4 delayed editions on Dead Mind Records available within a few weeks;
DMR62: Lettera 22 – Blue Telepathy 7"/MC
Lettera 22 is a project of Riccardo Mazza and Matteo Castro, hailing from northeast Italy, a region riddled by ravines and sleepy villages. For Blue Telepathy, their latest album, concrete sounds, field recordings, analog instruments and tape manipulations have been edited into 4 textured compositions, drenched in tape hiss and interrupted by waves of distorted electronics. At the peak of their powers, the duo created a true sense of space and a hauntingly sensorial immersion in their shadow world where ghosts seem to come alive. A desolated landscape where distant traces of rhythm suggest the interaction of machines. There is no healing, no processing, just flashbacks and fading memories.
Lettera 22 stands tall at the intersection of different realms of experimental music and sound art. Uncompromising, with an eye for detail and a commitment to quality. Each release a perfect demonstration of their technical skills, building up a simmering tension while keeping a tight grip on the complex, dynamic mix of ambiance and sound.
DMR63: V/A – Willem de Ridder & the Radio Art Foundation present "Radiola" LP
Between 1978 and 1984, Fluxus artist Willem de Ridder did a weekly radio show called De Radiola Improvisatie Salon. Listeners were invited to send in cassettes recorded at home and would get guaranteed air�time. Willem never listened to any of the tapes in advance. No censorship or personal taste were involved, just total artistic freedom. Long before social media existed, he understood that just providing a platform could ignite boundless creativity. Willem was a visionary, always pushing boundaries while his interactive radio shows were breaking down the barriers between consumers and producers.
Unknown home tapers and independent artists would share their freshly recorded bedroom experiments with the world and Radiola became a catalyst for the rising Dutch tape scene. When the show gained popularity, broadcasts became open to the public and people would visit the salon to submit their latest cassettes in person. From these live events a network of independent labels emerged, releasing and exchanging cassettes. Punk was fading away but a new alternative to the mainstream was born.
Nobody seems to know what happened to the Radiola master cassettes, but somehow a few boxes survived and were archived by Marco van Dalfsen in 2022. We went through hours and hours of material and eventually compiled this album. A few names might sound slightly familiar, but our goal was to unearth the most obscure hidden gems of Dutch home taping culture. The result is an eclectic mix of ambient, industrial, lo-fi craziness and experimental music and offers a unique glimpse into a very specific, but still relevant piece of the past.
DMR64: Fanatic – Europe in Flames CD
The word Fanatic comes from the Latin fanum, temple. A fanatic is someone possessed, by God or the Devil. From 1985 until 1989 Willem de Ridder, Hessel Veldman, Cora Emens and Nick Nicole were the members of post-art ensemble FANATIC (or later FNTC). Willem and Hessel already worked together in the late 70s and early 80s on various radio shows performed with musicians like Alvin Curran, Francis Marie Uitti and Jon Rose. Together with Cora and Nick they started FANATIC to focus on field recordings, intimate happenings and theatrical storytelling.
As a multi-media project FANATIC was not just obsessed by sound but dedicated to live rituals, producing videos, cassettes and radio plays like Europe in Flames, the pinnacle of this album. It's a multi-layered piece for which the foundation was recorded by Willem on a boat trip to England. One of his spontaneous field recordings that sounded more like an intricate studio production. In a house near the North Sea on a windswept Autumn evening in 1985 percussion, voices, synthesizer and sound effects were added and when their friend and collaborator William Levy arrived, he listened to the freshly recorded wall of sound, took a short poem from 1978 out of his pocket and started reciting. This final layer of sound complemented the audio perfectly and the result was published on the Neuropa cassette in 1986 and is still chillingly relevant in 2025.
Their haunting, meditative and immersive audio pieces and challenging performances evoke comparisons with groups like COUM Transmissions and Throbbing Gristle. Bleak and raw, but also sensual and poetic. FANATIC released 3 cassettes in the 80s with more material to be discovered in the EXART archives. In addition to the classic Europe in Flames, we dug up 2 unreleased pieces from 87 for a long overdue overview of this Dutch cult group.
DMR66: Organ of Corti – Locus LP
Following a creative burst in 2024 that resulted in several releases on iDEAL, New Forces and No Rent, label favorites Organ of Corti are returning to DMR for their first LP. Slowly moving into new territory, they deliver 6 bare boned surreal soundscapes. Minimal, repetitive tape loops, haunting synths and vaguely familiar vocal samples are carefully mixed for a sonic exercise reminiscent of those classic Nurse with Wound and Organum releases.
The Swedish trio of scene veterans Joachim Nordwall, Mattias Gustafsson and Dan Johansson have been exploring the possibilities of sound manipulation for years, together or by themselves under various aliases. Stoically moving forward in pursuit of obscure textural, atmospheric ambiences that will get right under your skin. While the world is falling apart, they have been fine-tuning their uncomfortable and hallucinatory sound manipulations. The sort of stuff that fits a bleak, enervated mood by chewing on nerve ends, transporting heads to other places.
