Dieter Muh #49 (Berlin in June)

MuhMur SoundArt Radio Broadcast 24/01/2013

Last nights radio programme features an hour of Anemone Tube followed by an hour called "Big 'A' Little 'A'" which features artists / projects that begin with the letter "A".
Playlist:

Anemone Tube.
1: Black River.
2: Building Of Flames.
(Both from the 10" EP "Flowers Of Reality". Transfixional Entertainment Records. 1998)
3: Ti Fang - Desertification Extinguished.
(From the cassette album "Forget Heaven". Bawler Productions. 1997)
4: The Encounter III.
(From the CD ": existenz". Auf Abwegen. 2001)
5: Separating Green.     
(From the compilation CDr "Ambient Intimacy Volume 3" EE Tapes. 1999)
6: The Desecration From Within.
(From the CD "Death Over China". Silken Tofu/Topheth Prophet. 2011)
7: In The Mausoleum.
8: From Anthropocentism To Demoncentrism.
(From the forthcoming split LP (with Dissecting Table) "This Dismal World". Peripheral Records. 2013)
Big 'A' Little 'A'.
9: Al Qaeda "Untitled"
10: Al Qaeda "Untitled"
(Both tracks from the split 7" (with BBBlood) on Trans-Dimensional Sushi. 2009)
11: Arkkon/Membranoids "Sea Of Memory" (Insofar Vapor Bulk) 2001.
12: A Challenge Of Honour "Swallowed By Time" (Peripheral Records) 2012
13: Antichildleague "Occult Purity" (Hagshadow) 2008.
14: Anenzephalis "Daymare" (Tesco Organisation/Zaetraom) 2008.
15: Rob Angus "Leaves Fall, Buildings Crumble, A New Generation Will Play In The Rubble"
    (Sound Of Pig/Basic Tapes) 1986.
16: Aavikon Kone Ja Moottori "Rakkaudella Sinulle" (Bad Vugum Records) 1995
17: Appliance "Go Native" (Mute Records) 2003
18: Atman "The End Of Philosophy" (Obuh Records) 1993
19: Animals & Men "Don't Misbehave In The New Age" (TW Records) 1979.
20: ....and The Native Hipsters "Concorde Again" (Heater Volume Records) 1980
21: Alio Die "Untitled" (Kaon) 1997
22: Astral Social Club "Snaefell" (Trensmat Records) 2011

The programme has been uploaded on to mixcloud.
***** www.mixcloud.com/muhsteve/muhmur-soundart-radio-broadcast-24012013/ *****
The next programme will be on February 7 at 21:00 hours GMT please tune in to SoundArt Radio 102.5FM if you are in the Torbay/South Hams area or go online to www.soundartradio.org/uk for a listen.

Astral Social Club #11

I have just received a brace of 30 bob trips from the fine Sheepscar Light Industrial label. I am saving Phil Julian 3" for later, but I've spent the past couple of days playing the Astral Social Club release "Squeegee Anthem #1". The track starts with some gentle guitar strumming and plucking...could be Neil playing along with the kids..before the beast is awoken. A drifting phazed amp noise enters and brings with it electricity. Strings. Electric strings, multi layered strings and multi layered effects.
A few minutes in and there's a "rock" beat playing underneath, could be Blue Cheer, could be Montrose, could be Showaddywaddy*, I don't know but the drums try and burst through but are shielded by multi multi strings madness.
A couple of years ago I saw Astral Social Club live in a field on the outskirts of Cambridge, by half way through "Squeegee Anthem #1" the memories come flooding back.
Eleven minutes in and we are full on rocking, wigging and scudding along sounding like a late '90's Skullflower jam. And then it ends...cuts dead, no fade, no come down...just ends. I think the track deserves an ending, but there y'go. Another instant classic from Astral Social Club - the first of 2013 and big thanks to Sheepscar Light Industrial for releasing it.
Please visit www.sheepscar.blogspot.co.uk and buy this beauty, available for any price above £1.50 and also available as a download (why on earth you'd want one though...etc etc). "Squeegee Anthem #1" is limited to 50 only, so act fast!!


* I don't think it is Showaddywaddy. 

