Analog Connections - Join The Cassette Network

Our Industrial News "tapes received" trail reaches into the early 80s, and attention turns to quality. Robert H. King leads us into this episode, where we speak with Matt Johnson (The The) and Martyn Bates (Eyeless In Gaza). Martyn Bates of Eyeless In Gaza picks up the thread. As Migraine Inducers he sent the Dissonance tape into the network and landed in Industrial News issue four. Name check for an early Portobello Rd label ID Cassettes, by Mark Perry (Alternative TV/Deptford Fun City). Ambivalent Scale, Martyn’s own label with Pete Becker, was a container for all of their early solo releases plus outputs from a cohort including Bron Area, The Stick Insects and Kevin Harrison. Matt Johnson of The The details his early attendance at Throbbing Gristle shows and connection with the group members. The tape he passed on to Genesis led to his own mention in Industrial News in the September 79 issue. But then, he drops another mind bomb: The promoter behind many of Throbbing Gristle's London gigs was Colin Faver, later a major DJ in the acid house scene of 1988 and pirate broadcaster on London’s Kiss FM. With Kevin Millins he ran Final Solution, promoting many TG gigs including Butler’s Wharf and the legendary show at the YMCA with TG, Cabaret Voltaire and Rema Rema. Geoff Rushton’s Stabmental zine is referenced once again as the print which contained all of the most progressive music in the emerging Industrial scene. The compilation cassette intended to be issue 6 of the zine, “The Men with The Deadly Dreams” gathers a seminal set of recordings, including tracks by Eyeless In Gaza, Rema Rema, Chris Carter, Richard H Kirk and Chris Watson. Watson himself produced and mastered the tape at Cabaret Voltaire’s Western Works studio in 1981. Hosted by Martin Franklin. Theme music “This Is Concrete” by The Happy Citizen. DISCOVER THE VIDEO You can find videos of some of the amazing artefacts, fanzines and cassette releases that drop through our letterbox on our YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/@CassetteCulturePodcast

Searching for connection and community; we track the story of Chris Connelly (Fini Tribe, Ministry, Revolting Cocks, Pigface) discovering Throbbing Gristle via the John Peel Radio show and getting in touch. Meanwhile, Joe Strummer of The Clash spreads the DIY gospel to a young Robert H. King after a gig at the Apollo Theatre in Glasgow, resulting in formation of the Pleasantly Surprised cassette label. When the two come together a few years later, the Fini Tribe contribution to "You Bet We've Got Something Against You" on King's new Cathexis Recordings label, followed by the "Let The Tribe Grow" EP, propels both the label and the band on to greater things. Chris Connelly is another of the artists featured in the "Tapes Received" listing of TG's Industrial News zine. This resulted in local underground musicians showing up at his door and handmade cassettes from the likes of Nurse With Wound arriving in the mail. Geoff Rushton (later John Balance of Coil) compiled "Endzeit," a hand-numbered edition of 230 copies on Datenverarbeitung carrying Virgin Prunes, Section 25 and four tracks by a young Cultural Amnesia. Geoff’s own slim White Stains Tapes imprint released “The Men With The Deadly Dreams”. Both releases appearing as inspirational touchstones, connecting back into our wider story. King’s Pleasantly Surprised label ran from 1982 to 1984, its artfully packaged cassette compilations opening with The Birthday Party and carrying early tracks from Cocteau Twins, Primal Scream, The Wake, Marine Girls, Billy MacKenzie, Bauhaus, The Wolfgang Press, Test Dept, and Cultural Amnesia. By 1986, the saturation of the cassette market created a tipping point when the label morphed into vinyl releases on Cathexis Recordings. Chris Connelly and Fini Tribe burst onto the wider music scene after being picked up for a John Peel Session, releasing on their own Finiflex label and beginning to collaborate with the US Wax Trax! label. Ultimately Chris moved to Chicago, joined Ministry and Al Jourgensen side-project Revolting Cocks - using his background in the DIY experimentalism of the tape scene to forge the template for some ferocious Industrial Rock during the ’90s.

