Astral Social Club #12

Have just spent a pleasant while listening to the latest vinyl offering from Astral Social Club. "Electric Yep" is a full length LP released by Trensmat Records. The sound of Astral Social Club has not altered, with this LP and the recent "Metal Guru" single on Must Die Records the sound of the kaos-pad sampling and multi-layered strings creating vibrant psychedelic aural pictures is all there. I like this sound, long may it develop.
The LP opens with "Snow Clouds", a slow monotonous dirge of phased guitar and Jews harp. (Is it Jews harp or Jaws harp?). Slow paced and a strange choice for album opener, the track morphs in to "Glitterstompf" and the madness is cranked up a notch. A repetitive throbbing pulsebeat with changing electric guitar patterns, it plays like  a 21st century Neu. The title gives leanings to P.I.L. and I can almost see the thread ... Side 1 closes with "Rainbow Weather". No beats, lots of drifting synthesized sounds that sound like the word "reprise" should be written in brackets after the title - Goddammit! It sounds like Camel.
Side 2 opens with "Twenty Four Times Yes", a title that makes me crank up the volume a couple of notches. This track is pure TG - it has the "Discipline" beat and Cartertronic style oscillations. Top notch Astral Social Club. The track flows / transmutes in to "Valley Of The Left Handed Depilator", a piece that works on about five different levels with its helicopter blades creating a rhythm crossing the morse code style electronica and sliding guitars building in to (not a wall but) a wide-open field of psychedelia, this piece melts in to "Boiling Up The Bones", a speeded up "Snow Clouds" with a game of table tennis being played over the top. ..... sequencer patterns to drift off on to the astral plane with.

Apart from the "Rainbow Weather" track - which I may grow to love - this is a great album with one of the best covers I've seen in a long while. Sold out from source but available direct from Neil Campbell at the Astral Social Club Wordpress / Bandcamp site, buy before they disappear.

Hirsute Pursuit - Boys Keep Swinging

MuhMur SoundArt Radio Broadcast : 19/09/2013.

T'was the 23rd "MuhMur" radio programme and to mark the anniversary I dedicated most of the show to the work of Luke Younger and his Helm project. Luke supplied an exclusive 49 minute piece constructed from live performance recordings, unused studio tracks and source material. (Thank you Luke). I also slipped in a track by Gianiuca Becuzzi - I received a lovely package from the Italian label Lisca Records last week, including the latest LP by VipCranco .. expect to be playing some of these releases over the coming months.
Apologies for those expecting to hear the Phil Julian session - that will be broadcast later next month.

Playlist:
1: Helm  "To An End #1"  (Alter/Peasant Magick) 2010.
2: Helm  "Beacon"  (Trans Dimensional Sushi) 2007.
3: Birds Of Delay  "Erasure"  (Tome Records) 2009.
4: Helm  "Fields"  (Low Point) 2008.
5: Helm  "Silencer"  (Alter/Pan Records) 2013.
6: Helm  "Untitled"  (Not On Label) 2013.
    (Exclusive recording for MuhMur Radio).
7: Epic Soundtracks  "Jelly Babies" (Rough Trade Records) 1981.
8: Gianiuca Becuzzi  "The Essential Nowhere (b)"  (Lisca Records) 2011.

Please copy & paste the link and have a listen.
www.mixcloud.com/muhsteve/muhmur-soundart-radio-broadcast-19-09-2013/
Thank You.
Next programme will be on October 3rd and will feature exclusive sessions by Hal Hutchinson and Grunt as well as releases by Freak Animal Records.

Dieter Muh #51 : Hamburg. October 13. 2013.

Just a short note to say that the venue of the Hamburg performance has changed. It is no longer Rote Flora, but Gangeviertel. 

Here is the information:

RADIO GAGARIN FESTIVAL
Radio Gagarin präsentiert diesmal ein Festival experimenteller Musik im Gängeviertel.
Wir feiern das 20-jährige Bestehen von Radio Gagarin auf FSK 93,0 mhz schon etwas vor. Es wird früh schon beginnen und St. Martin von den Nachtschwestern (FSK) wird als DJ für die Pausenbeschallung zuständig sein.

