MUTE have announced updates to MUTE 4.0 (1978 > TOMORROW), a series of special events and releases continuing through 2018 with plans for 2019 and beyond, ahead of this weekend’s Rough Trade Easttakeover on Saturday 13 October where Mute will host a whole day of performances, including a lunchtime modular set from Chris Carter plus shopscapes from Simon Fisher Turner. In the evening, A Certain Ratio and Lost Under Heaven will play live, and Maps will be DJing. Online tickets are now sold out for the evening event. There will be a small amount available on the door, and everyone is welcome during the day when Chris Carter and Simon Fisher Turner will be performing.
A series of Pitchblack Playback events marking MUTE 4.0 (1978 > TOMORROW), launches on Tuesday 16 October, with Yazoo’s Upstairs at Eric’s. At these unique events, listeners are invited to enjoy the album in full without distraction, in a pitchblack room (blindfolds are optional!) on The Lexi’s immersive cinema soundsystem.
Mute also announces a collaboration with 1 of 100, a specially designed t-shirt based on the The Normal T.V.O.D artwork which will be available in a strictly limited edition of 100, each shirt made to order in your chosen size, numbered and printed on organic, climate neutral cotton. The t-shirts will be available to order in the coming weeks from https://weare1of100.co.uk/
Forthcoming releases that tie in with Mute 4.0 include artists from across Mute’s catalogue as well as newer signings to the label.
Today, 12 October will see the release of special vinyl editions for Mute 4.0: “probably the world’s first teenage electronic pop group”, Silicon Teens, and their one and only album ‘Music For Parties’; Mute’s first signing, Fad Gadget - ‘Fireside Favourites’; Josh T. Pearson’s lauded ‘Last Of The Country Gentlemen’, Apparat - ‘The Devil’s Walk’; Vince Clarke and Martin Gore’s project, VCMG - ‘Ssss’ and A Certain Ratio - ‘The Graveyard & The Ballroom’. Pearson will be released on gold vinyl, Apparat on violet and the rest will be on very limited Mute 4.0 orange vinyl.
In addition, A Certain Ratio’s ACR:SET is out on today and features two new tracks from the band and Barry Adamson’s Memento Mori Anthology 1978-2018 – which includes a brand new track - is out on 26 October. Those releases will be followed in November by brand new albums from Irmin Schmidt (Klavierstucke 5), Mick Harvey & Christopher Richard Barker’s opus The Fall and Rise of Edgar Bourchier and the Horrors of War plus Laibach’s long awaited The Sound of Music. January 2019 will see the release of Lost Under Heaven’s second album, Love Hates What You Become and Mark Stewart has recently announced the definitive reissue of his debut solo album, Learning To Cope With Cowardice, available with newly discovered unreleased tracks.
Mute / BMG releases include Yazoo’s Four Pieces vinyl set and Three Pieces (CD set), both collating their two albums alongside the BBC sessions (available for the first time in full), remixes and rarities (out on 26 Oct); Grinderman’s debut album, released on limited edition green vinyl on 26 October and Nick Cave and Warren Ellis’ soundtrack for The Proposition, available on vinyl for the first time on 2 November.
Further releases include Mute Synth 4.0, the third handheld analogue synth collaboration between Mute, Adrian Shaughnessy and Dirty Electronics.
“From The Port To The Bridge”, a retrospective exhibition of the work of Thomas Leer and Robert Rental, is at the Beacon Arts Centre, Greenock until 28 October. The exhibition will include a new film about Leer and Rental featuring interviews with Daniel Miller, Chris Carter, Cosey Fanni Tutti, JD Twitch (Optimo), family members and more. Their groundbreaking work was a huge influence on early 80s synth pop and the independent music scene in the late 70s. Daniel Miller met Robert Rental at a Throbbing Gristle performance and then went on to work with Rental (releasing Live At West Runton Pavilion, 6-3-79 on Rough Trade in 1980) and release music by both Robert Rental and Thomas Leer. Robert Rental's classic double a-side single ‘Double Heart’ / ‘On Location’, was Mute's 10th single in 1980.
Mute and Thames & Hudson recently worked together on Mute: A Visual Document, a visual history of the label. One of Uncut and Rough Trade’s Books of the Year, it was described by the shop as “Beautifully bound, this book is as iconic and dynamic as Mute's musical past”. Learn more about the publication here: http://smarturl.it/MuteBook
MUTE 4.0 (1978 > TOMORROW) acknowledges the launch of a label that started out of necessilty rather than design (to release the 7” single by The Normal, ‘T.V.O.D.’ / ‘Warm Leatherette’, recorded by Daniel Miller on a KORG 700S keyboard with a TEAC four-track recorder), and marks the past 40 years, but crucially, looks forward to the label’s many years to come as it travels unapologetically into tomorrow.
New Mute merchandise will be launched in the coming months, and future announcements will include a specially commissioned release well as unique events and evenings.
Visit the recently relaunched MuteBank site: https://www.mutebank.co.uk/
Pre-order the Mute 4.0 special editions - http://smarturl.it/MUTE4.0