Muhviertel

There is a small rumour going around; and I should know because I am starting it now, that Haemoccult Recordings are about to start on the project 12"EP by Muhviertel.
It is highly unlikely that you have heard (of) Muhviertel, perhaps you have heard their name mentioned in relation to Dieter Muh - but in 2010 to have heard them is nigh on an impossibility. But some old recordings have been remastered by Tim Bayes at his Unity Studio in Perth, Australia and two of the three ex-members involved are keen to see a document released before we die or go deaf (or in my case very blind). The third member might be keen too but I haven't spoken to them.

Muhviertel began life back in 1986. Symbiotic with Dieter Muh they were only to be in existence for one live performance, but the idea seemed somewhat unfinished after the live event and Muhviertel fleshed out......
At the start of 1986 Sean Rorke and Gary Warmington (representing Carnifex Recordings) decided to hire out the PSV Club in Manchester and put on a benefit gig (I think it was for the "Stonehenge Bust Fund). Both Sean's project Systemlaw Violator and Gary's Kava Kava were down to play as was IBF (Ideas Beyond Filth). Tim of IBF was not keen as we had played the venue in November 1985 and Greg Rorke of SLV wasn't too keen either, so Sean and I collaborated on a live set.
Using a Roland Space Echo, two amps (Vox Valve and Roland Jazz Chorus) and a battered old keyboard left in the Carnifex Rehearsal Space by Tim Gane (who was then in the Ingrid Slugs) we began to make exploratory sounds. Feedback tones, Oscillating tones all thrown about and at each other..it was exciting stuff. Slowly other folk drifted in and added to the sound. Gary came in and drummed, as did Andy Wright (the local Hulme drummer for hire - he was in Landishkrill, Systemlaw Violator and Kava Kava).
Sean chose the name Muhviertel, the name lifted from a Hunts Sabs leaflet, and our performance was called "Kugel Aktion". By the evening we were a five-piece group. And, as of the time, we all had pseudonyms.....
Sean / N.T.R.A. (Bass Guitar, Vocals, Tapes)
Steve / A:A:K (Guitar, Vocals, Metal, Tapes)
Andy / Rite (Drums)
Gary / (The Norse runic symbol = Leben-Rune) (Drums / Hunting Horn)
Tracy / CTG (Hunting Horn).
So enjoyable was the evening that on my return to Lincoln I decided to fold IBF, leave Lincoln and move back to Hulme, Manchester to concentrate on Muhviertel. Sean, likewise, folded Systemlaw Violator and Andy became a full time member. Gary also folded Kava Kava and began a solo project as The Secret Cinema. It was a catalytic gig.
In the ensuing months Carnifex became Muhvertelcentric as we concentrated on recording an album. We first went into The Kitchen Studios (then run by the guy from Dub Sex) and recorded an 8 Track piece called "Morsjusti", but an 8 Track studio did not suit Muhviertel. We got our hands on a Fostex mini 4 Track portastudio and did most recordings on that.
In a year we had an albums worth of material and released the album "Morsjusti" as a 3xC30 cassette package with 8 page booklet. It sold a handful mail order and a couple in the then growing Eastern Bloc Record Shop in Affleck's Palace.
All the masters for these tapes have now disintegrated but Tim has managed to extract quality recordings from his copy of "Morsjusti".
1987 - 1989 we recorded and recorded. We recorded live, we went to Lincoln to record on Tim's TEAC 244, Tim even brought his TEAC 244 to Hulme to record us but the project was never as full of purpose as it was 1986 - 1987.
I do remember (affectionately) trying to record a sample from a vinyl album of Inuit throat singing and it taking three hours or more to get the perfect 2 second loop only for Sean to say afterwards "Nah, don't like it anymore"...Tim, Andy and I could've killed him! Also we used to have drum sessions where we would cover our insides with drugs and turn on the dream-machine in Sean's flat, sit in a circle and drum on African / Indian drums. Good memories.
Muhviertel never "officially" split we just dissolved. Andy moved to Tokyo to become a DJ, Sean stayed in Manchester and I moved to the small Yorkshire village of Thorganby.

