Dieter Muh #43 #2

Dieter Muh #41 #2

Compass Hour

The first thing through the letterbox at Hartop Towers in 2011 is the eponymous cassette release by Compass Hour on the Wisconsin based label Brave Mysteries. Brave Mysteries released one of the great albums of 2010 with "Fantasma Di Perarolo" by Burial Hex, I thought it time to discover more of their catalogue.
Compass Hour is the latest project from Troy Schafer and Nathaniel Ritter from Kinit Her and Eric Bray from Artic Hospital. I saw Kinit Her at the 2009 Equinox Festival in London and wasn't too overly impressed. Bad gig? They seemed and sounded "wacky", trying to hard and sounding like a cross between Devo, The Residents and .... something wacky! Since then a few folk have been telling me how good Kinit Her sound so I thought this tape would be a good litmus test. Artic Hospital remain unknown.
The album is limited to 100 and comes on a C40 tape.
The sound of Compass Hour came as a surprise. The instrumentation is varied with violins, cellos, recorders, acoustic and electric guitars, mandolins, dulcimers all in the mix. The sound is folk. Folk a la Comus (with whom Kinit Her shared the stage with that night) and Current 93. I read in some blurb that they take their inspiration from 1960's Swedish prog-folk band Algarnas Tradgard..I can hear that in there too. Information is thin, no track listing for the six pieces but it truly is a great album and a great first foot in for 2011. Hopefully a full CD by the end of the year?
"Compass the hour, Compass the man" - can't stop saying that!
If there are any copies left then buy now from Brave Mysteries: bravemysteries@gmail.com

Pictures:
1: Brave Mysteries Logo.
2: Compass Hour tape sleeve cover.
3: Troy + Nathaniel of Kinit Her (lifted off the internet).

N.Strahl.N

Just spent a pleasant while listening to the latest release from N.Strahl.N, the 2xC50 cassette "Transmitter". A joint release from the German Licht Und Stahl label and Japan's Deserted Factory label. (No, me neither)...
I have become familiar over the past 13,14 months with the sound of N.Strahl.N and I always like what I hear. The sounds are sounds I want to hear and they send me to places that I want to go, it is always time well spent listening to N.Strahl.N and this release is no different.
N.Strahl.N is the project of German sound sculptor Mario W. Lohr. He is also the MD of the Licht Und Stahl label. There is also a side project called Stahlenzentrum which is like Mario's answer to Nigel Ayer's "Spanner Thru' My Beatbox" project but then again perhaps not....
"Transmitter" is packaged in a video box, containing two tapes an inner tract and a small booklet called "Mind Control - Angriff Auf Die Freiheit" which is written in German so is no use to me. This is a concept album (Konzeptalbum) in as such as the first three sides are of recordings using field recordings of transmitting devices. A: "Mindscreen" - the television. B: "Zeitpapier" - the newspaper and C: "Athernarkose" - shortwave radio frequencies. Side D is a reinterpretation piece, I shall come to later.
"Mindscreen" uses raw static sounds, electric waterfalls before a pulsating bass enters and builds into a decaying cacophony, whilst at all times a clock is ticking. "Zeitpapier" uses the sound of a contact microphone over newspaper, it also sounds like moving furniture is mic'ed up too. Then it all starts to sound like Throbbing Gristle's "Journey Through A Body", especially the piece "Medicine", it is all rather good when a heavy stamping rhythm enters ( a printing press?) and a chiming clock. Clever stuff, the track has the same construction as "Mindscreen". "Athernarkose" (Ether Narcotics) starts with the chaos of frequencies looped before breaking into disembodied voices plucked from the ether. Deutsche Radio. I love the sound of Deutsche Radio.
I know lots of folk have constructed pieces culled from treating shortwave radio, both myself and Dave Uden were doing it back in 1979, but it is not easy. Mario seems to be a master at it all.
The frequencies and voices drift into minimal clicks and glitches before going a bit new-age spacey (synthesizers are being used here) and ending.
The fourth side features four projects re-interpreting the tracks. Called "Nachsendung" (Redirection) it starts with Galerie Schallschutz building looped walls out of "Mindscreen". I like Galerie Schallschutz. I haven't heard enough and I want to hear more. last year we appeared on the same compilation CD twice; "Stahlerne Lichter (Licht Und Stahl) and "Encyclopedia Of Industrial Music Volume 3" (Impulsy Stetoskopu) but have never come across an available release. maybe this year. Feu Follet (no, me neither) redirect "Zeitpapier" into some synthy washout with faux Japanese percussion. Flutwacht + Mystified both use "Athernarkose" as their source. Flutwacht add a (harsh) wall of noise to the disembodied voices and Mystified make it a dance mix - a good dance mix, like Column One or Raster-Noton.

