Adventures in Reality

12/09/2024

Copies of this are still available via Bandcamp at https://mummiesandmadmen.bandcamp.com/album/mummies-and-madmen-grow-dark-in-the-sun

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sbbn7eDkBek&ab_channel=AlaninReality

Extract from the April 2024 album 'Mummies and Madmen Grow Dark In The Sun' by Mummies and Madmen on Winter Hill Recordings/Adventures in Reality. This is a...

04/09/2024

Adventures in Reality is featured in the Bubblegumzinearchive blogspot in support of the Guest Ex-Editor zine, where I created the centre spread. Read all about it here. https://bubblegumzinearchive.blogspot.com/2024/09/adventures-in-reality-fanzine.html?fbclid=IwY2xjawFFIqtleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHcjXettZ7eVX-PPbStJ0xMHZaRTPv1v5osoa93ROAVxwXCU31PHoDX1SZg_aem_Ya_qpAm9I3dYJthwwKCMHg

Alan Rider’s Adventures in Reality fanzine ran to 12 issues in the early 80s… and one Guest Ex-Editor centrespread in 2024*. I’ve been blo...

27/08/2024

First old copies of the first issue of Adventures in Reality (original price 15p) on Ebay for £68, now copies of the book on sale second hand for £30 when you can get it new and sealed from me for £20! https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/116205112076?_nkw=Adventures+in+Reality+fanzine&itmmeta=01J6AC26ZHX8G5TMQ6Y5R1QP0P&hash=item1b0e5d4b0c:g:7~EAAOSwfHhmXhDX&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAABAHoV3kP08IDx%2BKZ9MfhVJKnJsDmbckBqrtXtkzWdGULTzc0ipBX0Di1IxvegNIIyiwnfvscIDoDLs0TxbtjDsk%2BgB%2FAR9CO18AwZcUmTE5R3ZeBGHQj705cnIDYyoVQngWcegrcHQ09SspOri%2B6YqXQda5AefX15RSspHygMZKO4PETp1JqQkLj3J70iaiGKecRF4LscVd6qx94wzjD4S9xJzFhyik7tx0mv5whdB%2BBRWivXH1GKuLGt1H4neQNBGZ1S9Ya%2Bn5WTInHgXzA17vMsf7o%2BQVbITrmdbc4xUliJJZ6niTZjmtEvD52dkArVHnjQ8YOiimQCWCdyaoBtcbU%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR-zviMyyZA

26/08/2024

£68 for a slightly tatty copy of the first edition of my 1981 fanzine 'Adventures in Reality'. Crikey. It retailed for 15p at the time!

Adventures In Reality issue A. Very good condition with light toning and associated wear. Overall a nice example. Look over photos for accurate condition.

21/07/2024

Funny the stuff you find knocking about in old boxes of stuff left over from Adventures in Reality fanzine. I no longer have this album. I may never have had a copy. I just can't remember. So this was either given to me by the band, or fell out of the album way back in 1981. Any guesses?

15/07/2024

Mummies and Madmen come out to play on LA NUIT DES SAURIENS radio show.

La playlist " Mai - Juin 2024" en image.
Et pour le détail, en ligne ici :
http://nuitdessauriens.lautre.net/Playlist-Mai-Juin-2024
Vos disques sont les bienvenus pour les prochaines émissions...

avec: Frédéric D. Oberland, Gregory Dargent, Tony Elieh, Wassim Halal, Sub Rosa, L'étrangleuse, La Curieuse, Compagnie4000, Otomo De Manuel, Ici d'ailleurs, The Legendary Pink Dots, Klanggalerie, Yannis Kyriakides, Unsounds, Ruth Wilhelmine Meyer, Simax Classics, Melaine Dalibert, Einstürzende Neubauten, Snakefinger, Geins't Naït, Mzylkypop, Discus Music, BeNe GeSSeRiT, Je m'en fish, Reinhold Friedl, Martin Siewert, Karlrecords, Klimperei, ANTI-DEMOS-CRACIA, Trotski Nautique, Cheap Satanism Records, Lull, Cold Spring, Mummies and Madmen, Winter Hill, Adventures in Reality, Alan Regardin, Ormo Records, nunc., Alieno De Bootes, Keiji Haino, Jim O'rourke, Oren Ambarchi, Black Truffle Records, Quentin Rollet, Mathieu Bec, reQords, G**o Moe, Conrad Sound, Muddersten, SOFA music, Club of Rome, Jacky Molard / François Corneloup Quartet, Emouvance, zeitkratzer, Jos Smolders, Cronica, Kim Myhr & Kitchen Orchestra, Robert Vincs, Extreme, Tenhornedbeast, Souffle continu records, François Jeanneau, Intercommunal Free Dance Music Orchestra, One Another Orchestra, La maison des disques nato, Carolyn Hume and Paul May, Leo Records, Norbert Stein, Frank Gratkowski, Maria de Alvear - World Edition, Das Kapital, Label Bleu, Eric Cordier & Andrew Levine, Nachtstück Records - Nachtstuck, Theo May‘s Odd Unit, Stephen Grew, Miharu Ogura, Thanatosis produktion, christophe Marguet Quartet, fur, BMC, Mofongo, Aagoo, Liv Andrea Hauge Trio, Hubro, The Residents, Artefact, Les Vampires, Big Black, James Chance & the Contorsions...

01/07/2024

I have the remaining copies of the Mummies and Madmen Grow Dark In The Sun album here for sale. Order from the Mummies and Madmen Bandcamp site or PM me. "A wall of shrieking reverb bathed in synthesizer feedback and tortured guitars" says Brutal Resonance magazine. https://mummiesandmadmen.bandcamp.com/album/mummies-and-madmen-grow-dark-in-the-sun

Extract from the April 2024 album 'Mummies and Madmen Grow Dark In The Sun' by Mummies and Madmen on Winter Hill Recordings/Adventures in Reality. This is a...

