Trepaneringsritualen — The Totality of Death

Tapezine 002 (Fuck Off Records)

Theses days I seem to get books / magazines with CDs or CDrs attached to give an example of the sound discussed within the pages. "Night Science", "Micro-Bionics" and Koji Tano's "Noise" spring immediately to mind, but do you remember tapezines?
Digging out "Scars On Sunday" at the weekend made me dig out another Fuck Off Records release. "Tapezine 002". A compilation C60 featuring music, interviews, a short story, "jingles" and a short editorial. "Tapezine 002" was released (although that seems the wrong word) in 1981 - available through the classified section of "Sounds" and "Zig-Zag" and (maybe) Rough Trade Records and probably cost a pound (including P+P). Fuck Off Records was operated by Kif Kif Le Batter who ran Street Level Studios in London ... where this tapezine was compiled and recorded. There is a voice throughout the tape, introducing tracks, interviewing artists etc but I don't think it is Kif Kif talking, the voice (alarmingly) sounds like my producer/engineer at SoundArt Radio. Dave Mutch ... but it couldn't be, could it?
The cassette tape was such a disposable format, a tape could be wiped and re-used or simply recorded over. The early 1980's was the era of the cassette tape with Sony Walkmans and tape to tape boom-boxes being sold cheap. Well, cheap if you bought Amstrad or Realistic tape machines! I love cassettes, always have - I have thousands .. not such a disposable format.

So. "Tapezine 002" has not aged well, in fact it has become pretty unlistenable. The interesting part is the first 15 minutes or so of Side One and then it all goes a little downhill...Side One kicks off with Alternative TV (the reason why I have the tape in the first place) and a demo version of "Cold Rain". Just Alex Fergusson and Mark Perry, no flash production (a Grant Showbiz production no less) or swooping keys, a version that puts "Cold Rain" back into 1977. Excellent stuff. Nowt at all wrong with the "Strange Kicks" version but this version is superior, trust me. Mark then goes on to chat about the birth of The Reflections and simultaneously recording "Strange Kicks" with Alex as well as his disdain for Margaret Thatcher and the Westernisation of the world and the Americanisation of Britain, about living with his parents and how depressed he is in 1981. It's a fascinating interview and one that if it was in print I am certain I would have read a few times but now I am listening to "Tapezine 002" for the first time in over 30 years....does that make sense? The interview closes with "Snappy Turns" from the LP of the same name. Side One then carries on with some music. Vince Pie & The Crumbs perform  "Straight Answers" a song that sounds like Roogalator or The Tyla Gang then comes a one minute track from The 012 called "Turn The Bass Down In The Headphones".There is Bake from Glasgow who sound like Screaming Lord Sutch singing with Darts as a backing band and The Brainless Fools from Yeovil who are quite simply amateurish and awful. Side One has a "new feature" with "Subway Section" where the voice of the tapezine interviews a busker and invites him or her in to Street Level studios to record some songs. Pierrot Floridia (Yes - Floridia not Florida) is awful, there is a reason why this chap is busking - he is shite with his acoustic guitar, affected American voice and mouth-organ - where is Pierre Floridia now? Side One ends with a short slice of synth pop by That Dangerous Age. A track called "Down", I don't know why but I couldn't help thinking of Ricky Gervais and his synth-pop band Seona Dancing.
Side Two features a lot of Here & Now. I don't mind Here & Now, I really like the split LP with Alternative TV. "What You See Is What You Are" on Deptford Fun City Records, I like the "Dog In Hell" 7"EP too, but here the pieces are from early Here & Now, Here & Now "phase 2", 1975. So Side Two kicks off with Crazy Alan Dogend, ex Here & Now bassist and member of The 012. One man and his acoustic guitar - open mic night at the pub around the corner. Then comes "The Editorial" where the voice tells us of a band who featured on "Tapezine 001" and another Fuck Off Records compilation cassette that have become famous by releasing a single that is topping the "indie charts" and signing to Rough Trade Records and have requested to be "wiped" from the Fuck Off Records releases but when Kif Kif refused they went to the studios and took the masters so no cassettes can be duplicated and sold. The voice tells us that if the masters are not returned soon that he will "out" the band by releasing a piss poor demo tape they had sent him. Gangster style eh? and seeing that I don't have "Tapezine 003" - who were that fucking band? Mark Astronaut & Friends sing a song about Ronald Reagan's America ... I can't help feeling that there were a lot of home knitted jumpers, berets and corduroy worn when this track was recorded. Arnold Rubenholt then reminisces about the early days of Here & Now - about early members and the good old days when dope was only £22 an ounce. The sound of an early Here & Now "jam" plays in the background before a live piece called "Soviet Commercial Radio" comes to the fore ... I am pretty certain Arnold says this was recorded in Brigg (Lincolnshire) in 1975! Musical (loose term) tracks on this side come from Hove's Concerned Christians and Funky Soul Brothers, both fucking awful. The tape blurb calls Bikini Mutants "promising" but their song "Butterfly" is Status Quo's "Paper Plane" played really badly. Out of time, tune and ideas ... Bikini Mutants, like The Brainless Fools were from Yeovil. Where are they now?  Germ Warfare feature on Side Two with a piece called "Trapped". I remember liking Germ Warfare - I think they were on some Deleted Records cassettes as well as a compilation with Religious Overdose. Germ Warfare were from North Lincolnshire.
Interspersed between the music tracks the interviews and editorials is a short story called "The Last Human" by Johnny Brainless, it sounds like an episode of "Bleep And Booster".