If this album was released in 1985/86 and was part of the Psychic TV "Themes" series or was part of Adi Newton's "Meontological Research Recording" project then it would have been hailed an inspirational classic and now demanding a days wage for purchase but "Transmitter" was released in 2010 on a limited edition of 50 on cassette tape, it shall be missed by so many.
Copies may still be available. www.desertedfactory.com or www.lichtundstahl.blogspot.com are worth a try. Perhaps someone will re-release it? It'd make a cracking double album.

Pictures:
1: Transmitter Sleeve.
2: Inner tract.
3: Booklet.

Our Generation

I have spent the month of December reading "Our Generation:The Punk And Mod Children Of Sheffield, Rotherham And Doncaster 1976-1985" by Tony Beesley. I was expecting to be reading the story of Bill Nelson & Be Bop Deluxe but Amazon are bloody delaying on that gem.
This is a thick book. 444 pages. It has turned out to be one of the strangest / funniest books I have come across in years.
The book is written in such a strange way. Eyewitness accounts, couples with narrative and factual passages. Nothing strange there, but Tony writes all three so in places there is a block of information about the state of "Punk Rock" in the nation followed by a narrative of how "Punk Rock" was being perceived and received in the South Yorkshire triangle of Sheffield, Rotherham and Doncaster followed by quotes from "Tony" repeating what has just been written but from a "personal" viewpoint. Very bizarre to read. Then of course follows a list of folk who where there at the same time telling the same story with no added insight. Although I have mentioned this, it is not a criticism of the book itself. I found it (on the whole) very enjoyable and in parts unputdownable.
I think "being there" helps. I wasn't in the vicinity of South Yorkshire, but the book wanders off to such places as Lincoln's AJ's (as I have mentioned before - the usual place to find me at weekends throughout 1978), Retford Porterhouse (The Slaughterhouse as it was known) and Nottingham Sandpipers. I did try and get my mother to drive me to Doncaster once to see Ultravox! at the Outlook in 1978, but she declined. (I have forgiven her). It also mentions some of the gigs I went to at the big venues like Sheffield City Hall. The Clash "16 Tons Tour" + Ian Dury & The Blockheads "New Boots & Panties" tour. Fond recollections. Tony and friends also capture the violence of the times well too. That is something I try and tell folk, just how bloody rough the gigs were, just wearing a pair of straight-legged corduroys and having short hair was enough to be chased and (if caught) beaten up. People died. That is one thing that always has to be remembered. People died. I had the shit kicked out of me at a Stiff Little Fingers / Starjets gig at Lincoln Drill Hall by some chap who didn't like "punks" - what the hell was he doing at a SLF gig then? (Well the bouncers on the door used to let their mates in for free once the gig had started to kick shit out of folk they didn't like the look of. I know. the question was rhetorical).
Sometimes the book reads like Tony has just lifted passages out of his diary, aged 13 and a half and at these points I winced. Also the book has a fair bit of mis-information in its' pages...can't remember what (I wasn't making notes whilst reading) but I can remember that he thinks Cash Pussies was Alex Fergusson backed by Throbbing Gristle doing an "Anti-Sid" song. Sid is one of Tony's heroes. As is Joe and Paul. Tony (for a while) bought the punk package, sneering at folk who think punk is a fashion then buying clothes from the back of the NME and "Jam" shoes.
A large part of the book follows folk who went on to roadie for Sham 69 and The Cockney Rejects and then in 1979 most of the folk turn in to Mods...because "punk" was becoming a mainstream fashion (I think). I must admit to speed reading and skipping a lot of the last two chapters. Again. Paragraphs and paragraphs of senseless re-iteration.
The book comes with a CD of the local bands mentioned, all which were new to me although I have a feeling I saw The Vice Squad (Chesterfield not Bristol) play with The Whizz Kids at AJ's. I could be wrong though. The CD is awful. Cute Pubes are OK and X-Rippers sound professional but the rest is simply teenagers wanting to sound like their record collection.