Some of the most surprising and revealing connections surface in this episode. Two worlds that rarely get mentioned in the same breath: Throbbing Gristle's Industrial Records, and Manchester's Factory Records. At the centre are two more names from the Industrial News “tapes received" list; Paul Wiggin of Section 25 and Robbie MacDonald of Crawling Chaos offshoot, Zyklon B Zombies. Both aspiring musicians who connected with TG's Industrial News zine by sending cassettes of their music. Paul describes experiencing the crushing, low-frequency weight of the early Throbbing Gristle gigs which stunned a generation of post-punk audiences with the “sonic warfare” that the band were waging. Later, a direct-to-tape demo sent to Industrial Records came back with an invitation from Genesis P-Orridge to London, and a glimpse of TG’s world via a Cosey Fanni Tutti performance. Section 25’s support slot for Joy Division, followed with Ian Curtis's word was enough to secure a deal with Factory Records. Setting them off on recordings sessions with Martin Hannett at Cargo, and Pink Floyd's old Britannia Row studio. Over in Newcastle, Robbie MacDonald was working behind the scenes for The Crawling Chaos, creating sleeves, booking gigs, and supporting their own label, Foetus Products. Ahead of a gig at Whitley Bay's Rex Hotel, word went round that Throbbing Gristle themselves might turn up under an alias: Zyklon B Zombies. The backing tape built for the hoax made its way to Industrial Records as something of a joke at the band's own expense and, whatever became of any reply, it landed the Zyklon B Zombies in the "Tapes Received" list regardless. Two Factory scouts in that night's crowd left far more taken with The Crawling Chaos than with the prank, leading to a clandestine meet up with Tony Wilson, and the eventual release on Factory Benelux of FAC 17. Hosted by Martin Franklin. Theme music "This Is Concrete" by The Happy Citizen. DISCOVER THE VIDEO You can find videos of cassette tapes, artefacts and unboxings from the cassette underground on our YouTube channel: youtube.com/@CassetteCulturePodcast IN THIS EPISODE THANKS Jerry Kranitz, co-host for all interviews recorded in the series. Richard Rupenus, for research and series advice. VOICES Martin Franklin Paul Wiggin Robbie MacDonald MUSIC "Fallen Monument" Section 25, Illuminus Illumina (self-released cassette) "Live" Throbbing Gristle at the Ajanta Cinema, Derby, 1979 “Life” Side A, Zyklon B Zombies backing tape "You" Section 25, Jams From The Bardo "Red Voice" Section 25, Blackpool Rox EP "Rose Apple Island" Section 25, Jams From The Bardo "New Horizon" Section 25 "Death" Side B, Zyklon B Zombies backing tape "Sex Machine" Crawling Chaos (demo) LINKS Section 25: https://section25.com/ Crawling Chaos: https://crawlingchaos.co.uk/ Factory Records archive: https://factoryrecords.org/ Section 25 "Jams From The Bardo" is available on Klanggalerie. https://klanggalerie.bandcamp.com/album/jams-from-the-bardo FIND US https://cassetteculturepodcast.com SUPPORTERS Help us keep Cassette Culture alive! This podcast is enabled by generous supporters who contribute toward the costs of researching, producing and publishing each episode. You can become one of them at: https://cassetteculturepodcast.bandcamp.com/subscribe Help keep Cassette Culture alive - Become a Supporter: https://cassetteculturepodcast.bandcamp.com/subscribe See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From 1978-1980, Throbbing Gristle's Industrial Records published a newsletter called Industrial News. With a philosophy of exchange and transparency, they listed attendance numbers at their concerts, future label plans, and a list of contacts who had mailed them tapes of their own music: the “Tapes Received” list. Capturing a cultural watershed moment where the bedroom bands of the DIY Punk scene gave way to something new: ambitious, experimental, abstract, industrial. Making music using the newly available technology of synthesisers, with tape media and looping as part of the creative process. In this episode of Cassette Culture we begin to unravel the story of those tapes sent to Industrial Records - what was on them, and what became of the artists who sent them? At the centre of this episode is Val Denham - painter, singer and tape experimentalist. We hear how a deliberately provocative letter to Genesis P-Orridge loaded with insider references, led to a invitation to London and the beginning of a friendship that would influence her creative life. Her early tape recordings won fans in Genesis and Peter Christopherson and almost became a release on Industrial Records. Val walks us through the London of the late 70’s, studying at the Royal College Of Art while creating striking artwork for TG gig flyers, attracting Some Bizarre Records’ Stevo and Marc Almond to her Degree Show. Then later creating album artwork for Marc & The Mambas, Psychic TV, and Throbbing Gristle. Philip Sanderson of Storm Bugs and Richard Rupenus of Funeraldance Party