Mute Records: The Historical and Artistic Contexts of Britain's Key Independent Record Label

266 Pages·2019·4.643 MB·English

by  Zuleika Beaven, Marcus O’Dair, Richard Osborne

Mute Records
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Mute Records
Artists, Business, History
Edited by Zuleika Beaven, Marcus O’Dair
and Richard Osborne
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BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC
Bloomsbury Publishing Inc
1385 Broadway, New York, NY 10018, USA
50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK
BLOOMSBURY, BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC and the Diana logo are trademarks of
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published in the United States of America 2019
Paperback edition published 2020
Copyright © Zuleika Beaven, Marcus O’Dair, Richard Osborne and Contributors, 2019
For legal purposes the Acknowledgements on p. viii–x constitute an extension of this
copyright page.
Cover design: Adrian Cartwright
Cover image © Adrian Cartwright
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior
permission in writing from the publishers.
Bloomsbury Publishing Inc does not have any control over, or responsibility for,
any third-party websites referred to or in this book. All internet addresses given in
this book were correct at the time of going to press. The author and publisher regret
any inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites have ceased to exist,
but can accept no responsibility for any such changes.
Whilst every effort has been made to locate copyright holders the publishers would be
grateful to hear from any person(s) not here acknowledged.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Beaven, Zuleika. | O’Dair, Marcus. | Osborne, Richard, 1967-
Title: Mute Records : artists, business, history / edited by Zuleika Beaven,
Marcus O’Dair and Richard Osborne.
Description: New York, NY : Bloomsbury Academic, 2019. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018038547 | ISBN 9781501340604 (hardback : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9781501340628 (epdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Mute (Record label) | Electronica (Music)–History and criticism. |
Noise music–History and criticism. | Alternative rockmusic–History and criticism.
Classification: LCC ML3792.M87 M87 2019 | DDC 384–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018038547
ISBN: HB: 978-1-5013-4060-4
PB:978-1-5013-6547-8
ePDF: 978-1-5013-4062-8
eBook: 978-1-5013-4061-1
Typeset by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India
To find out more about our authors and books visit www.bloomsbury.com
and sign up for our newsletters.
Contents
List of Plates and Figures vii
Acknowledgements viii
List of Contributors xi
Introduction: Mute Records Richard Osborne and Zuleika Beaven 1
1 ‘Let’s Make Love Before You Die’: ‘Warm Leatherette’, Boredom and
the Invention of the 1980s S. Alexander Reed 15
2 ‘One Man’s Meat’: Fad Gadget’s Social Commentary and
Post-Punk Giuseppe Zevolli 31
3 Depeche Mode and Soft Cell: Redefining the Synth-Pop
Prologue Leon Clowes 47
4 Fans of Faith and Devotion: Obsession, Nostalgia and Depeche
Mode Andy Pope 59
5 Throbbing Gristle’s Early Records: Post-Hippie/Pre-Punk/
Post-Punk John Encarnacao 71
6 ‘Join That Troubled Chorus’: Nick Cave, the Bad Seeds and the
Blues Ross Cole 87
7 Mark Stewart, ‘Somewhere’ Edward George 101
8 ‘Sometimes, Always’: Erasure, Mute and the Value of
Independence Brenda Kelly 113
9 Outside Mute? Ut, No Wave and Blast First Ieuan Franklin 127
10 The Mash-Up of Aesthetics, Theory and Politics in Laibach’ s
Meta-Sound Aténé Mendelyté 141