The book cost £20 from the Sheffield Vision website. If local to South Yorkshire / East Midlands then buy this book, if interested then (available from the same website) I recommend "Beats Working For A Living" by Martin Lilleker.

Pictures:
1: The Book.
2: The CD.

2010 - Has It Been A Good Year?

Here is a list of what came into Hartop Towers last year. "Has it been a good year"? Re-united with some old gems and found some new exciting sounds, so no complaints! Again Tamsin thinks it is too much....but I still think "too much is not enough":

Alfarmania "Bottenskrapet" LP (Autarkeia)
Antichildleague & Silent Abuse "She Lost Control" 7" (Hagshadow)
Architects Office "353" Tape (Audiofile Tapes)
Astral Social Club "Capitals Collapsed" Tape (Neon Blossom)
Astral Social Club "#21" CDr (Astral Social Club)
Astral Social Club "Happy Horses" CD (Happy Prince)
Astronaut "Prayer For Mitnick" 3"CDr (Field Studies)
Attestupa "Begraven Mot Norr" LP (Release The Bats)
Baraclough "Vulpus Vulpus" (Beartown Records)
BBBlood "BBBlood" (Beartown Records)
BBBlood "Molecular Beam Epitaxy" Tape (Trans-Dimensional Sushi)
BBBlood "Experiment 50" CDr (Trans-Dimensional Sushi)
BBBlood "Lazar House" Tape (Soundholes)
Jacques Beloeil/Michael Anacker "30" CD (Entr'acte)
Bestializer "Random Threats" Tape (K-Hole)
Bestializer "Penal Harm" Tape (Sexcrime Arts)
Bestializer/Rumination "Split" Tape (Thorax Harsh)
Birds Of Delay/Family Battle Snake "Split" 7" (Tome Records)
Jan Borno "Dit Is Voor Jouw" CDr (No Label)
Andreas Brandal "Shipwrecks" Tape (Licht Und Stahl)
Andreas Brandal "Sunken Gardens" CDr (Apollolaan Recordings)
Andreas Brandal "A History Of Labyrinths" CDr (Basses Frequences)
Duncan Bruce "New Glass Tapu" (LF Records)
Budrus "Devyniems Rytams Austant" CD (No Label)
Burial Hex "Bagirwa Hymn" LP (Von Archives)
Burial Hex "Fantasma Di Perarolo" Tape (Brave Mysteries)
Burial Hex "Initiations" DLP (Aurora-B)
Burial Hex "The Tower" 7" (Release The Bats)
Busratch "Tokei Nikki" LP (RRR Records)
Neil Campbell/Campbell Kneale "Neil Campbell/Campbell Kneale" CD (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon)
Neil Campbell & John Clyde-Evans "Live At Transmission Gallery, Glasgow" CDr (Chocolate Monk)
Cementimental "Point!" CDr (No Label)
Cementimental "Molecramp" 3"CDr (Jeshimoth)
Andrew Chalk "Vega" CD (Faraway Press)
Andrew Chalk "East Of The Sun" CD (Faraway Press)
Cheapmachines "Secede" CD (Entr'acte)
Cloama/Mutant Ape "Dementia" 7"+CDr (Turgid Animal Records)
Club Moral "Lonely Weekends" 7" (Dead Mind Records)
Andrew Coltrane/Andreas Brandal "AC/AB" CDr (Twilight Luggage)
Column One/IDPA/MZ 142 "Live Action/Voodoo Bumble Bee" LP (Tourette)
Contrastate "i" Tape (Direction Music)
John Cooper Clarke "Snap, Crackle And Bop" LP (Epic Records)
The Cortinas "Punk Rock Anthology" CD (Anagram Records)
Current 93 "Haunted Waves,Moving Graves" LP (Coptic Cat)
Current 93 "Time Of The Last Persecution" 7" (Durtro/Jnana Records)
Dachise "Sugar Path" 7" (Tochnit Aleph)
Dead Pilots "Dead Pilots" CDr (No Label)
Deaf School "English Boys/Working Girls" LP (Warner Brothers Records)
Deviation Social "From Begining To End:Volume 1" LP (Dias Records)
Aaron Dilloway "Boggs Volume 2" CD (Hanson Records)
Aaron Dilloway "Concealed" LP (No Fun Productions)