So - 2011, a Muhviertel 12"EP will (Hopefully) appear. I am not taking pre-orders.

Pictures:
1: "Morsjusti" book cover.
2: "Morsjusti" advertising poster.
3: "Morsjusti" review by Dan Plunkett from "ND #9".

The Psychogeographical Commission

My listening of late has been of the passive sort, I've been playing stuff that I can either relax and read to or potter about the house to, folding linen, waxing the pouffe, that kind of thing. I was handed 16 editions of "The Wire Tapper" CD a few days back by a colleague at work thinking that I may like some if not all of the tracks held therein so they have been spinning in Hartop Towers acting like wallpaper. They are mainly standard safety pieces...non threatening to the senses apart from when an odd classic by 23 Skidoo, This Heat or Laibach pops up. "Atlantic Waves 2006" with its unreleased stuff by Robert Rutman, John Duncan and Max Eastley is a gem though. (I'm playing it now).
Yesterday though the postman brought "Patient Zero" by The Psychogeographical Commission. It is a concept album. "Patient Zero refers to the original source of an outbreak of a contagious illness within a population or to the most significant case within the population". A Kind of impending Omega Man, Crazies type scenario. There is a narrative to the album, voices which carry the story along. Are you thinking "War Of The Worlds"? (I was).
So my listening habit of the last few days was changed as I sat attentively and listened to the story evolve like listening to a play on Radio 3. The music is very professional, skipping genres at every turn. TPC certainly wear their influences on their sleeves as I can hear pieces of Coil, Throbbing Gristle ("After Cease To Exist" + "Shadow Of The Sun" especially), Psychic TV and Current 93. Track two, the excellent "Beneath The Bricks A Wave" has an acoustic guitar riff not unlike "House Of The Rising Sun" by The Animals (or Angelic Upstarts depending on....).
"Can You Feel It"? is a superb piece with the story being set up with a voice leaving a message on an ansaphone that gets more and more quizzical and desperate (again, reminding me of Coil's "Is Suicide A Solution"? single).
I have had this album 24 hours and have played it three times, hearing new pieces in speech and music every time. A gem. Go to www.acrobiotic.com and see/hear for yourself.

I know little about The Psychogeographical Commission apart from that they are from Glasgow, or Newcastle. Last year they produced a CD called "Genus Loci" that I remember as a pleasurable listen full of acoustic guitars and poetry - will have to rediscover that again. Hopefully they will perform "Patient Zero" live. It would be interesting to see it staged.

Pictures:
1: "Patient Zero" CD Sleeve.
2: The Psychogeographical Commission logo. (I have this on a button badge).
3: "Patient Zero" CD poster.

BBBlood

Catching up on some of my back catalogue, and have just spent a pleasant while listening to BBBlood. Recently I got the untitled cassette on Beartown Records. £4.00 from their website. I'm not too knowledgeable about BBBlood, I've got a split 7" with Al-Qaeda (which I bought because I liked the sleeve) and that is roughly about it, and rather like a lot of folk these days he seems to be eternally gigging across Europe.
This release is a 30 minute barrage of effect pedal noise, sometimes cheap clanking and clanging is going on in the mix but mainly it is a construction of effect pedals creating drone like screeches and cacophonous sounds. Feedback (along with tape hiss) is omni-present. It is OK, and the tape lasted the full thirty minutes (which is more than I can say for the Psychic TV "Live at The Town & Country Club 1986" double CDr bootleg that I played before this, that was off after less than 5)!.Side A builds in to this great wall of noise speeding towards a finale but then just ends dead as the tape runs out...a tad disappointing....but I do feel that this is more document than release. I imagine it is from a live performance or home live "ritual" or some such and it has elements of what I was mentioning in the ASC#2 piece that sometimes these live improv. jam recording exploration type tracks become self indulgent and bear no meaning to no-one except those involved. The length of this tape saves it somewhat from that category, but elements are there.
Moments reminded me of Putrefier circa late nineties.
Dieter Muh share the live space with BBBlood in London in December, I'm looking forward to experiencing the sound. Google BBBlood and/or Beartown Records and support.