Stuart Chalmers / Robert Ridley-Shackleton

Have just spent a pleasant while listening to the cassette "Blunders" on Hissing Frames. "Blunders" is a split cassette (a C52) by Stuart Chalmers and Robert Ridley-Shackleton.
Stuart has just released a CDr album on the South-West based LF Records label, it is crystal clear plunderphonics - short pieces / sketches and sounds I just can't get my head around. "Blunders" on the other hand sees Stuart being more "lo-fi", less experimental and more cognitive, although the first track (first of three untitled pieces) can be classified as musique concret. There's an underlying vibration of tape being pulled slowly through the machine, oscillations and variations in speed, the clattering of pots and pans and other kitchen utensils give it all a Jackman, Scratch Orchestra, A.M.M feel. The second piece is the sides' magnum opus. Lo-Fi in extremis, dirty loops layer and build into mechanical rhythms giving the piece a 1970's industrial feel, it's a joy to listen to it all build into looping madness. Sound source? Office printers, contact microphones and drains? By the end everything is in the red and I feel like playing some early Nocturnal Emissions. The last piece is a five minute wind down. Slow paced, spacial and eerie with a sci-fi soundtrack feel. Excellent stuff.
Robert Ridley-Shackleton presents one long piece that sounds as if it could be longer, but the tape just ends .. I hate it when that happens. Robert, it's a C52 tape release...you have 25 and a half minutes to create a piece use the time correctly! Again "Untitled" is a great listen. Starting quietly, minutely. Short-Wave Radio interference and dead air space floating around the room. Ten minutes or so in the piece does start to wilt but it's saved by some great low synth oscillations. It's excellent stuff from an artist I know nowt about...and then it ends. The "play" button clicks...and it's back to Stuart Chalmers.
"Blunders" is a great tape, worth a listen. It is still available for a fiver from www.hissingframes.blogspot.co.uk

Star Turbine

Just spent a pleasant while listening to the cassette album "The Sleeping Land" by Star Turbine. Star Turbine is the project of Sindre Bjerga and Small Things On Sundays member Claus Poulson. Three pieces starting with "Permafrost". This piece  has a haunting ambiance of a large empty space, there are ever present drones that have a touch of This Heat about them and scrambling guitar scratching across the horizon. Beautiful picturesque, it all breaks into solitary mode...pondering...lost in thought. "Dimension Zero" is a piece like the Marie Celeste, with voices of lost souls floating around the delicate sounds of exploration. Side Two is the 20 odd minute piece "Hibernation" which sounds like a continuation of "Dimension Zero"...the same delicate squelching and scrambling electronic sounds. The sound is lifted by a great tonal drone that repeats and folds outwards across the room like great yawning waves. "Hibernation" perhaps hangs in the air for too long...but it remains a great (and very clever) piece.
The sound is crystal clear, of excellent quality...it all fits in with the releases of Tidal, Andreas Brandal and Phantom Heron Seas.
"The Sleeping Land" is co-released by Russian labels Radiodrone Records and Dronarivm. Try www.radio-drone.records for a copy. Recommended.  

MuhMur (SoundArt Radio Broadcast 10/01/2013)

Last night saw the seventh in an unending series of broadcasts on SoundArt 102.5FM. Last nights programme was entitled "Let Me Tell You About Sweden", and featured an "exclusive" track from Amph. There was a small panic in the studio when it looked like Dave Mutch (the erstwhile engineer) was not going to show up due to illness and therefore I would have to keep playing records until dawn ... but Dave rose from his sickbed to make a late appearance and take the pictures!! (Didn't keep me from the pub though).
The playlist:

1: The Stranglers : "Sverige" (United Artists) 7" 1978.
2: Enhanta Bodlar : "Lefeunde Spindel" (Midas Music) 1988.
    (From the "Harsh Ears Now !! 5" compilation cassette)
3: Lille Roger : "Dachau" (Konduktor Rekords) 1985.
    (From the "For Life" cassette album)
4: Henrik Rylander : "Malodorous Motion" (Hasten & Korset) 2012.
    (From the "The Horror" cassette album)
5: Amph : "Werken Der Hand" (Release The Bats) 2012.
    (From the "Sverige" compilation album)
6: Mirrors Are Black : Flickljus" (Solformorkelse) 7" 2012.
    (From the split 7" single with Gaerra)
7: White Stains : "Express Your Desire" (TOPY Scan) 7" 1989.
8: Karmanjakan Intonarumori : "Auto-Destructive" (Karmanjakan Produkt)  2004.
    (From the "Vermin Vortex Futura" CDr album)
9: Amph : "Mustaqbal" (Hasten & Korset) 2012.
    (From the "Tapeworks Volume 6" compilation cassette)
10: Trepaneringsritualen : "De la Mer" (Belaten) 2012.
11: Trepaneringsritualen : "Le Seul Vrai Roi" (Belaten) 2012.
    (Both tracks from the "Roi Perdu" cassette)
12: Kristian Olsson : "C18H21N03" (Not On Label) 2003
    (From a private edition of "Laudanum" CDr album)
13: Ochu : "Uppbrott" (Segerhuva) 2004
14: Ochu : "Vovov Gepetto" (Segerhuva) 2004.
15: Ochu : "Turbulens I Brun Saliv" (Segerhuva) 2004.
    (All tracks from the split 7" EP with Treriksroset)
16: Cryme : "Raging Dogs" (Kosmisk Vag) 2011.
    (From the "The Gentle Way" cassette album)
17: The Leather Nun : "Slow Death" (Wire Records) 1986.
    (From the Re-Issue 12"EP)
18: Kommando RJF : "Untitled Piece" (Unknown Label) 2012.
    (From the forthcoming album "Sweet Slow Suicides")
19: Amph : "Terry" (Not On Label) 2012.
    (A recording exclusive for "MuhMur Radio")
20: Arv & Miljo : "Fukt" (Ljud & Bild Produktion) 2012.
    (From the "Orientering I Denna Varld" CD album)
21: Leif Elggren : "The North Is Protected" (Creation Books) 2009.
    (From the "Micro-Bionic" compilation CD album)