Aaron Dilloway "Hatched Eggs" LP&3"CD (Hanson Records)
Aaron Dilloway "Door With No Handle" CDr (Chocolate Monk)
Aaron Dilloway/Carlos Giffoni "Live At No Fun Fest 2007" LP (No Fun Productions)
Doctor Mix "No Fun" 7" (Rough Trade Records)
John Duncan "River In Flames" CD (Anckarstrom)
Mark Durgan With Spoils & Relics "All Mistakes Straightened" Tape (Mantile)
Early Hominids "Bathz" 3"CDr (La Station Radar)
Early Hominids "Alkali/Dilate" Tape (Total Vermin)
Leif Elggren "The Kings Curve" Tape (Razzle Dazzle)
Emaciator "Possesive" Tape (Hanson Records)
Emaciator "Merit" Tape (Arbor)
Factor X "Directions" LP (Excrete Music)
Feine Trinkers Bei Pinkels Daheim & Der Bekannte Post-Industrialle Trompeter "Toads And Bugs" 2x3"CD (White Rabbit Records)
Flaherty/Corsano/Yeh "Split" 7" (Krayon Recordings)
Floating Gardens/Slag Heap "Split" Tape (Field Studies)
Flutwacht "Breath" CDr (Mask Of The Slaves/The Tourette Tapes)
Flutwacht/Monoid Vs Stillsand "Hirn Milch/Into Nowhere" CDr (Symbolic Productions)
Fordell Research Unit "Heavy Petting" Tape (Krapp Tapes)
Genocide Organ "Archive One" 10"EP (Tesco Org)
Gerechtigkeits Liga/Gehern, Implosion "Centaurea Cyanus" 7" (Verstand Records)
Girnu Giesmes "Sau Krastas" CDr (No Label)
Glaxo Babies "The Porlock Factor" CD (Cherry Red Records)
Grey Park "Wet Amen" CDr (Luovaja)
Gummystumps "First EP" 7"EP (Watts Of Goodwill)
Duncan Harrison & Ian Murphy "A Divine Scrimmage" CDr (Rotten Slushy)
HATI "Die Mechanik Die" CD (Beast Of Prey)
Helm "To An End" LP (Altar/Peasant Magik)
Helm "Optimism" CDr (Trans-Dimensional Sushi)
Helm "Last Journey To Her Altar" Tape (Sick Head)
Hobo Sonn "Olde Smoake, Golden Shred" CDr (Rotten Sushy)
Human League "Holiday '80" 2x7" (Virgin Records)
Hunting Lodge "Shadows Out Of Time '82-'83" 3xLP+7" Box Set (Vinyl On Demand)
Iibiis Rouge "Eponymous" LP (Dekorder)
Iibiis Rouge "Pink Hybrid" CDr (Music Mundane/Winged Sun Records)
Incapacitants "Lon Guy" CD (Harbinger Sound)
Insomnia/Praying For Oblivion "Collaboration" CDr (Mandarangan)
Garnett James "Protect And Survive" CDr (LF Records)
David Jay & Rene Halkett "Nothing" 7" (4AD Records)
John The Postman "John The Postman's Peurile" CD (Overground Records)
Joined By Wire "Black Axis 1-4" CDr (LF Records)
Caroline K "Now Wait For Last Year" CD (Klanggalerie)
Korpses Katatonik "Subklinikal Leukotomy Aphrenia Spasmophilik Lyssophobo Asphyxia Sinister Lethal Avorex" Tape (Nekrophile Records)
LasHtal "Thoum Aeshneith" Tape (Nekrophile Records)
M. Stactor "Thrombling" 3"CDr (Disembraining Songs)
Magic Tits "Stit Cigam" 3"CDr (Disembraining Songs)
Maldur Altai "Alarm" 7" (Autarkeia)
Charles Manson "Inner Sanctum" 7" (Holy Terror/ATWA Records)
Militia "Live Provocation 1&2" Tape (Destructive Industries)
Moon Unit "New Sky Dragon" LP (Krayon Recordings)
N. Strahl. N "Grauholz" 3"CDr (Apocalyptic Radio)
N. Strahl. N "Transmitter" 2xTape (Deserted Factory/Licht Und Stahl)
N. Strahl. N + Mystified "Maschinenfungen" Tape (Licht Und Stahl)
Nurse With Wound "Memory Surface" CD (United Dirter)
Kristian Olsson "Att Vara Dar Jag Var Innen Jag Var Jag" LP (Nattmaran)
Onomatopoeia "Irrelevant" LP (The 7:17 From West Wittering Is Late Again)
Oorchach/Pogrom "Split" Tape (No label)
Orchestral Manouvres In The Dark "Messages" 7" (Dindisc Records)
