Daniel Miller/Boyd Rice
Peter Werner
"Cleanliness and Order". It was on a compilation called Dark Skratcher.
Has anybody heard this? Does anybody know whether Dark Skratcher is
still available (unlikely) or whether "Cleanliness and Order" was released
on something else?
Beast of Eden
C. Wiggins
I haven't heard Dark Skratcher, but there is a track by that name on the
_Best of Non_ CD. I'm guessing it's the same thing. It's pretty humorous
the first several listenings but it gets old quicker than the typical
Non "song."
Where did you read about this? I'd be very interested in any info
pointing me towards that compilation.
--
______________________________________________________________________________
Chris Wiggins wg...@troi.cc.rochester.edu
==============================================================================
Mason Jones
: I read that Daniel Miller and Boyd Rice collaborated on a piece called
The Darker Skratcher compilation was released by LAFMS, the Los
Angeles Free Music Society, if I'm recalling the correct compilation.
It's a pretty cool release, LP only, from about 1980 or thereabouts,
is impossible to find now, and if you do it'll run you a good $100
or more unless you find a handy sucker who doesn't know what they've got.
<====================================================================>
Mason Jones Charnel House Productions
ma...@netcom.com P.O. Box 170277, San Francisco, CA
94117-0277 Phone/fax (415) 664-1829
<====================================================================>
Mike J. Brown
Daniel Miller and Robert Rental, as in "Thomas Leer & Robert Rental: The
Bridge" were the same person. Is there any truth to this?
Mike
--
Mike J. Brown _ ___ ______________Approach and Identify
..............................................................................
Ambient Music Survey: FTP or Gopher techno.stanford.edu. Contributions needed!
Al Crawford
masses saying:
>
> Somewhere on the net, (might've been here), someone said that they thought
> Daniel Miller and Robert Rental, as in "Thomas Leer & Robert Rental: The
> Bridge" were the same person. Is there any truth to this?
Robert Rental = Daniel Miller = The Normal = Silicon Teens
However, Thomas Leer = Thomas Leer != Robert Rental
There, that clears everything up, I think...
--
Al Crawford - aw...@dcs.ed.ac.uk
Department Of Computer Science, The University of Edinburgh
Rm 1410, JCMB, Kings Buildings, Mayfield Rd, EDINBURGH, EH9 3JZ, Scotland
Tel: +44 (0) 31 650 5165 Fax: +44 (0) 31 667 7209
Kevin Busby
> And lo, mjb...@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Mike J. Brown) spake unto the
> masses saying:
> >
> > Somewhere on the net, (might've been here), someone said that they thought
> > Daniel Miller and Robert Rental, as in "Thomas Leer & Robert Rental: The
> > Bridge" were the same person. Is there any truth to this?
> Robert Rental = Daniel Miller = The Normal = Silicon Teens
> However, Thomas Leer = Thomas Leer != Robert Rental
> There, that clears everything up, I think...
Far from it! :-) Are you quite sure about Robert Rental being Daniel Miller?
Stranger things have happened I suppose, but if that really is the case, the
Rental/Miller split has been a very well constructed hoax.
What about the single-sided LP 'Robert Rental and the Normal Live at West
Runton Pavilion' (seriously!), which was reissued as 'Daniel Miller and Robert
Rental Live'? Seems strange to use an alias and a real name together. I
remember there was a television programme (about punk rock!) around that
time which included brief footage of one chap messing around with a primitive
synthesiser while the other played with a tape loop ("Skloop! Skloop! Skloop!"
it went, very nice...). The caption read "The Normal and Robert Rental" (I
remember the clip because it was so at odds with most of the synthesiser music
I had heard up to that point!). As we all agree, Daniel Miller was The Normal,
so who was the other bloke?
Also, the picture of Rental on the back of 'The Bridge' doesn't look like
Miller (er, I don't think so anyway). But I look forward to being corrected if
I have been misled!
kV.
--
"Hello boys. There's been a change of plan.
You're going on after Crispy Ambulance!"
- Half-Man Half-Biscuit, 'Running Order Squabblefest'
Thomas Homulka
single "T.V.O.D./Warm Leatherette". I heard the reason for this was that he
was working at another independent record label at the time (Rough Trade I
believe) and didn't really want to broadcast himself as the artist at the
time. You'll notice that the single is "Distributed by Rough Trade".
Also, Daniel Miller = Robert Rental. Just check any of the Mute Records
"Documentary Evidence" flyers that come with some of the vinyl LPs/12"s. It
gives the story of Mute Records and talks of Daniel Miller's single "Double
Heart/On Location" under the name Robert Rental.
As far as Thomas Leer goes, I'm not sure about that one.
Sort of funny how other artists on Mute appear under more than one name:
Fad Gadget = Frank Tovey
Fortran 5 was formerly I Start Counting ... pretty amusing if you look at
some of the credits of I Start Counting's "Catalogue" (US release) where
it shows a remix of an ISC as a "Fortran 5 remix".