"Tapezine 002" played twice in 32 years and on that average I will be dead before I get the urge to play it again. I would not be surprised to find this cassette going for "funny money" on EBay or Discogs or wherever. I think it's worth about a pound (including P+P).

Scars On Sunday

I am just about to spend a fortnight on my own as the wife and kids have gone off on to the wilds of Dartmoor with the in-laws and friends to camp, knit, quaff and worry the sheep. A life under canvas is not for me - not even two weeks. So with the house to myself I realised I could play my tapes & CD's on the downstairs hi-fi! Excellent. What to play on a bright and sunny Sunday morn? Not a real dilemma - it had to be "Scars On Sunday" by Alternative TV/The Good Missionaries. I had been meaning to dig out some 'Missionaries since spinning the latest Debt Of Nature LP a few times last week.
"Scars On Sunday" was released in 1979 by Fuck Off Tapes and was available through the classifieds in Sounds, Zig-Zag and N.M.E. (and probably Rough Trade Records in London). I think it was a pound. Back in the day - the day being 1979 - I was a big fan of Mark Perry of Alternative TV and The Good Missionaries - also his solo stuff and work with The Door And The Window and The Reflections. I (strangely) never got to see Alternative TV live. I say (strangely) because I saw just about everybody else in those days and ATV were regulars in Nottingham, Retford and Sheffield.....never Lincoln though.
"Scars On Sunday" is a live release with Side One being the penultimate ATV gig at Greenwich Theatre, London in March 1979 and is a fine example of how far Alternative TV had come and could go. The sleeve notes say that music had changed drastically since their formation, but folk still came along shouting for "How Much Longer" and "You Bastard". I remember going to see Bill Nelson's Red Noise in Retford and folk still were shouting "Ships In The Night". It happened. The gig is tense, that is obvious and it all ends in chaos as equipment is smashed a piano is tipped from the stage and the PA is switched off....it has a similar ending to the tape of Whitehouse at The Roebuck. The gig starts with a strange version of "Nasty Little Lonely", the drums are atrociously out of time and the wailing of Annie Wombat is out of place ...  third song in is the mighty "Radio Story" sliced here with "Lost In Room Poem". Classic ATV and Mark Perry at his best. "The Radio Story" is my favourite ATV song. "The terror is in your radio-oh-oh". Dieter Muh tried to do a cover version when we played in Cleckheaton with Steve Underwood (of Harbinger Sound) on Bass Guitar and Pete Bright (of Six Fingered Cousin) on shared vocals. I say tried as alcohol and stupidity got in the way...be assured that no-one will ever hear the result!  As mentioned the gig ends in chaos as the PA is switched off (total switch off) and arguments ensue between band and audience.
Side Two features three pieces by the Good Missionaries including "Bottom Of The World" from their debut live performance at the London Lyceum in 1979. Personnel is virtually the same as Side One - it was obvious the name had to change (but the songs remain the same). "Bottom Of the World" is all out improvised mayhem with slap-bass playing from Dennis "Side" Burns, the best piece on this side is "The Good Missionary Goes For A Walk" - a mammoth jam around the "Good Missionary" track - parts psychedelic, parts free jazz and parts punk ..  a great example of why Mark Perry is a genius. (I have stated this fact elsewhere on this blog). The last two pieces were recorded on the The Pop Group/The Good Missionaries/Lynton Kwesi Johnson tour of 1979. A tour I regret missing - it came so near to Lincoln (Retford Porterhouse) I still don't know why I didn't go...to this day I have never seen Mark Perry live!