Andy Ortmann "Provocative Electronics" LP (Pan-Act Records)
Para-Noise Terminal "Live Document" Tape (Raum 312)
Mark Perry "Snappy Turn" CD (The Borrowers Records)
Dave Phillips "They Live" LP (RRR Records)
Plurals "Six Eyes" CDr (No Label)
Pogrom "Liberal Cunt" Tape (Filth & Violence)
Praying For Oblivion "Turm Schweigen" CDr (Obscurex)
Preslav Literary School "Echolalia" LP (No-Fi)
Prurient "Roman" LP (Harbinger Sound)
Prurient "Crossbow" 7" (DotDotDot Music)
Prurient "Cocaine Death" CD (Hospital Productions)
Psychic TV "Just Drifting" 12"EP (Some Bizarre)
Psychic TV "Psychick Videos" DVD (Feral House)
Psychogeographical Commission "Patient Zero" CD (Acrobiotic)
Putrefier "Solar Dragging" LP (Noiseville Records)
Pyramids "Wvndrkmmer" 5xTape Box Set (Small Doses)
Ramleh "Hand Of Glory" 12"EP (Broken Flag/Harbinger Sound)
Jean Noel Rebilly + Cedric Lerouley "Leaving" CDr (CommA)
Red Electric Rainbow "Aerosol Hangover" CDr (No Label)
Rituals "Rituals" CDr (Cold Graey)
Henrik Rylander "Power Model X (Motherboard Drone Live)" CD (Ideal Recordings)
S*Core "Finger Mark" 7" (Drone Records)
S.P.I.T.E. "Violence" 12"EP (Harbinger Sound)
Schrage Musik/Antichildleague "Eternity/III Me, Me, Me" 7" (Schrage Musik)
Schuster "Breaking Down Into His Own Oblivion" CDr (Adeptsound)
Schuster "1-5 Microns" CDr (Adeptsound)
Sinking Ships "Dream" 7" (Recession Records)
Six Heads "Snuffles" CDr (Disembraining Songs)
Space Weather "The Weather's Maiden" 3"CDr (Apollolaan Recordings)
Splintered "Nothing" 7"EP (Shock Records)
Spoils & Relics "A.O.N." Tape (Mantile)
Spoils & Relics/brb>Voicecoil "Split" LP (Harbinger Sound)
Strahlenzentrum "Zentralebene" CDr (Licht Und Stahl)
Strom E.C. "Divine Legions Beyond Psyche" (Malignant Records)
Subklinik "Musik For Dekompositiones" Tape (No Visible Scars)
Textured Bird Transmissions "Blazing Animal Faces" CDr (Dead Sea Liner)
Textured Bird Transmissions/Nackt Insecten "Split" LP (No Label)
Throbbing Gristle "20 Jazz Funk Greats" CD (Mute Records)
Tiny Lights "Flowers Through the Air" 12"EP (Temple Records)
The Universal Indians + Neil Campbell "Live" CDr (Music Mundane)
Vacio Perfecto "Geographica Interiore" CDr (Licht Und Stahl)
Various Artists "Antibiothis Volume 3" CD+Book (Antibiothis)
Various Artists "Archive One" CD+Book (90% Wasser)
Various Artists "Atlantic Waves 2006" CD (Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation)
Various Artists "Bacterium" CD (Adeptsound)
Various Artists "Encyclopedia Of Industrial Music Volume 1" 2xCD+Book (Impulsy Stetoskopu)
Various Artists "Encyclopedia Of Industrial Music Volume 2" CD+Book (Impulsy Stetoskopu)
Various Artists "Night Science 4" CD+Magazine (Cipher Productions)
Various Artists "Our Generation" CD+Book (Days Like Tomorrow)
Various Artists "Squeezing Being Issue 2" CDr (Wholeness Recordings)
Various Artists "Stahlerne Lichter" CD (Licht Und Stahl)
Various Artists "The Beat Is The Law" DVD (Sheffield Vision)
Various Artists "Viva Negativa Volume One" CD (At War With False Noise)
Wolf Eyes "Always Wrong" CD (Hospital Productions)
Wounded Knee "Wounded Knee" CDr (No Label)
Nate Young "Half Full" 7" (DotDotDot Music)
Yrsel "Requiem For The 3 Khanites" CD (Aurora Borealis)
Z.O.Voider "Perpendicular Groove" Tape (Hanson Records)
Za Siodma Gora "This Is My Dream" 7" (Obuh Records)