06/06/2024

Great review of the Mummies and Madmen CD in Italian magazine Blow Up this month

16/05/2024

Radio Gagarin playlist for May - broadcasting live from Hamburg.

15/05/2024

Another great review of 'Mummies and Madmen Grow Dark In The Sun' in Pulse-Alternative Magazine. https://www.facebook.com/altpulse/posts/pfbid0Rw5dSStcQgBkQT2GFWKYCiwtmVtqDTtrmaM8pyHd2Yh35Tw2FFfijt1ZWcMnJuXZl

MUMMIES AND MADMEN-Grow Dark In The Sun
(Winter Hill Recordings/Adventures In Reality, CD/DL,2024)

While Coventry is perhaps best known as the home of 2-Tone, those willing to excavate a little deeper into it’s rich musical history will find a far darker reality. Away from the spotlight a far moodier, broody sound began to germinate via groups such Attrition that had far more in common with the prevailing sense of decay that characterised the early ‘80s.

It was from this scene that Alan Rider emerged with the fanzine/label Adventures In Reality, and after cutting his teeth with Attrition, Alan set out upon his own dark journey. 1983 found Alan with Bob Oliver and the mysterious Cryptic Z Mostmen converged in a terraced house to record ‘Mummies And Madmen Grow Dark In The Sun’ one summers afternoon. Fast forward fourteen months and the same cast of characters converged again to record the track ‘Red Front’. Both tracks were released as a cassette album (Slob Tapes 008) in the Orwellian year of 1984. That should have been the end of the story, only a copy of the tape has recently been unearthed, and now gets remastered and re-released by Winter Hill/Adventures In Reality as GROW DARK IN THE SUN” and heard again for the first time in 40 years.

Much as been made about Black Sabbath’s Luftwaffe-scarred, post-industrial surroundings and that environment’s impact on their gloomy sound, well the same can apply to Coventry’s brutalist architecture and a new generation of noise merchants such as MUMMIES AND MADMEN. Like some obscene monument to man’s triumph over nature, Coventry’s medieval heart was sprayed with concrete and irrevocably scarred by huge, hulking monoliths that shut out the sun and sapped the will to live. Thankfully such environments are conducive to great art, and it is from this zeitgeist that Mummies And Madmen were born.

This CD opens with ‘Red Front’, a track that beats with an electric heart, as if Mummies And Madmen are a twentieth-century version of Dr Frankenstein and are bringing to life some strange android entity. This is a sound in which you can hear the genesis of industrial bands like Godflesh (and ‘Red Front’ wouldn’t be out of place on their “Streetcleaner” album). In the midst of hypnotic, discombobulating electronica, a voice speaks words that are just indistinguishable; this always creates a sense of unease and ‘Red Front’ is fairly disorientating. Like a moth to a flame, it slowly draws the listener into their world, but be warned; once your inside, there’s no getting out.

‘Mummies And Madmen Grow In The Dark’ was the first track the guys put to tape (and was intended to be their sole recording) and has a distinctly Public Image Limited feel (if PiL had taken an overdose of mescaline). It shares a similar kind of darkness to ‘Red Front’, and like ‘Red Front’ it’s a lengthy musical workout that uses its extended running time to produce a disconcerting soundscape with tones and timbres that effect the listener on a primordial level.

It’s a shame that these recordings are all the band left, but be thankful this CD is in your hands, and be thankful that Mummies And Madmen are perfectly preserved.

07/05/2024

Review of Mummies and Madmen Grow Dark in the Sun album published in The Organ.

1: Poppy H – To The Dead, We Failed – “Made in a single day, To The Dead, We Failed, is a mixtape of sound collages born from raw acoustic recordings that finds Poppy H seeking so…

06/05/2024

Time to grab a bargain. 50% off Mummies & Madmen CD's and downloads until midnight tonight! https://mummiesandmadmen.bandcamp.com/album/mummies-and-madmen-grow-dark-in-the-sun

04/05/2024

Truly bizarre review of the album on Bosnian website Terapija. They seem to think we are some sort of Kremlin apologists linked to the Belgrade government, posting a set of Sonic Youth lyrics as a response! It takes all sorts I suppose, but they have seriously got the wrong idea about us!

terapija.net e-zine o zvuku i slici.

04/05/2024

Just a reminder that although Bandcamp Friday is over, you can still get Mummies and Madmen Grow Dark In The Sun CD or download for half price until midnight on Monday!

2 track album

03/05/2024

Cool review of Mummies and Madmen just published in Organ Thing

1: Poppy H – To The Dead, We Failed – “Made in a single day, To The Dead, We Failed, is a mixtape of sound collages born from raw acoustic recordings that finds Poppy H seeking so…

03/05/2024

It's Bandcamp Friday and also May Day public holiday on Monday here in the UK and to celebrate, you can get the Mummies and Madmen album for HALF PRICE from now until midnight on Monday! That's just five pounds for the CD and three pounds for the download.

2 track album

29/04/2024

Mummies and Madmen: "A wall of shrieking reverb bathed in synthesizer feedback and tortured guitars" says Brutal Resonance magazine. Copies of the CD are still available to order from the M&M Bandcamp site. The T Shirt is a promo one off. Your support is really appreciated! https://mummiesandmadmen.bandcamp.com/album/mummies-and-madmen-grow-dark-in-the-sun

26/04/2024

Another plug for the Mummies and Madmen CD by Dereck Higgins in his Youtube channel. You can't get a better recommendation than that! You can order it now, including a free limited sticker with the first 100 orders, from https://mummiesandmadmen.bandcamp.com/album/mummies-and-madmen-grow-dark-in-the-sun