Mudboy “MuDMuX Volume One” (DNT035) (digital)

DNT is proud to present the digital reissue of Mudboy’s “MuDMuX Volume One” 7,” first released in 2008 in a blue vinyl edition with foldout silkscreen poster in an edition of 535.

Available digitally now for the first time! A handful of the original vinyl with original silkscreen poster and packaging are available signed as well.

The mux in Mudmux refers to “muxing”-, a way of combining information through a process of interleaving rather than simply layering or chopping. Interpreted loosely here as a way to combine incompatible audio- Both tracks navigate the frontier of this digital/analogue landscape. On one the reeds of Alec K Redfearn’s accordion played against the increasingly fractured and mechanical voice of Nona Marie of Dark Dark Dark, while the other side reimagines Extreme Animals open source midi drum track against a quite living drum kit played by Jeremy Harris. In both mudboy used a novel *at the time- sonic technique- digitally slicing audio files to affect the timing without affecting the pitch. The cover art is a multi-color silkscreen poster similarly tossed back and forth between analog and digital spaces in collaboration with the master illustrator Kevin Hooyman.
This reissue, along with Mudboy’s “Summer of Saucers” cassette (DNT041) and “Livish 2007” cdr (DNT15) is part of DNT’s digital reissue series, bringing back a few out of print DNT releases at a time. If you already own a copy of the physical 7”, get in touch for a download code!

Below is the original blurb and reviews:
“This is the first installment of a series of 7″‘s to be released by various labels. Each record contains a single track on each side by a different band- produced, mixed, orchestrated, destroyed, mutilated and brought back to life by the dark dreams of Mr. Mudboy. Side A of this first edition features an unearthed file by the Extreme Animals resurrected as a tribute to “Lil John Carpenter.” Percussion by Jeremy Lazy “animal” Magnet Harris.

Side B is a devastating whirlpool cliff walk based on a song written and sung by the DarkDarkDark band. Backup fingers by Alec K Redfearn
of the Eyesores fame. Cover art is a hand made blue and gold 4 pass silkscreen by R Lyon in collaboration with Kevin Hooyman. Limited to
535.”

REVIEWS:
“Garbled remixes of material recorded by Extreme Animals and Dark Dark Dark, committed by a typically jumpy Providence based polymath. The packaging is a goddamn riot of colours and textures. As to the music, well the A side is the most spunked-out cartoon soundtrack around, and the flip is dolorously recut accordian blues.” -Wire Magazine, September 2008 issue

“Eccentrics seem to gravitate to the organ. From the straightlaced dudes romping on movie house pipe organs to soul masters like Timmy Thomas to underground heroes like Quintron, the keys off an odd home. Mudboy is the name now burbling about the organ underworld. His album on Not Not Fun is a great mind blitz. Here he embarks on what is to be the beginning of a series of him screwing around with other people’s songs. On Mudmux he remixes or adds to or something songs by the Extreme Animals and DarkDarkDark for one eerie ballad of sorts and a tune that resembles an outtake from a soundtrack of odd movie music.” -SS (Z-Gun)

“You gotta check this Mudboy sleeve. It’s all lovely and hand made and painted with lovely metallic paint and everything. It seems Mudboy have a habit of having records in wicked sleeves. ‘MuDmUX’ is just kicking in with its intense drums and lovely John Carpenter synth sound that does the business for me as i love John Carpenter. There’s clattering moments and then gentle breakdowns with trippy electronics This is way cool and you so need a piece of it.” -(Norman Records)

“Resuscitated remixes by organ grinder Mudboy of Extreme Animals and DarkDarkDark. To say he makes an improvement on either is modest; that he may have found the key within his own keys to make these pieces more meaningful than they’d be on their own is more like it. Doesn’t take too many left turns, but instead focuses on the inherent spookiness of the tracks themselves, and builds on their very present “circus just left town” motif. 535 copies, blue vinyl, impressive silkscreened sleeves. Other labels have committed to releasing future installments of these remixes.” -Dusted