Due to a technicality, the recording of the programme has to be edited and it may take a few days before I upload the programme onto Mixcloud, but I will put the link up on the bottom of this page soon...Thanks for listening. The next MuhMur Radio Broadcast will be on the 24th of January, 9pm-11pm and will feature a few tracks from Anemone Tube as well as other artists / projects that begin with the letter "A". 

Programme now uploaded:
*****  www.mixcloud.com/muhsteve/muhmur-soundart-radio-broadcast-10012013 *****

Pictures.
1: I am the DJ.
2: Amph CDr Sleeve......thanks Peter.

 
 


  

Delayer

Have just spent a pleasant while listening to the 7" single "Could We Feel...?" by Delayer. This single probably has one of the worst sleeves ever. A badly stencilled skull smoking a pipe, it's a sleeve that I would have happily flicked through and ignored (in the racks), it looks like an old single by The Pirates or some hapless '80's new romantic band. What made me give it a second look is the small "Klanggalerie" logo just above the bands name. Mmmmmmmm....  
The name Delayer is pretty awful too. Sounds like a late 1970's heavy rock band, the sort that Geoff Barton used to call "N.W.O.B.H.M." in Sounds. Delayer, sounds like Slayer or a cream that when used stops the sufferance of premature ejaculation. Delayer is actually an anagram. An anagram of Eardley. Delayer is the solo project of ex Soviet France member Andy Eardley. Now the Klanggalerie logo makes sense.
Back in the early 1990's Andy Eardley broke away from Soviet France (yes...Soviet with an "S" - I am old school...I still file them under "S" in my collection) and created Horizon 222. Trance and Dub Ambient were big in the early 1990's and Horizon 222's "Spirit Level" 2x12"EP became a bit of a classic : I was Jim Jones Attorney : The A Side to this 7" (from 2004) isn't much different with its dub style bass line and drifting keys, quite a pleasant listen. Andy hasn't lost his touch or groove. "Angus Deo" is a slower affair with a sample of Cathedral Choir dirging over beating and scraped metal sounds. Imagine Test Department appearing on a Clannad tribute album. This is a great 7" single. A shame about the name and a pity about the sleeve, but if there is a Delayer album out there I'd buy it. 

At the same time as buying this 7" I bought another 7" on the Klanggalerie label by If, Bwana. Excellent it is too - I bought them off a chap in Whitley Bay and P+P was £1.10 for two 7" singles. The other day I received a couple of releases by Stuart Chalmers through the post. A cassette and a CD (cheers Stuart .. I'll give them a listening soon) posted for £1.20. Earlier this week I posted an LP off to London for £2.40 - I did go OTT on the card stiffener...I say all this because somehow Touch are charging £3 P+P on a single cassette. I think this is wrong, (It's my blog and I can moan if I want to) and smelling a tad of "rip off" .. goodness knows what their overseas postage is like ... Just thought I'd mention it.

Pictures.
1: Delayer Sleeve.
2: Delayer Reverse Sleeve Art Work.
3: Old Soviet France members with Andy Eardley on the far right. (Red Shirt).

Trepaneringsritualen/Anemone Tube/Human Larvae; Live In Exeter 15/04/2013

I have decided to arrange an evening at The Cavern in Exeter on April 15th. The opportunity of Trepaneringsritualen and Anemone Tube being in the UK at the same time is too good to miss. It has been a few years since I last "put on a show". Back in 2006 I organised a gig for Hair Police, Homicide and The Duds at the Zephyr Bar in Exeter before getting to know Dave Goodchild at The Cavern..the following year I put on Astral Social Club, Mark Durgan and Dieter Muh at The Cavern and in 2008 I brought Nocturnal Emissions to the club. There was a plan to bring Nocturnal Emissions back in 2010 with Dieter Muh and Duncan Harrison but that fell through with Dave leaving Dieter Muh ... but now I am dipping my toe in the promotional water again, putting on my Harvey Goldsmith coat and inviting you all down!
Dave at The Cavern has designed a poster and set up a "facebook event" page. Tickets are available through The Cavern website but you can pay on the night ... I might even DJ a bit....

 https://www.facebook.com/events/584839064866965/
www.exetercavern.com

2012 - Has It Been A Good Year?