Duncan Harrison & Ian Murphy

Just spent a pleasant while listening to the latest offering from Brighton based independents Rotten Slushy. Duncan Harrison & Ian Murphy's "A Divine Scrimmage" CDr. I think a scrimmage is a skirmish or struggle, but I could be wrong....The CDr lasts 30 minutes and like a game of football it is in two halves.
Duncan Harrison is a member of Plurals and after their rather superb "Six Eyes" album released earlier this year anything with this mans name on it is a must hear. Ian Murphy is a member of Brighton based Hobo Sonn of whom I know extremely little - I have their 2008 release "Old Smoake Golden Shred", it came with this CDr, but I have yet to listen....
OK. One track, two halves. The atmosphere built in the first ten minutes or so is of being lost at sea in dense fog. Mystery sounds float around a miasmic swamp of swirling synthesizers and electronic gadgeting slowly building (after a quarter of an hour) in to a cacophonous crescendos climax. 18 minutes in and the track is dead, arises and struggles to claim its' former glory. It took me about 5 minutes to get back in to this piece again, but I did as the track fades out. Good stuff, a very original piece of work that'll get played often. If it comes close to anything else I have heard I would plump for very early Camberwell Now. "The Meridian" 12".
This CDr is selling for a fiver and well worth the money. (Bloody awful sleeve though)!
www.rottenslushy.co.uk