Posts Tagged ‘Fad Gadget’

MUTE RECORDS – Labels We Love Mute: A Visual Document

Posted: May 25, 2020 in MUSIC
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Mute Records is arguably one of the most important independent music labels of all time, and certainly most successful and prolific. Since founding the label to release his debut single, The Normal’s ‘Warm Leatherette’ / ’T.V.O.D’ in 1978, Daniel Miller went on to spearhead the careers of such music luminaries such as Fad Gadget, Depeche Mode, Einstürzende Neubauten, curating an enviable roster of artists that culminated recently with the signing of defunct rival Factory Records most popular act: New Order.

Now Daniel Miller is curating Mute: A Visual Document—a 320 page book of comprehensive discographies, including photography and video stills from legendary photographers, conceptual artworks, and “rare ephemera and equipment”. Also included is a family tree of Mute artists,  and anecdotal and photographic contributions from important figures in the label’s history that include Moby, Alison Goldfrapp, Anton Corbijn, Bleddyn Butcher, Brian Griffin, Jon Spencer, Barry Adamson, Ivan Novak (Laibach), Angus Andrew (Liars), Adrian Shaughnessy and Tom Hingston.

The book follows the comprehensive 10-disc singles and b-sides boxset Mute: Audio Documents 1978 – 84, which was released in 2007. Exhaustive 10 CD box set from Mute Records, a collection of their singles, a and B-sides, released between 1978 – 84. The box contains four two-CD sets, each covering a specific time period (1978-81, 1982, 1983 and 1984) plus a bonus two disc set that contains 20 rarities by most of the artists featured in this box including Depeche Mode, Yazoo, Fad Gadget, Nick Cave, Non, Silicon Teens and the Normal. The first four volumes will be available separately later in 2007, but the bonus two CD set will only be available with this box! 128 groundbreaking tracks by one of the finest independent labels to emerge during the ‘new wave’ revolution. Also features cuts from D.A.F., Boyd Rice, Smegma, Robert Rental and more. 2008.

Sure, it’s definitely just label friends, to which I only partially count myself. So I was all the more surprised by what there was to discover.
For those interested in buying: Here on 10CDs you will find the complete back catalogue of all MUTE 7″ singles from 1978- 1984 nice with A & B-page.
From this not only “things that are on the books and are also on the albums”. I’ve discovered a lot, I was amazed at what was pressed on vinyl at the time.
The rarities are all rather live stuff, of which the concert by The Normal & Robert Rental 1978 was the absolute highlight for me. (The label connoisseur already knows this as a vinyl bootleg) If you ignore the sound quality, the gig was 25 years ahead of its time. That could have rocked the club in 1993.

The only shortcoming is the price. But maybe there are for those who don’t need everything, download the single tracks at Mute The box should probably also be picked and the CDs appear individually – apart from the rarities, this definitely should not give any more. Who knows? I’m looking forward to part 2! 85- 91 I also find exciting.

Mute Audio Documents / Various

Mute: A Visual Document, is a project helmed by author and musician Terry Burrows is being released by Thames & Hudson on November 28th

VARIOUS ARTISTS – ” Electrical Language ” 1978-1984 Box Set

Posted: March 22, 2019 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Cherry Red is putting out a 4CD 80 track set that celebrates the independent side of the UK’s post punk synthpop boom that took place between 1978 and 1984. The collection is called Electrical Language and it also comes with a booklet featuring the sleeve notes from many of the recordings and words from the artists themselves. The collection includes several household names such as OMD, The Normal , Human League, Thomas Dolby and Fad Gadget in addition to underground artists from the era.

This collection also contains some hidden gems from Mute Records, Rough Trade, 4AD, Survival Records and of course, Cherry Red. Cherry Red Records say this about the collection,

A broad church from the outset, this synth-pop movement wasted no time in embracing players from all corners of the musical dressing up box. From guitar groups drafting in a keyboard playing friend and the progressive rockers using their expensive banks of electronics in new ways to the modernists and the Thatcherists, full of unabashed aspiration, and the punks – arguably the purest punks of them all – who discarded the guitar and the drum kit overnight in their pursuit of something fresh that their generation could truly call their own. All were welcome, and all contributed to the many different directions synth-pop would mutate in over the coming five or six years.

‘Electrical Language’ captures this time and place in microscopic detail. The uptempo would-be hits with suburban nightclub aspirations, the science and technology enthralled proto-techno workouts and the otherworldy experiments are all here, sitting comfortably amongst each other in some cases, jostling for position in others. This was a post-punk revolution of another kind, played out on a stage free of the traditional boundaries and limitations, entirely alien to anybody over twenty-five and enthralled by the new and the exotic. For the first time in a while, the future looked bright, albeit illuminated with electric light.