In a time where all and sundry, the good, the bad and the total slice o' shite is being re-issued, re-packaged and re-sold someone should get hold of this release and make it available again. Put it in a bigger box than it needs to be in (as The Diagram Brothers once said) .. that's put me in the mood for some Diagram Brothers ....

Debt Of Nature

Listening to Harbinger 111 is like taking a history lesson. Document of event over entertainment. Harbinger 111 is "Order:Spoil The Entire State" a vinyl LP by Debt Of Nature. More evidence (if needed) that Harbinger Sound is not a noise label. Debt Of Nature were formed in 1981 in Los Angeles by Brad Laner. Brad was also part of Savage Republic and journalist with the legendary experimental music magazine Unsound. Jim Goodall and Spencer Savage joined a short time after. It was finding out about Jim Goodall through his work in Whitehouse twenty years ago (great song) that I first heard of Debt Of Nature, this LP cures a twenty year old curiosity. Spencer Savage is part of Dinosaurs With Horns, in fact Debt Of Nature have collaborated with many luminaries from the L.A.F.M.S. (they may or may not appear on this record). Artists such as Rick Potts, Tom Recchion, Joseph Hammer and John Duncan. Keeping in with the US West Coast scene the artwork for this LP is by ex Tuxedomoon manager and graphic designer Patrick Roques.
The LP is made up of eight five minute segments from live recordings made throughout 1985 & 1986, apart from one piece that was recorded for KKLU Radio. The sound scrapes, blurts, blows and crashes like all live "free improvisation" does. Debt Of Nature's forte is that of clever tape manipulations and shortwave radio swill, as the album progresses the sound becomes more coherent and cognitive. Less Sun Ra if you know what I mean? (again ... great song)! The last piece recorded at the superbly named Cheap Racist Gallery reminds me of an old live tape I have by the Good Missionaries, but the sound is not dated, the sound has a fresh taste still. It's great to hear old analogue synthesisers battling it out with spider sense guitar and feedback.
Debt Of Nature will appear in "As Loud As Possible #2" and a second LP of even earlier material will surface soon on Harbinger Sound. Undoubtedly limited and totally necessary the album is available from all good stockists...and Discogs. Harbinger Sound do have a Facebook page if you are that way inclined. Buy!

MuhMur SoundArt Radio Broadcast : 25/07/2013.

A rather "mellower" programme than usual, must be the summer sun. Before tonights programme I paid a visit to The Barrel House in Totnes. Geoff, the drummer from Animals & Men was playing a "Battle Of The Bands" type evening with his new group The Clock Surgeons. I was hoping to hear / see them soundcheck but organisation seemed amateurish and the PA Guys and other bands were very "rockist". Take the Rat People who seemed to want to use the soundcheck to rehearse and sounded like Mumford & Sons meet The Lighthouse Family...then there was some fat chap with an acoustic guitar who sang about fighting vikings dressed like he was about to have an evening down Dartmouth Yacht Club. He wanted "more stomp through the monitors". So, I never got to see The Clock Surgeons, their Vox Organ player (Geno) was telling me that they sound like something from "Pebbles" or "Rubbles" - psychedelic sounds. Hopefully they'll play a gig on a night I don't have to present a radio programme.
As mentioned, the first part of the programme is quite mellow, quite ambient. I am enjoying such sounds whilst the heatwave hangs over the South-West. A slight mistake during the Andreas Brandal piece when I accidentally pressed the "skip" button - apologies...but there will be more Brandal played in the future ... I also forgot my Crispy Ambulance "Fin" LP so had to mutter Hempsall's immortal "This one's a classic from the new wave era" myself! The Dieter Muh "We're Not Happy ..... Until You're Not Happy" is a version that was mailed to Spite back in 1999. It was to be part of a Spite double cassette compilation project that never materialised. Joel St. Germain - where are you now?