Pictures:
1: BBBlood cassette.
2: BBBlood live. (picture stolen from the Internet)!

Astral Social Club #2

After the amazing tape release earlier this year on the American Neon Blossom label comes my second ASC purchase of the year. Found this one lurking cheaply on the French Amazon site of all places. "Happy Horse".
The sound is of Astral Social Club live, it doesn't say it is a live recording anywhere on the sleeve or insert, but it must be. To tell the truth it sounds like the "set" Neil performed in Exeter in 2007.
Although it can't be, as I remember him telling me that he forgot to press the play/record button on his mini-disc as he went on stage.
The sound is repetitive, motorik, ostinato. Swirling cosmic samples of a thrashed guitar mix with polyphonic keyboard chord whilst an underlay of pulses (synthetic + organic) play hide and seek amongst the sound. It is a beautiful release.
(There are a few bands/projects/artists knocking about at the moment doing this 30 minute - 40 minute improv. cosmic jam type stuff, and to be honest a lot of it sounds like self indulgent dirge. It is a dangerous area to get in to).
The album starts off with the magnificent "Skelp", a 7" from 2009 which blends in to a track called "Kilmarnock"which I reckon alone qualifies for track title of the year! The sound arrives, grabs your ears by the neck and says listen to this.....
Released on the Japanese Happy Princes label. (New one on me), and packaged in a lovely soft yellow velvet bag, please buy.

Aethnor

Went to see a band called Aethnor whilst in Paris over the weekend. Aethnor are a group of which I know (relatively) nothing. I shared a stage with them at The Conway Hall (London) last year as part of the Equinox Festival but never got to see or hear their live set. I did see Stephen O'Malley soundcheck, but that was all....so I was quite interested to see them live at last...and in Paris. Fortune smiled that I was travelling with Simon Kane who was on the guest list and he got me on it too. That's what good friends are for (as Brilliant once said). I did put Aethnor on my guestlist for the Dieter Muh show the evening before - but they didn't show.
The venue was the Point FMR a venue not unlike the ICA in London (where I saw Stephen O'Malley live with Gravetemple) situated in the east of the city on the side of the canal. A beautiful venue. Cheap beer as well - only 5 euros a pint! It was a crazy hot late summers night and there were hundreds of folk milling about on the canal's edge drinking beer and wine and smoking, all of which was making the evening special.
So. Like I mentioned I was pretty much an Aethnor virgin so was not really knowing what to expect. Talk was going around of how their last LP with David Tibet on vocals wasn't that good and I saw that Steve Noble of Rip Rig + Panic was the drummer! How did this sound work?
So....to dry ice and crucifix gobo's (lighting phrase - I used to be in the lighting business years ago...Barbara Dickson at York Barbican '96 anyone)? on came Aethnor.
What next happened was jazz. Electric jazz. Henry Cow meets Weather Report with a slice of (early) Landscape jazz. Out of tune, out of time. There were fleeting moments when the 4 roads met and an electric jam was produced. Deutsche Jam a la Neu! or Guru Guru but the drums or keyboards (Daniel O'Sullivan) would soon put a stop to it all by going spastic on the sound and we were back to Hatfield & The North demo material again. I stood there not knowing what on earth to make of it all. Aethnor did two 30 minute sets. A 20 minute fag break interrupted the proceedings. Members of the band smoke - and if they can't smoke on stage then we only play for 30 minutes....It did give me chance to breathe the fag smoke in the warm parisian air.
Live set two was more of the same to an ever decreasing audience. Parts even reminded me of a band I was in back in 1982 - yep! parts of it were that bad. Kristoffer Rygg stood behind a table of FX boxes and a laptop and seemed to be making really interesting sounds, but it was hard to block out the atrocious keyboards and annoying drums to hear it. If O'Malley and Rygg had done a gig together I think it would have been more friendlier on my ears.