Tom
__________________________________________________________________________
Tom Homulka "No bye, no aloha
Northwestern University Gone with a rock promoter
Engineering Science & Applied Math A rock promoter
2145 Sheridan Road I know, I saw
Evanston, IL 60208 and now may die... "
hom...@casbah.acns.nwu.edu
___________________________________________________________________________
Al Crawford
>
> Far from it! :-) Are you quite sure about Robert Rental being Daniel Miller?
Nope - I had, however, heard this information from a number of sources and
was working largely on the principle that if enough people believe it,
there's at least a chance of it being true. In fact, if enough people
believe it, Rental and Miller may become the same person whether they
really are or not :-)
The primary purpose of my post was to get across the Quite Definitely True
information that Leer and Rental are not the same person. Both are pictured
on the back of _The Bridge_, both look quite different :-)
> Stranger things have happened I suppose, but if that really is the case, the
> Rental/Miller split has been a very well constructed hoax.
That's what made me wonder - the fact of the matter is that as well
constructed hoaxes go, Miller's Silicon Teens one is one of the best.
> What about the single-sided LP 'Robert Rental and the Normal Live at West
> Runton Pavilion' (seriously!), which was reissued as 'Daniel Miller and
> Robert Rental Live'?
Doesn't rule out them being the same person :-)
> Seems strange to use an alias and a real name together.
Umm, not necessarily.
> Also, the picture of Rental on the back of 'The Bridge' doesn't look like
> Miller (er, I don't think so anyway). But I look forward to being
> corrected if I have been misled!
Likewise!
Kevin Busby
Al Crawford <aw...@dcs.ed.ac.uk> wrote:-
> there's at least a chance of it being true. In fact, if enough people
> believe it, Rental and Miller may become the same person whether they
> really are or not :-)
Take that screen break *now*! :-)
> The primary purpose of my post was to get across the Quite Definitely True
> information that Leer and Rental are not the same person. Both are pictured
> on the back of _The Bridge_, both look quite different :-)
Apart from the haggard look of "What f***in' day is it", obviously!
I remembered that I had a clipping of an interview of Leer and Rental from the
2nd February 1980 'Melody Maker'. I hope the following extracts are of
interest or amusement:-
"[Rental] and Leer[...] met as gardeners in their home town of Port Glasgow
[...]
"They're still surprised by the lack of interest which followed their
singles. Rental's "Paralysis", for example, sold in excess of 7,000
[Leer's was 'Private Plane', which can be found on the 'Business Unusual
compilation LP along with the B-side to 'Paralysis'] yet they remained, in
their own words, 'the last electronic connection', failing even to pick up
a firm commitment from Rough Trade, who tentatively offered studio time.
Eventually, they got a call from Genesis P. Orridge [sic], Throbbing
Gristle's all-purpose conceptual artist and singer: would they like to
record an album? Gristle, a.k.a. Industrial Records, rented the duo's
eight-track recording equipment to use in Rental's living room [...]
Rental on making an album in two weeks flat: 'If you look at the photos
on the back [of the album], you can see how fucked up we got. This room
was just a big ashtray. Fish and chips everywhere, two hours sleep a night
- it got to the point where you'd switch on a tape recorder, sound would
come out and you'd think 'What the fuck is this all about?'
[...]
"Rental's live collaboration last year with Daniel Miller [...] has left
him [...] pessimistic: 'Once you've been playing the same things for 20
gigs, it's not interesting any more.'"
I wrote:-
>> Also, the picture of Rental on the back of 'The Bridge' doesn't look like
>> Miller (er, I don't think so anyway).
Just looked up an old interview with Miller (don't worry, no long quotes
of that one!). He doesn't look anything like Rental or Leer. Apart from
the haggard look of... :-) :-)
Meanwhile, Thomas Homulka <hom...@casbah.acns.nwu.edu> wrote:-
> Also, Daniel Miller = Robert Rental. Just check any of the Mute Records
> "Documentary Evidence" flyers that come with some of the vinyl LPs/12"s. It
> gives the story of Mute Records and talks of Daniel Miller's single "Double
> Heart/On Location" under the name Robert Rental.
I think I now see how this started... Documentary Evidence 2 says:-
"The Normal in concert with Robert Rental dissolves barriers between pop and
experiment. Under his daytime identity Daniel Miller, he works at Rough Trade,
working out the logistics of an independent operation".
Poor syntax is the culprit here. It seems that the writer is talking about
Rental, when he is really (in context) talking about The Normal.
Of 'Double Heart', Documentary Evidence (what an apt title that turned out
to be!) says "Robert Rental's solitary Mute single, the warming "Double
Heart", is a rare remaining trace of a singular electronic pop pioneer".
> As far as Thomas Leer goes, I'm not sure about that one.
Thomas Leer is Trent Reznor.
Cheers,
Kevin
Tom
m> Organization: The Ohio State University
m> Somewhere on the net, (might've been here), someone said that they thought
m> Daniel Miller and Robert Rental, as in "Thomas Leer & Robert Rental: The
m> Bridge" were the same person. Is there any truth to this?
No. But they're both fat.