Bleep

Surgeon and Regis present the last piece in the BMB puzzle, a lavishly packaged boxset featuring the complete recordings as well as the 'reunion' show they performed live in Tokyo. Having met and started working together in Birmingham in the early 90's, Surgeon and Regis honed a style of techno that was unlike any other before, dubbed the 'Birmingham sound' they, along with Peter 'Female' Sutton went onto release a series of killer 12"s on Surgeon's Counterbalance and Dynamic Tension as well as Regis and Female's Downwards imprint. In 2003 Surgeon and Regis released the epic slab of wax we know as 'Learn Your Lesson' mixing hard techno sounds with breakbeats and IDM influences all made with a post-punk attitude and ethos. They went on to follow this with a series of 12"s that essentially took the blueprint laid down by industrial pioneers such as Whitehouse & avant garde musicians like Scott Walker and laid it over a harsh industrial, hypnotic-techno rooted wall of sound. Around this time they performed some now legendary performances at various techno clubs around the world, everywhere from Sequence in Manchester to Russell Haswell's ATP event, the project came to a close around 2008 before they reunited for a live performance at a Blackest Ever Black night a few years ago and dropped a 12" on Mute sub-label Liberation Technologies, after this they went on to perform one final gig as BMB in Tokyo in 2014 perfectly documented here. The sounds found in this boxset went on to influence masses of producers and groups; from post-BMB Downwards acts like DVA Damas, Kerridge & Talker to the Blackest Ever Black label, to the the DNS associates at Frozen Border and the shadowy techno excursions of Prurient's most military movements. However, from listening to the complete recordings, the thing that is most clear is how much these records were ahead of their time if only for intense future-facing pure inventiveness and creativity in a techno landscape at the time defined by 'minimal' & 'micro'. A hugely fitting end to a one-of-a-kind project, in similar ways to the sudden stop of Sandwell District in 2012 this boxset puts a sudden end and lays to rest the legend of the British Murder Boys. The end is important in all things.