Obviously Aethnor are not my choice of brew, my cup of tea. I don't like jazz, be it electric, trad or rock version. I would not buy their albums...but, on the other side of the coin it was great to see them. To witness Aethnor live in Paris. An evening I will never forget. Stephen O'Malley said hello and shook my hand and I smiled at Steve Noble. He was in Rip Rig + Panic! (and Bow Gamelan Orchestra and part of Brion Gysin's live band), so he can't be all that bad....

Pictures:
1: Guest list ticket.
2+3: Stephen O'Malley at Point FMR, Paris. September 2010.

Baraclough

There's a night out in London in December. December the 9th at The Others in Stoke Newington. Hosted by ILL FM it features Dieter Muh, BBBlood and Eddie from Baraclough. Others may or may not be added to the evening's entertainment.
I was a Baraclough virgin so I trawled the internet (I don't surf - I trawl) and found a cassette release on the UK label Beartown Records. I also found a BBBlood cassette on the same label so I bought both, but at this moment in time I have only played the Baraclough tape; "Vulpus Vulpus". Interesting sound and I am really looking forward to seeing and hearing what is produced on the 9th.
The cassette flings me in to various moods and memories. It starts off with a David Jackman / Organum type texture, but then has some stream of conscious type poetry in there with electronic accompaniment, so the mind switches to Contrastate. The sound is set in the (late) 1980's. Choice of structure of pieces and of instrumentation. Parts even reminded me of ideas I had when I was in the Manchester based trio Muhviertel - Yes, it was that good!!!
The cassette isn't that long, maybe half an hour and cost only £4 with P+P. Highly recommended. So if you are in London in December, especially the 9th...come along. It'll be an interesting night.
I shall give the BBBlood tape a spin soon.....

Pictures:
1:Beartown Records drawing.
2:Baraclough cassette "Vulpus Vulpus".

Secondhand Record Shops #5 : Bastille, Paris, France.

For comics and vinyl, the best place to be in Paris is the Bastille area.
Two of the finest are Bimbo Tower, and Born Bad. Bimbo Tower is situated in Passage Saint Antoine, and is very difficult to find. Needle in a haystack job as most maps don't mention this little alleyway. Last time I was there in 2005 I remember having a print out from the internet to help me, this year I had to use memory and assistance of Simon Kane (a man that could get you lost looking for the toilet in your own home).
Bimbo Tower is old and new vinyl, CD's, cassettes, books, T-Shirts, DVD's, videos. fanzines, badges etc. It is one of those shops that you can easily spend an hour or two browsing and also spend a months wages in one go. The genres are all split and easily found - from New Wave to Cold Wave to Experimental Electronics to Post-Punk to Jazz to Noise and so on..thousands upon thousands of releases. The nearest I have been to such a shop is These Records in London. (R.I.P.) but Bimbo stands out for its' friendliness and unpretentiousness. I didn't look through the secondhand CD's or singles but most LP's were running between 5 and 10 euro.
Opposite Passage Saint Antoine, a little to the right and then first left (are you following this)? is Born Bad. A classic secondhand vinyl shop dealing in punk and rock n' roll vinyl + CD's. It has some new re-issues (in the post punk section) but it has rack upon rack of secondhand LP's and singles. A euro for Modern English third LP, thirty five euro for a mint copy of Psychic TV "Just Drifting" 12"EP. I bought the latter, putting the former back in the rack...a tad too much I thought.
In between both shops there is a bar to peruse over purchases. Beautiful.
A trip to Paris will not be complete without a trip to either of these shops.
If you know of anywhere else in Paris that could be entered here, please let me know.

Pictures:
1: Now treasured Psychic TV 12"EP.
2: Me outside Bimbo Tower.
3: Born Bad Record Shop. (with Simon Kane in corner).