LONDON’S excellent World of Echo record shop, out on Columbia Road in E2, has taken the step from not just stocking an excellently curated selection of records, but issuing them too.
The shop is launching a label of the same name and is assigning 001 in its catalogue to a repressing of the only 12″ by Anglo-Berlin no-wavers Mutabor!, Two Wishes.
The limited-edition 12″ will be out on November 6th; take a listen to “1001 Nights” below.
Seemingly lost to time, Mutabor! were first brought to World of Echo’s attention when drummer/singer Gary Asquith played at the shop’s first birthday celebrations while promoting one of his other bands, Rema Rema.
The story Gary told was this: Mutabor! emerged from Berlin’s art punk underground late in 1981 when he left London to set up temporary residence in the city following a chance meeting with Malaria!’s Bettina Köster at a Birthday Party gig in London.
Along with Bettina and Gudrun Gut and Manon Duursma also of Malaria!, Mutabor! arrived in public with an impromptu performance at the Risiko, Berlin’s punk mecca.
Later that winter, the four booked a studio for the one and only time; two tracks from the session, “1001 Nights” and “Treats” reached 4AD co-founder Peter Kent, who had left the nascent 4AD to begin the Loaded label. Entitled Two Wishes, the two track 12″ was to be both the band and the label’s only release.
“1001 Nights” is definitely no wave, would sit happily alongside your James Chance & The Contortions vinyl, but there’s a cool and detached Berlin thang going on too; less frenetic, more arthouse, steelier.
The flip, “Treats”, goes darker, as Gary recites dark threats across a threatening sax and guitar incantation.
Two Wishes will be reissued with the original front cover artwork alongside additional imagery, including a 16-page booklet, all from Gary’s own archive. It’s a post-punk crate-digger’s dream.
You can pre-order Mutabor!’s Two Wishes 12″ from World of Echo here.