DIETER MÜH | Devon, UK
DIETER MÜH ist das Soloprojekt von Klangkünstler Steve Cammack, der bei DEVON aktiv ist. DIERT MUH wurde 1994 als Trio gegründet und veröffentlichten auf verschiedenen Labels wie EE Tapes, Harbinger Sound, Verlautbarung, Tesco Panic! At The Disco, Xerxes und Hanson Records.
Der Sound von DIETER MÜH besteht aus der Konstruktion und Dekonstruktion von präparierten Loops und Drones inklusive Beats und Vocals. Ihre Musik könnte man unter "Dark Ambient" oder "Organic Industrial" einordnen.

www.muhmur.blogspot.de

DER 2TE FREUND | Bremen
Hinter DER 2TE FREUND steht Rolf W. Groß, der mit einem schierlosen endlosen Repertoire von Geräten zurückgreift: Bandmaschinen, Effektgeräte, Computer, Field Recordings, Aetherophone, Praying Machines oder Sampler helfen ihm seine Ideen umzusetzen.
"Alles was klingt ist auch ein Instrument. "Ein Werk ist dann erst gelungen, wenn es den ZuhörerInnen Spuren hinterlässt. Klänge aus der Umwelt und den Maschinen werden gefunden, geformt und zu etwas Neuen kombiniert. Die einzigsten Grenzen sind die in meinem Kopf, und ich überstreite sie konsequent, Musik muss mich bewegen, nicht zwingend durch Schönheit berühren."
Nach dieser Maxime begreift DER 2TE FREUND seine Musik, die sich im Bereich Harsh Noise und Musique Concrète bewegt.

www.der2tefreund.de

B°TONG | Basel
B°TONG ist beeinflusst von der ursprünglichen Idee des industriellen Muzak, und dem Pioniergeist früher elektronischer Klangtüftler. Seine Musik geht über dunkle ambiente Soundflächen, brodelnde Elektronik, hin zu seltsamen elektronischen Klangwelten oder brachialem Lärm.
B°TONG verarbeitet Geräusche aus dem Alltag, Klänge aus Feld, Wald und Filmen.
Seine Instrumente sind: Metallfeder, Blech, Ventilator, Vibrator, oder elektrisches Spielzeug, und Küchengeschirr!
Die erzeugten Töne werden in einen Loopsampler gespeist und durch diverse Effektpedale gejagt.

www.btongmusic.wix.com/btong
www.btong.bandcamp.com

FEINE TRINKERS BEI PINKELS DAHEIM | Bremen

FEINE TRINKERS BEI PINKELS DAHEIM schichtet aus diversen Klangerzeugern, Plattenspielern, Objekten aus Wald und Flur und obskuren Bastelein komplexe Klangcollagen. Die Musik FEINE TRINKERS BEI PINKELS DAHEIM ist Musique Concréte, Noise und Drone, abgespiegelt von der vielarmigen Behandlung konkreten Materials.

www.pinkelsdaheim.com

1000SCHOEN | Bremen
1000SCHOEN ist das Soloprojekt von Helge Siehl, der Gründungsmitglied der legendären Bremer Ambientgruppe MAEROR TRI ist. Seine Musik pendelt zwischen flächigen Droneklängen, eingebettet in Fieldrecordings, oder in rhythmischen Klangkonstruktionen auf seinen gefundenen und selbstpräparierten Perkussionsobjekten.

www.soundcloud.com/1000schoen
 

 

https://www.facebook.com/events/644818965543264/

Nick Edwards / Stuart Chalmers.