“The first in an ongoing series of remixes, arrangements and demolitions of other peoples’ tracks, MUDMUX was the first I’d heard of Mudboy. As far as I can tell, Mudboy’s based out of the lively Providence scene, but this is hardly Lightning Bolt material. Rather, Mudboy plays the organ, whether it be old school Wurlitzer style (he hunkered down to the most epicly ornate organ I’ve ever seen at a free show at the Providence Performing Arts Center) or his own contraption, the “Mudboy Minnie,” which is basically a small organ hooked up to a Yamaha FM synth. He’ll even make you one for a cool grand if you want. Actually worth checking out his little website, it seems to give a bit of insight into his unique approach. As I said though, this is the first in a planned series, each one released by a different label with a different color scheme. I should start by saying that Tynan over at DNT did a great job with the packaging here. I mean look at that cover, it’s super intricate. I guess he enlisted the apparently substantial screen printing talents of R Lyon and Kevin Hooyman so cheers to them. The blue vinyl only adds to it.

As for the sounds, the first side is a remix of some Extreme Animals midi file called “RockRapPopRocks,” which Mudboy claims was originally recorded onto a floppy disc! The remix is retitled “Lil John Carpenter Tribute Song.” I don’t know who Lil John Carpenter is, but this is some tribute. Starting off with a kind of pseudo-techno bass beat, the thing builds itself into real midi mayhem. It’s pretty dancey stuff on the surface, but given that I have no idea which sounds are coming from Extreme Animals and which aren’t, I don’t really know who’s doing what here. It’s like some glitched out video game score, with the clattering and, well, muddy drums of–dig this name–Jeremy Lazy Animal Magnet Harris adding a weird sort of dementia to the whole thing. If I had to wager a guess, I’d say that all of the odd electronics in the background, lurching around like some manic circus sideshow score, are Mudboy making what once had to be a pretty grooving number a weird disfigured freak of the hipster dance party.

The B side is another cover from a band I had only heard of to this point, DarkDarkDark. The original track was called “Come Home,” and it seems the new one is too, though who knows why he would rename one and not the other. Consisancy is over-rated I guess. That said, this one’s super weird. Odd little girl vocals a la Joanna Newsom are meshed with the accordion additions of Nona Marie Dark to create a super weird street performance diddy. The whole thing keeps slowing down and getting more and more looming, eventually warping from sun-shiny Shirley Temple stylings into a dark little sea chanty as sung by the captain’s crippled daughter. The voice, despite the subtle background textures and increasingly warped accordion lines, maintains some semblance of it’s cutesy delivery, cutting through the murk no matter how slow it gets until the very end, when everything is broken down to such a degree that the digital signals start to reveal themselves–a grim fade out indeed. The “backup fingers,” whatever that means, are provided by Alec K Redfearn of the Eyesores.

It’s all very beautifully mixed and Mudboy clearly has a talent for putting his own touches on things without completely destroying the integrity of the songs themselves. Though the originals sound like they probably aren’t exactly my bag, Mudboy keeps it interesting and intensely oddball–this is clearly someone with a grasp on their aesthetic. The next edition of the series will be orange and called Dub This! which sounds a little more like my style. Given what he did with this material, I’d love to see where he takes that one.” -Ear Conditioned Nightmare

“This is another single I got a little confused at what speed it’s meant to be heard…it’s certainly frantic enough at 45, but 33 sounds just a little too slow, so 45 is what I’m sticking with…..it’s more bent elecronic-y. Immediately this is really creating some kind of 90’s horror movie theme tension, like any good John Carpenter soundtrack…. combined with all kinds of clipped and cut up beats behind panning back and forth. Quiet sinister wind howling, breathy noises and I think there’s a conversation …or some kind of human voices somewhere in the mix. Apparently this was an old midi file unearthed on a floppy from what I’m getting was a previous project from mudboy called Extreme Animals(?). Or maybe he just knew them to get permission to use this? This track originally entitled ‘Raprockpoprocks’ now dubbed ‘Lil John Carpenter Tribute Song’, which leads me to believe there’s some lil’ John samples/influence in there somewhere, along with the mixed in metal clanging, and cymbal crashing which pokes out over the synth line every few measures. It increasingly gets electronic and glitchy and takes you out back where it started on slow deliberate synth bassline.
The B-side takes you in a completely different direction…originally by the DarkDarkDark band called ‘Come Home’…it’s all accordion and slow vocals from Nona Marie Dark. Another ominous track Mudboy devolves into tempo bending slowness by the end, drawing out a single word for seconds, turning them spectral. The voice turned ghostly entity who is asking you to come home…but probably by now means come home to die. The vocals are two different takes layered across channels with real huge separation. I’m getting the feeling Mudboy tends to take things on a dark path, and gravitates towards working this kind of thing.
The DNT packaging as always is amazing…this is no exception…the printed sleeve is ultra thick ink and almost seeps through the other side…real handmade and one of a kind.” -7inches blog