Something that seems to becoming a regular item at the start of the year ... I thought I'd go with it again this year. To call out the title of that great Crispy Ambulance 10" single yet again, it was "Not What I Expected". The moment that surpassed all was the birth of Edgar Richard in September, he is now reaching five months and is growing healthily into a fine boy....But, we are not hear to read of such things!! At the start of the year I didn't think I would be drumming on stage at The Arnolfini in Bristol with Vagina Dentata Organ. I should say that it was an ambition come true, but it was never an ambition - it was so "out of the ball park" in the realms of possibility that even now five weeks later I find it hard to believe I was there doing it. Going to Berlin to see Vagina Dentata Organ perform (in March) was more than I could have wanted ....
Dieter Muh executed their usual brace of live performances. It was an honour to be asked to play the Rammel Festival in Nottingham, the results of which should see the light of day soon on Feral Tapes. I also flew over to Stockholm to play alongside Contrastate at The Fylkingen. I love Stockholm, I love The Fylkingen...and this time I had time and money to relax, shop and drink. Great fun...also meeting up with old friends and meeting folk with whom I had only corresponded in the past...It was in Stockholm that I experienced one of thee greatest evenings I had been to in a very long time. It was an evening presented by The X Club in a strange industrial wasteland called Hokarangen a few miles out of Stockholm. It was an evening dedicated to the dream-machine. There were live performances, film shows, audio-visual DJ sets as well as sound mixes, video installations, cheap booze and an altar to Brion Gysin. It was so relaxed with everyone smiling, chatting, drinking. Superb. I wrote about this evening in April.
I got to see Giancarlo Toniutti, Club Moral, Esplendor Geometrico. That was ambition realised. I also got to see international noise artistes The New Blockaders live four times. Now I didn't expect that to happen at the start of the year.....
Release wise, Dieter Muh released their first "studio" album since 2008. "Heterodoxie" was released by the German Verlautbarung Records label in May. I am very proud of the LP.
Out of the blue and chance happening, I began broadcasting my own radio programme on Dartington based community based FM radio station "SoundArt". Again, this is something that I just could not have imagined at the start of the year. I enjoy this so much!

Not liking end o' the year "top ten" lists (especially those compiled in October), I have gone for a "top eleven" and in alphabetical order ....
Albums:
1: Brume / Oublier Et Mourir "A Year To Live" (Silken Tofu).
2: Burial Hex "For Granted Is His Will" (Sangoplasmo).
3: Aaron Dilloway & Jason Lescalleet "Grapes And Snakes" (Pan)
4: eMMplekz "IZOD Days" (Mordant Music).
5: Failing Lights "Dawn Undefeated" (Dekorder).
6: Helm "Impossible Symmetry" (Pan).
7: Six Heads "Cardboard Oracle" (Wintage Record & Tapes).
8: Trepaneringsritualen "Roi Perdu" (Belaten).
9: Uton / Grey Park "Split" (Hyster Tapes).
10: Vagina Dentata Organ "Allegory Of Cosmic Violence" (Tochnit Aleph).
11: X-TG "Desertshore/The Fianl Report" (Industrial Records).

2012 also saw a lot of Re-Issues with Vinyl On Demand releasing some beautiful pieces of art, like the long awaited Clock DVA six LP set "Horology". Quite simply thee release of the year ... in a year of a new Dieter Muh album too ... OK - here's some re-issue highlights.
Albums.
1: Clock DVA "Horology" (Vinyl On Demand).
2: Etat Brut "Mutations Et Protheses" (Sub Rosa)
3: Factrix Cazazza "California Babylon" (Superior Viaduct)
4: Inade "Audio Mythology 1" (LOKI Foundation)
5: Maeror Tri "Mort Aux Vaches:Hypnos/Trans" (Raubbau Records).
6: Colin Potter "Ancient History" (Ultra Mail Prod.).
7: Sema "Time Will Say Nothing" (Vinyl On Demand).

That's roughly about all.....I sincerely hope that this year pulls as many surprises out of the bag...

Pictures.
1: Top 11 albums.
2: Top 7 Re-Issues.
3: Drumming with VDO. (Mark Durgan and Myself take centre stage).