Playlist.
1 : Claus Poulsen : "Terrestial" (Striate Cortex) 2012.
2 : Small Things On Sunday : "Enceladus" (Skrat Records) 2013.
3 : Aqua Dentata : "10,000 Wooden Faces #1" (Echo Tango) 2013.
4 : Varropas : "Bogdanovin Tektologiya" (Hyster Tapes) 2013.
5 : Astronaut : "Prayer For Mitnick" (Field Studies) 2007.
6 : The Human League : "Dignity Of Labour #1" (Fast Product) 1979.
7 : Andreas Brandal : "The Second" (Ilse) 2011.
8 : Beequeen : "Long Stones And Circles" (Staaplaat) 1997.
9 : GX Jupitter-Larsen & Michael Muennich : "The Workers Of Vienna" (Fragmant Factory)
     2011.
10 : I'm So Hollow : "Dreams To Fill The Vacuum" (Hologram Records) 1980.
11 : The Human League : "Circus Of Death" (Virgin Records) 1979.
12 : Dieter Muh : "We're Not Happy ... Until You're Not Happy" (Not On Label) 1999.
13 : James Fella : "When You Sleep (Whilst Your Sleeping)" (Gilgongo Records) 2007.
14 : Throbbing Gristle : "Twenty Jazz Funk Greats" (Industrial Records) 1978.
15 : Robert Fripp : "Under Heavy Manners: (Editions EG Records) 1985.

As always when I have archived the programme on Mixcloud I will type the link below.
Thank you for listening.

***www.mixcloud.com/muhsteve/muhmur-soundart-radio-broadcast-25072013/***

Venice Of The North

I have just spent a pleasant while listening to the cassette compilation "Venice Of the North" on the Unik Eld label. The tape was getting favourable mentions on various "noise" boards so I thought it needed investigation. (i.e. if Kristian Olsson says it is good then chances are...). The cassette is a C32 and features 5 projects, all of which are/were new names to me - I thought I knew a little about the Stockholm "underground"!
Side one starts with an old Swedish prog-rock track intro before splicing in to Corrosion and "Your Judgement Is Clouded By Morality". Low hum and junk metal gives way to amplified feedback and pedal pedantry. File under HNW, the track goes straight in to "Untitled" by Vit Fana. Vit Fana are the find of the cassette, and thankfully they have two submissions. This one has a drone guitar, junk metal (junk metal must be cheap in Stockholm) and distant drums. Megaphone treated lyrics lift the piece in to the realm of early Swans or Last Few Days ... or Lust For Youth. Immediate and attention grabbing. great stuff. Side one finishes with Victor Eremita. A slow piece. A brooding landscape, ice cold and desolate. I kind of drift off with this piece and then notice it has morphed in to something sinister and unnerving. A constant rattle (babies or dog toy)? travels around the background throughout. Clever stuff and well constructed.
Side two starts with two slices of Musique-Concret style pieces. Broken Lights with "In Solemn Ritual" begins with the clanking of pots and pans and rustling of bubble-wrap before fading and re-appearing with a catchy sequencer loop - ends on a great sound of breathing wood. Hander Som Varder follow. This is the project of Unik Eld main man Henrik Soderstrom. Henrik has released material before on Release The Bats and Jartecknet. Here his piece is lo-fi, maybe too lo-fi for the intricacies of sound? It becomes more cognitive towards the end with a shuddering loop. I am now interested to hear his 7" on Release The Bats ... something without the tape hiss. Vit Fana end side two with "Untitled". C'mon guys - it is not that difficult to give the piece a title...is it? Just for reference if nothing else. A short wall of synth sounds and heavy (church) organ keys play a melodic tune. Tres-Gothique. And with a few words of wisdom in Swedish from a passing drunk on the Stockholm night bus to Vasteras the tape is finished. An excellent sampler for new Stockholm sounds. Hander Som Varder and (definitely) Vit Fana need to be explored.

Go to unikeld.blogspot.fi and get a copy.

Dieter Muh #51, Hamburg.

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Dieter Muh #51 will take place at Rote Flora in Hamburg on Sunday October 13 2013. I will keep updating more information (times, prices etc) when known ... hopefully see you there.