“I’ll start by saying that this 7inch is absolutely phenomenal in every way. The music, the art/packaging—all top notch. Now that is out of the way, I can get to the music. Side A is titled “Lil John Carpenter Tribute Song” which is a pretty great name because it describes the song perfectly. Eerie organ/electric piano riffs but with a major groove. The pristinely constructed keyboard parts are offset by trashcan percussion rumblings courtesy of someone called Jeremy Lazy Animal Magnet Harris. If that person is also Lazy Magnet then I saw him play a long time ago, if not then I don’t know who he is. That’s beside the point though. This track is somehow a resurrection of a MIDI file of an Extreme Animals’ song “RockRapPopRocks” that was recorded onto a floppy disk. I’m not familiar with Extreme Animals, but somehow I feel that even if I was I would have no idea how the whole MIDI floppy disk thing translated into this. This track is amazing. It’s moody and catchy as hell and through the 100 times I’ve probably played it’s never gotten old. Things start with a grouping of keyboard lines and the track just builds through its duration piling on more and more warbly, grooving keys, weird electronic sounds, cut up percussion, the works. Totally brilliant. The flipside is “Come Home”, which is based on a song by a band called DarkDarkDark. Vocals and main accordion are credited to Nona Marie Dark, so I’m guessing this isn’t a “remix” and she recorded her part specifically for this piece. This song is much different than the A-side but just as great. First of all, this appears to be a wonderfully well-written song so credit to Dark for that. She has a beautiful, expressive voice and the loping, smoky accordion is a perfect accompaniment to her voice. Mudboy plays it very minimally to his credit here. He places the vox/accordion front and center and then places little details throughout the track and subtly manipulates the voice and accordion. The track vacillates between folk/pop song structure and extended, almost drone-like passages. It all culminates with Dark’s electronically colored vocals over pulsing electronic loops. Another brilliant piece that, after all the times I’ve listened to it, is always fresh and inspiring and gorgeous. One of the best releases of the year. MUDMUX Vol. 1 has a foldout 4 pass silkscreen cover by R. Lyon and Kevin Hooyman with a radiant, fitting color scheme and it comes with a very informative insert. The 7inch itself is crystal blue with cool silver/graphite grey labels. Utterly fantastic, and only 5.50 postpaid. Mudboy really inspires the best in labels I guess.” -auxiliary out

“Raphael Lyon outta Providence, RI.???? He does odd electronics & such using his own hand crafted organ.?? This 7??? is experimental & strangely beautiful.?? Let???s start shall we?… Put a popcorn popper on overload & grind on an 8-bit organ.?? Don???t push it too far.?? Just let those buttery kernels explode over the crash cymbals & plodding organ rhythms.?? Throw in a bit of melodic riffs, simple electronics & give it a sense of danger.?? That oughtta do the trick for SIDE A.
SIDE B is a little more wacky??? uh, make that drugged out Bruce Haack & Miss Nelson kiddie time weirdo wacky.?? Cutesy little kids singing about happiness tainted by bittersweet sadness & longing.?? Lonely accordion bellows draw out the melancholy.?? These tykes hazy voices grow increasingly lethargic & drowsier as the music warps, slowly stretches & turns groggy.?? These little bastards are sick on opium & might be eerily close to being snuffed out.?? Bizarre.” -KFJC