11 The Blessed Glow of Labour: Independence, Style and Process
in the Music of Swans Dean Lockwood 155
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vi Contents
12 Moby, Minstrelsy and Melville Richard Osborne 169
13 Country Girl: Rural Feminism in the Performance of Alison
Goldfrapp Lucy O’Brien 183
14 Twist: Goldfrapp’s Genre Perversion Glyn Davis 197
15 Arca: Mute’s Mutant Michael Waugh 209
16 Composing in Circuitry: Sonic Artist Dirty
Electronics Lourdes Nicole Crosby Garcí a 223
Index 235
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List of Plates and Figures
Plates
Plate 1 Untitled (1996A) from the series Country Girls. Courtesy of
Anna Fox and Alison Goldfrapp
Plate 2 Untitled (1996B) from the series Country Girls. Courtesy of
Anna Fox and Alison Goldfrapp
Plate 3 Untitled (1997A) from the series Country Girls. Courtesy of
Anna Fox and Alison Goldfrapp
Plate 4 Untitled (1997B) from the series Country Girls. Courtesy of
Anna Fox and Alison Goldfrapp
Plate 5 Untitled (2000) from the series Country Girls. Courtesy of
Anna Fox and Alison Goldfrapp
Plate 6 Untitled (1999) from the series Country Girls. Courtesy of
Anna Fox and Alison Goldfrapp
Figures
Figure 1.1 Structure of the title hook in ‘Warm Leatherette’,
S. Alexander Reed 15
Figure 1.2 Google Books incidence graph of the phrase ‘boredom’ 20
Figure 1.3 Sex Pistols, ‘Pretty Vacant’ (Virgin 1977). Designed by
Jamie Reid 23
Figure 2.1 Front sleeve of Fad Gadget, ‘Back to Nature’ (Mute 1979) 32
Figure 2.2 Front sleeve of Fad Gadget, ‘Ricky’s Hand’ (Mute 1980).
Courtesy of Simone Grant 35
Figure 2.3 Back sleeve of Fad Gadget, ‘Ricky’s Hand’ (Mute 1980).
Courtesy of Simone Grant 36
Figure 2.4 Front sleeve of Fad Gadget, Gag (Mute 1994). Photograph
by Anton Corbijn 39
Figure 2.5 Inner sleeve for Frank Tovey, Snakes and Ladders (Mute
1986). Courtesy of Paul White 44
Figure 6.1 Front cover of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ ‘Tupelo’ 7”
single (Mute 1985) 95
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Acknowledgements
Thanks to Daniel Miller, David McGinnis, Sinead McCloskey and all at Mute;
Zoe Miller at Zopf; Nadia Coppelman at Middlesex University; and Leah Babb-
Rosenfeld at Bloomsbury.
The editors and publisher gratefully acknowledge the permission granted to
reproduce the following copyright material in this book:
‘Anglia’ written by M. Fras, D. Knez and I. Novak, courtesy Mute Song Limited.
‘Blind Eyes’ written by F. Tovey and P. Balmer, courtesy Mute Song Limited.
‘Blind Lemon Jefferson’ written by N. Cave, B. Bargeld, B. Adamson and M.
Harvey, courtesy Mute Song Limited.
‘Caravan Girl’ written by A. Goldfrapp and W. Gregory, courtesy Warner/
Chappell Music Publishing Limited.
‘The Circus’ written by A. Bell and V. Clarke, courtesy SM Publishing (UK) Ltd).
‘Collapsing New People’ written by F. Tovey, D. Simmonds, D. Rogers, N. Cash
and B. Frost, courtesy Mute Song Limited.
‘Cologne Cerrone Houdini’ written by A. Goldfrapp and W. Gregory, courtesy
Warner/Chappell Music Publishing Limited.
‘Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!’ written by N. Cave, courtesy Mute Song Limited.
‘Faith Healer’ lyrics by M. Stewart, courtesy Mute Song Limited.
‘Fireside Favourite’ written by F. Tovey, courtesy Mute Song Limited.
‘Hideaway’ written by A. Bell and V. Clarke, courtesy SM Publishing (UK) Ltd).
‘Higgs Boson Blues’ written by N. Cave and W. Ellis, courtesy Mute Song Limited.
‘Hypnotized’ written by M. Stewart, courtesy Mute Song Limited.
‘I Discover Love’ written by F. Tovey, courtesy Mute Song Limited.
‘Ideal World’ written by F. Tovey, B. Frost and N. Cash, courtesy Mute Song
Limited.
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