Second Language Records. CDRs by Automating and two other of Sasha's projects Constant Light and Spitfire Parade. It was a lovely surprise to hear from and be back in contact with Sasha.
https://www.sashamargolis.com for more information.
After Blind Ambition comes Blind Youth ... or is it the other way round? The Human League "Blind Youth" is from their first album "Reproduction". I was once told that one of the babies featured on the LP cover was one of Robert Calvert's kids ... could be wrong but I've always stood by the fact.
Henry Mouwer is a former member of De Fabriek. In October last year EE Tapes released the CD "I Ching Shuffle", a compilation album in memory of Harold Schellinx. 64 tracks all last no more than a minute by artists such as Henry Mouwer, Goodiepal, Daniel Bennett, Martijn Hohmann, Lukas Simonis and Cosmic Alliance amongst many many others. The CD is designed to be played on shuffle, and 64 is the number of I CHING.
Sem (Machinery Directive) & Eriek (EE Tapes).
"Fade Into The Territory" is the first full album by Sint-Niklaas (Belgium) based project Machinery Directive. Back in 2021 EE tapes put out a split Machinery Directive / Hypnoskull album on cassette and CD. Machinery Directive is ex-The Orphanage Committee member S.C. Wallace. "Fade Into The Territory" features many experimentations with electronics, heavy pulsated rhythms, tape samples and looping with abstract and ambient interludes. It's a great listen, file alongside Söldnergeist, Le Syndicat, Ah Cama-Sotz or Werkbund. More information is available from EE Tapes at:
http://www.eetapes.be/EE_Tapes/news.html. (I don't think Eriek is on Social Media). Continuing with the 'Donkey' theme (you have to have listened to the Machinery Directive "The Actual Plan" track to understand that) I followed with "The Ghosts Of Freaks" by Phantom Plastics. Phantom Plastics is the collective moniker and division of Phantom Airwaves dealing with all sound sheets and flexi-discs. The main catalyst to the project is Michael Esposito. Other members / participants in the collective have been Frans de Waard, Chris Connelly, Francisco Meirino, Sons Of God and John Duncan amongst others. "The Ghosts Of Freaks is a collaboration with Dave Phillips (aka Donkey Papist ~ see, it all makes sense now). There's a good slice on Michael's activities here :
https://grokipedia.com/page/michael_esposito_paranormal_investigator.
Many many moons ago I received a short letter from genesis P-Orridge telling me about a guy called Grace T'Uatara who had just moved to London (either from Berlin or Paris, I can't remember) and was staying at Peter Christopherson's house. He was relocating his SPK project to London and Gen thought that I should write to him as I might like what he was doing. I did. Graeme told me I was the first person to write to him in the UK and kindly mailed me the 7" single "No More" (Side Effects Rekords). Years of correspondence followed, and I followed SPK around the UK, helping out with humping equipment, babysitting, keeping John Murphy amused .. the kind of thing.
I did lose contact and interest in the late 1980s with Graeme moving to Hollywood. And now Graeme has resurrected SPK .. as SPKtR. (Probably a play on 'spectre', but that's just my thought). A few live appearances in Italy, Poland and Germany playing the old hits and a new single to promote Graeme seems to be in vogue. I saw the Discipline Mag advertised with Graeme on the front cover, so I thought I'd take a punt. £20 with free worldwide postage. If there's an issue #2 I don't think I'll buy it. All things SPKtR can be found at :
https://thespktr.org. Graeme pops up on the podcast "The C86 Show" interviewed by a chap called David Eastaugh, who obviously has no idea about SPK and their history and (obviously) couldn't be bothered to research.
https://www.audible.co.uk/podcast/Graeme-Revell-SPK-The-Murray-Fontana-Orchestra-Vision-II-SPKtR/B0H9GCWYZS. I have played plenty of SPK on previous MuhMur Radio broadcasts so picked a couple of tracks from compilations of old. "In The Dying Moments" is from the 1985 LP "System Of Flux & Energies" on Sub Rosa and "Palms Crossed In Sorrow" is from the 1986 LP "Vhutemas Archetype" on Side Effects.
You can listen to the whole broadcast here:
Playlist :
01: Mental Anguish : "NICU Blues" (Regelwidrig) 1992.
02: Laibach : "Brat Moj" (L.A.Y.L.A.H. Antirecord) 1988.
03: Jacques Beloeil : "Look" (Final Image) 2026.
04: Eric Lanzilotta : "Patterns Of Isolation" (NO PART OF IT) 2020.
05: Dieter Müh : "Bethlehem (Modus Vivendi)" (NO PART OF IT) 2021.
06: Jacques Beloeil : "Guillotine (Edit)" (Final Image) 2026.
07: UK Decay : "Werewolf" (Corpus Christi) 1982.
08: Automating : "A Note On Naming Conventions" (Not On Label) 2026.
09: Automating : "Plumbing By The Hafler Trio" (Not On Label) 2026.
10: Automating : "Blind Ambition" (Not On Label) 2026.
11: The Human League : "Blind Youth" (Virgin Records) 1979.
12: Henry Mouwer : "NMBRS" (EE Tapes) 2025.
13: Machinery Directive : "Tofu Dreg" (EE Tapes) 2026.
14: Machinery Directive : "The Actual Plan" (EE Tapes) 2026.
15: Phantom Plastics : "The Ghosts Of Freaks" (Phantom Archives) 2016.
16: S.P.K. : "In The Dying Moments" (Sub Rosa) 1985.
17: S.P.K. : "Palms Crossed In Sorrow" (Side Effects) 1986.
18: Modern English : "I Melt With You" (Sire Records) 1983.
* Modern English "I Melt With You" was released as a 7" single on 4AD Records on August 2 1982, the version I play here is the track from the US release of their album "After The Snow" as I don't have a copy of the original single ... (sorry about that).
Thanks as ever to Tamsin & Chris Booth.
I am struggling to upload this broadcast on my MixCloud account at the moment so is available via the SoundArt Radio MixCloud at the moment.