I really enjoyed the last time I heard Stuart Chalmers, the split cassette with Robert Ridley-Shackleton called "Blunders" and I really like the Ekoplekz / Ensemble Skalektrik cassette that Feral Tapes released a few months back. Both projects are the brainchild of Bristol musician Nick Edwards, I enjoyed the tape so much I went and bought an LP by eMMplekz - yet another Edwards non-de-plume.  Great LP. So this tape seemed like a must have.
It does not disappoint but then at the same time doesn't really leap out of the tape machine screaming "play me again. play me again". It is a good release, a fascinating and at times highly enjoyable listen but it doesn't grab the ears ... if you know what I mean? (great song).
This split cassette is a C60. Nick Edwards gives us "Reflectograph Suite" a recording from 2011 that was used by video artist Jade Boyd for his installations in Poland and America. The sound is alien soundtracks, synth woosh and space bleeps. The sound immediately reminds me of early Throbbing Gristle cassettes, maybe Chris Carter solo recordings from 1975, and then there are times the sound is very close to those early Clock DVA tapes and long pieces carried titles like "Formlessness/anti-void" and suchlike. I imagine the accompanying films to be blurred technicolour and Kodachrome.
Stuart Chalmers presents "Subterranea" in four parts. Stuart's set up for this project is cassette players and effects pedals. Preslav Literary School territory, and the resulting sound is quite similar. Part One is a bit like Side A. Should be a soundtrack to space films. Part Two has a jazz feel with discordant keys, plucked double bass, ethereal flute and lazy rhythms. Great stuff, well constructed. Part Three  starts with annoying spastic breakbeat rhythms - finger wavers over the eject button - but it morphs in to some kind of scat-Gamelan before wandering off in to noodle land. Part Four is similar to Part One.
It's a good tape, worthy of a release and on a great label. Feral Tapes are building a great catalogue and is one that accompanies the Feral Debris fanzine well. (Eclectic, amusing and fascinating).
Neither pieces have put me off listening to either artist but they've done better ... and will release better in the future.
Feral Tapes have a facebook page (if you are that way inclined) and Feral Debris has a blog spot. Explore.

Beethoven : My Demise

I have just spent a pleasant while playing a record that up until a couple of weeks ago I never knew existed. A few months ago - maybe last year (?) I wrote on this blog about my love for Gloria Mundi, the 1970's art-punk proto Goth rock band, the blog brought some fascinating comments and messages and now I know that Sunshine Gray is a working AV artist based in Lincoln and Eddie Maelov is a carpenter also based in Lincoln ... typical, I leave the City of my youth and ex-members of one of my favourite bands end up living there. To my knowledge Gloria Mundi only played Lincoln the once. 1978, AJ's Club with Patrik Fitzgerald and unfortunately I didn't go ... I was holidaying in Cornwall at the time.
One comment told me about a solo single from ex Gloria Mundi guitarist Beethoven (aka Pete Vas). I never knew Beethoven attempted a solo career, I knew that C.C. (the saxophonist) went in to The Spectres (with Glen Matlock) and Nigel the bass player went on to form Re:Flex and have an eighties pop hit with "The Politics Of Dancing" but we don't talk about him! So with the knowledge I put out an APB to find the Beethoven single and after forking out £4 I now have a copy.
From the single I can surmise that Pete is/was a great Bowie fan. He sings like Bowie - the arrangements are Bowie-esque. I know a lot of Bowie, I have a triple CD Box Set of his catalogue that gets played regularly on car journeys - my kids love Bowie and this single is very very "Bowie". The A Side is a love ballad called "My Demise" (pronounce "My Demeeeeeze") and has a lovely saxophone solo.....could that be C.C.? The B Side "Foolish Pride" is more up-beat, the guitar has the "Mundi" sound, there's a Mundi riff hiding in there, could be a Gloria Mundi out-take, but in essence it is a Bowie song.
Beethoven solo - like when Antony More signed to Parlophone Records or listening to Shrink on A&M.
I shall treasure the 7" like I do all my Gloria Mundi and Eddie & Sunshine records.

MuhMur SoundArt Radio Broadcast #23

Photo

Just to let you know that the next MuhMur radio programme will be broadcast on September 19 at 21:00 gmt. There will not be a programme on September 5 due to the SoundArt crew holding a "tech" week. The programme on the 19th will feature exclusive material from Phil Julian and Helm.

Picture: At Work! (pic by Chris Booth).