Showing posts with label Mute. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mute. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 27, 2017

Mute's Visual History Documented

Just before Christmas and during the last days of the running year, Mute has released a coffee table picture book 'MUTE: A VISUAL DOCUMENT FROM 1978 TO TOMORROW'. This 320 pages book puts on display 40-year history of one of the most influential labels in history. It includes cover artworks from some of the biggest Mute stars, including Depeche Mode, Yazoo, Wire, Erasure and much more, plus numerous short informative essays on the label history. Also along comes the complete Albums and Singles discography at the back of the book. The book has been compiled by Terry Burrows with contribution of Daniel Miller.

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Mute Tribute: Fad Gadget / Frank Tovey 1956 - 2002

Ten years have passed since Frank Tovey aka Fad Gadget passed away in April 2002. Tovey was regarded alongside Cabaret Voltaire and Human League as one of the finest exponents of the early 80's electronic dance movement in the UK. Daniel Miller said that Frank was the first artist he has ever worked with on Mute and added that he made some very special and influential records and that he was an exceptional live performer. His former label is honoring its famed first signee with a new video tribute, which we’ve posted above. The label writes: “We miss him dearly. Play your favourite Fad Gadget or Frank Tovey tune really loud today. In loving memory.”


    

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Erasure- Tomorrow's World

Erasure have released their fourteenth studio album entitled 'Tomorrow's World' this Friday, September 30th. The album was written in New York, London, and at Vince Clarke's cabin studio in Maine, between January and June 2011 and it was produced by Frankmusik and mixed by Rob Orton, who has previously remixed other well-known electronic artists such as Lady Gaga and Pet Shop Boys. The first single is titled "When I Start To (Break It All Down)" and was released on 23 September 2011. Like all the previous records, this album is out on Mute Records.

http://www.erasureinfo.com/

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Erasure- Tomorrow's World

Erasure have announced details about their new album which is set for release on October 3rd. The album will be called 'Tomorrow's World' and it will be available as as a regular CD & download and a special deluxe CD. Their new single 'When I Start To (Break It All Down)' will be available on September 26th, with a single-track download being made available on August 29th.Like all the essential Erasure releases, their new material is released on Mute.


Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Konnecting...

'Konnecting...' is a new Mute compilation which will be released later this month. This 15 track compilation of electro-pop brings together for the first time the works and three guises of electronic pioneers David Baker and Simon Leonard - I Start Counting, Fortran 5, Komputer. 'Konnecting...' tracks the duo’s output from the first Mute release, "Letters To A Friend"  (I Start Counting, 1984), through to the club hit, "Heart On The Line" (Fortran 5) to the very British electronic pop/folk music of "Headphones And Ringtones" and "Like A Bird", from Komputer’s 2007 release, 'Synthetik'. The release of 'Konnecting...' celebrates the duo's revisiting of their previous incarnations in the live set, and looks forward to a forthcoming Komputer release.



Sunday, March 27, 2011

Short Circuit Presents Mute

Short Circuit Electronic Music Festival returns with two days hosted by the influential label Mute. In a celebration of Mute's unique culture this event will include performances from artists past, present and future including DJ sets by Martin L. Gore, Daniel Miller, Moby and Andy Fletcher as well as special performances by Erasure, Alison Moyet, Recoil and many many more.The festival begins on May 13, 2011 with an evening hosted by German label Raster-Noton, featuring the world premiere of a new collaborative piece by Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto.



Sunday, June 13, 2010

Daniel Miller / The Normal / Silicon Teens

Daniel Miller is one of the most influential figures in the history of British electronic music. Inspired by Krautrock and early electronic music of the 70’s as well as the 60's rock 'n' roll, he began to experiment with the sound of the synthesizers. In the late 70’s, he was working as a DJ and started his first band projects The Normal and Silicon Teens. Around that time he decided to found his own record label, 'Mute' records, which would eventually release his own music. During the 80’s Mute expanded and Daniel worked as a producer, managing among others Yazoo, Fad Gadget, Depeche Mode and Erasure.

Miller was born February 14, 1951 in London and was attracted to the wild rock 'n' roll of Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry and Beatles from a very early age. In the early-'70s he was turned on to the electronic music of German groups like Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, Neu, Faust, Amon Duul, Can, and the like, affectionately known as "Krautrock."