offer their own stories of corresponding with TG, sending in tapes, and finding themselves part of a growing international network of like-minded artists. Richard received an encouraging letter from Genesis himself; Philip developed his own music as Vote Police, Storm Bugs and launched his label, Snatch Tapes. Years later, after the death of Genesis P-Orridge both contributed to a search for the original “tapes received” cassettes. A search that ended at the Tate Gallery archive and, ultimately, led nowhere. Hosted by Martin Franklin. Theme music "This Is Concrete" by The Happy Citizen. DISCOVER THE VIDEO You can find videos of cassette tapes, artefacts and unboxings from the cassette underground on our YouTube channel: youtube.com/@CassetteCulturePodcast IN THIS EPISODE THANKS We have benefited from the extensive knowledge of Richard Rupenus for the theme and many factual ingredients in this episode. Jerry Kranitz co-hosts all interviews recorded for the series. VOICES Martin Franklin Richard Rupenus Philip Sanderson Val Denham

The strange, uncompromising world of Alien Brains, the project led by Nigel Jacklin that helped define the outer edges of the early 1980s DIY cassette underground. Emerging from a school science lab, inspired by John Cage and nurtured by the fledgling cassette network, Alien Brains rejected conventional song structures in favour of pure spontaneity, raw improvisation and a deliberate embrace of failure as an artistic possibility. The DIY cassette scene of 1979, with its “it's easy, cheap, go and do it” ethos, provided the perfect outlet for these early recordings. Mark Lancaster of The Instant Automatons and Deleted Records recalls encountering Nigel, playing an early gig with him at his school, and releasing the first Alien Brains cassette “Menial Disorders”. The story takes a notorious turn into the heart of the British public school system. As head of the Rock Society at Oundle School, Nigel invites Throbbing Gristle and Monte Cazazza to perform in the main hall, a collision of avant-garde industrial noise and traditional boarding school culture. We find a recording of Cosey Fanni Tutti sharing her memories of the shock induced by the performance - to teachers and pupils alike. For some it was an outrage; for others, a transformative experience. The concert recordings were released by Industrial Records on VHS and cassette tape. Richard Rupenus of the New Blockaders recalls finding Deleted Records via an advert in the DIY Corner column of the music paper Sounds, ordering the first Alien Brains release and eventually joining the group. He describes the strange, semi-chaotic Alien Brains performance at The Basement in Newcastle in 1982, where the band added another layer to the experience by introducing pungent smells into the venue’s heating system. Nigel picks up the thread to talk about working with non-musicians such as Neil Purvis, echoing John Cage’s belief that people without formal training can be freer of inherited constraints. He describes recordings made in unlikely spaces – a disused Second World War water tower, an out-of-tune piano in a Women’s Institute hut – and a string of performances, including a sparsely attended but historically rich show at Centro Iberico on Harrow Road in London, a squatted former school where Throbbing Gristle and Whitehouse had previously played. An excerpt from this performance would later appear on the “British Interiors” cassette, with members of Nurse With Wound among the few in the audience that night. Philip Sanderson of Storm Bugs and Snatch Tapes, recalls habits in the pre-internet era when people simply turned up at your house if they’d found your address on a tape insert. He remembers Nigel arriving at his place and joining in impromptu recording sessions that turned everyday spaces and objects – old school buildings, gas pipes, scraping furniture – into sound sources, a UK parallel to the kind of improvised noise later associated with acts like The New Blockaders. The network kept widening. A chance meeting at Rough Trade in London connected Nigel with the Dutch scene and led to a New Year's Eve concert in Amsterdam — the biggest Alien Brains ever played. Bendle of The Door and the Window became a regular collaborator, the two of them hanging microphones out of windows to capture street conversations, feeding urban collage into the Alien Brains machine. By the 1985, it was over. A final performance at the Architectural Association — a mess of equipment, wires and confusion for someone's degree show — Nigel takes a taxi home and that was the end of Alien Brains. Hosted by Martin Franklin. Theme music "This Is Concrete" by The Happy Citizen. DISCOVER THE VIDEO You can find videos of cassette tapes, artefacts and unboxings from the cassette underground on our YouTube channel: youtube.com/@CassetteCulturePodcast IN THIS EPISODE THANKS We have benefited from the extensive knowledge of Richard Rupenus for many elements in this episode. Including sourcing of the record