During the punk explosion, he began listening to punk because of the energy and excitement of the music. He liked the whole do it yourself attitude that came with the style of music. This do it yourself attitude had spilled over into the electronic music scene. Synthesisers were becoming cheaper to buy and new bands were appearing such as Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire. This inspired Miller to create his own music. Making some money from film editing and working ridiculous hours he gathered enough money to buy a cheap Korg 700S synthesiser and a four track tape recorder. This led to the creation of The Normal.


Miller recorded two songs, 'Warm Leatherette' and 'TVOD' (Television Overdose). The former was inspired by J.G. Ballard's novel Crash. Not knowing anything about retail or distribution he approached 'Rough Trade Records'. They loved the recording and helped him press 2000 copies of the single. "Warm Leatherette" was released in May 1978 and sold out very quickly. After receiving critical acclaim for the project, Miller decided to explore further. After returning from the live tour, Miller found a pile of demo tapes on his doorstep. Because he had included an address on the ‘Warm Leatherette’ single cover, people had wanted to do a similar small scale deal with Mute. The turning point for Mute Records came when Miller listened to a tape by an artist called Fad Gadget and liked what he heard. In 1979 Mute Records began releasing singles by Fad Gadget including "Back to Nature", the follow up to "Warm Leatherette".


Another early 'Mute' signing was the synthpop band, Silicon Teens; Comprising of four imaginary band members Darryl, Jacki, Paul and Diane. The Silicon Teens were produced by Larry Least (Daniel Miller). The recordings were all recorded by Miller himself and engineered by Eric Radcliffe, who would later work on many other Mute releases. An album was recorded titled ‘Music for Parties’ it consisted of classic rock’n’roll songs like 'Memphis, Tennessee' and ‘Just Like Eddie’. The album became a cult classic with some major record labels approaching Miller with offers for a band that didn’t actually exist. The Silicon Teens gave an insight into Miller’s idea of an all-synthesizer, teenage pop group.

(All images are copyrighted by their respective copyright owners)

In 1982 Daniel teamed up with Graham Lewis and Bruce Gilbert of Wire to record an album titled ‘Or So it Seems’. All three had been friends for a long time. They had all been using Blackwing Studios, and had shared the same engineer, Eric Radcliffe. Duet Emmo was an anagram of Mute and Dome.

Alongside being involved in his own musical projects, he continued to run 'Mute Records' which  grew in stature, especially with the growing popularity of Depeche Mode around the globe. In 2002 EMI acquired Mute Records and still today, Daniel Miller is responsible for all of the company’s global activities.

Source:

Friday, December 1, 2006

I Start Counting

Pop experimentalists I Start Counting favored English artiness with a sense of fun. Unlike many other electronic groups from the 80's, I Start Counting never settled into a single formula; the band continued to tinker with its sound, shifting effortlessly from light to dark, accessible to avant-garde.
 
I Start Counting was formed in the early 80's by David Baker and Simon Leonard. In 1984, the duo was signed by Mute and released its debut single, the quirky "Letters to a Friend". "Letters to a Friend" easily distinguished itself from the glut of synthesizer-laden records from the mid-80's with Baker's distinctly British talk-sing style and the psychedelic feel of the keyboards. The follow-up, 1985's "Still Smiling", was hailed as another instant classic from the band. This single release emerged in April 1985. "Slight but sweet, delicate intelligent electro-pop with melody and depth," They managed to produce the mini-LP Translucent Hands by the end of 1986. The final single to be taken from Translucent Hands was a rigorous rework of "Lose Him", which appeared a year later, in January 1988, and featured samples from the legendary rubber movie Bound In Latex, as well as sampled cameos from Cary Grant and Tony Hancock.

Typically contrary, "Million Headed Monster" was the next single, in May 1989. Backed with "Listen" the former's pop thrills contrasted with the more experimental sounds of the latter. A final, full length LP 'Fused' appeared in June 1989, and provided an innovative blast of avantgarde House contrasted with ambient soundtracks and a perfect pop palette blended in-between.

From an interview with Baker
"What we try to achieve is changing all the time because what we enjoy is listening to changes. Usually, if we've just done a pop song we want something different for the next one. It would be more commercially sensible to stick to one thing and decide we were going to be completely electropop or a dance band or completely weird, but I think we'd just get bored if we did that."
In fact, the duo were about to undergo a rigorous change of identity. The name I Start Counting was laid to rest, and Barker and Leonard chose another, Fortran 5, with which to continue their musical explorations.

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