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Grudge for Life - A Book About Ramleh
“I don’t see myself as being in charge. It is an equal partnership. We only do things that we both want to do. If I love an idea and Anthony doesn’t, I will work on it solo, as I would expect him to do if I wasn’t sure about an idea of his. Other people that help out have a lot of creative input in that we rarely tell anyone what to do. It’s up to them but, after the recordings are made, it is up to me and Anthony to decide what to do with the material we have. More than two voices doesn’t work. Ramleh is seen as mine as I am the only member who is in every line-up, but it doesn’t work in the normal way. I am not the leader. We are equals. I cannot work any other way with other people and, as I say, solo projects allow you to have a creative release for ideas that don’t work in the current partnership.”
(Gary Mundy)
During the past few years material has been gathered concerning the group Ramleh for a book focusing on their beginning as one of the UK’s leading power electronics mainstays to their becoming a more outward-bound rock group given to blending sprawling psychedelia, noise, post-punk, intense electronic music and far more besides, in addition to occasionally nodding to their earlier sound. Initially founded by Gary Mundy and Bob Strudwick after being inspired by punk, avant-garde and industrial music, as well as the complete restart accorded by Whitehouse, Ramleh soon tore apart the templates with a sound and vision entirely their own.
Mostly sidelined in the decades since, the group, now driven by Gary and Anthony Di Franco, has proven itself to be one of the most versatile and downright headstrong to have arrived from a time when dozens of such groups went almost as fast as they appeared. Like the very best of them, however, they not only kept going despite the odds, but also continued to push themselves artistically and explore new places just when an audience was starting to take notice. The idea of fitting snugly into a particular style was never on the agenda, irrespective of the group’s having created a sound completely their own to work within
With the advent of the digital age, Ramleh deservedly gained a comparatively wider audience and are now often seen critically acclaimed or cited as an inspiration by other groups.
Partly for these reasons, a book felt like a natural step to take in order to help pin down one of the more interesting narratives to have arisen from such realms of music, and indeed some of the ideas behind it.
Collecting around 356 pages centred on a lengthy and conversational interview with Gary Mundy that looks back at Ramleh’s inception and moves through the group’s work until and including The Great Unlearning album, plus some of the peripheral projects, Grudge For Life: A Book About Ramleh also includes additional interviews and insight from Anthony Di Franco, Stuart Dennison, the late Simon Morris, Teho Teardo, Stephen Meixner, Steve Pittis, William Bennett, Kate MacDonald, Juntaro Yamanouchi, Richard Rupenus and others. Besides also including a discography including extensive personal notes from Gary and Anthony and some other bonus material, there are pages dedicated to reprinted ephemera and some previously unpublished photos.
Richard Johnson, responsible for conducting the interviews and collating the material, has long been an avid supporter of the group’s work and has additionally released albums by both Gary and Anthony on his Fourth Dimension Records imprint, including the 2CD version of Ramleh’s The Great Unlearning album and the ‘It’s Never Alright’ 7”. He has also produced a book devoted to his Grim Humour fanzine, plus during more recent years has contributed to several magazines, including The Wire and Poland’s Glissando. Fourth Dimension Publishing is his latest endeavour, with more titles planned.
The book is hardback only and limited to 500.
(Gary Mundy)
During the past few years material has been gathered concerning the group Ramleh for a book focusing on their beginning as one of the UK’s leading power electronics mainstays to their becoming a more outward-bound rock group given to blending sprawling psychedelia, noise, post-punk, intense electronic music and far more besides, in addition to occasionally nodding to their earlier sound. Initially founded by Gary Mundy and Bob Strudwick after being inspired by punk, avant-garde and industrial music, as well as the complete restart accorded by Whitehouse, Ramleh soon tore apart the templates with a sound and vision entirely their own.
Mostly sidelined in the decades since, the group, now driven by Gary and Anthony Di Franco, has proven itself to be one of the most versatile and downright headstrong to have arrived from a time when dozens of such groups went almost as fast as they appeared. Like the very best of them, however, they not only kept going despite the odds, but also continued to push themselves artistically and explore new places just when an audience was starting to take notice. The idea of fitting snugly into a particular style was never on the agenda, irrespective of the group’s having created a sound completely their own to work within
With the advent of the digital age, Ramleh deservedly gained a comparatively wider audience and are now often seen critically acclaimed or cited as an inspiration by other groups.
Partly for these reasons, a book felt like a natural step to take in order to help pin down one of the more interesting narratives to have arisen from such realms of music, and indeed some of the ideas behind it.
Collecting around 356 pages centred on a lengthy and conversational interview with Gary Mundy that looks back at Ramleh’s inception and moves through the group’s work until and including The Great Unlearning album, plus some of the peripheral projects, Grudge For Life: A Book About Ramleh also includes additional interviews and insight from Anthony Di Franco, Stuart Dennison, the late Simon Morris, Teho Teardo, Stephen Meixner, Steve Pittis, William Bennett, Kate MacDonald, Juntaro Yamanouchi, Richard Rupenus and others. Besides also including a discography including extensive personal notes from Gary and Anthony and some other bonus material, there are pages dedicated to reprinted ephemera and some previously unpublished photos.
Richard Johnson, responsible for conducting the interviews and collating the material, has long been an avid supporter of the group’s work and has additionally released albums by both Gary and Anthony on his Fourth Dimension Records imprint, including the 2CD version of Ramleh’s The Great Unlearning album and the ‘It’s Never Alright’ 7”. He has also produced a book devoted to his Grim Humour fanzine, plus during more recent years has contributed to several magazines, including The Wire and Poland’s Glissando. Fourth Dimension Publishing is his latest endeavour, with more titles planned.
The book is hardback only and limited to 500.
- GenresMusic
277 pages, Hardcover
Published February 1, 2021
3 people are currently reading
59 people want to read
About the author
Richard Johnson
1,257 books9 followersLibrarian Note: There are more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 7, 2021
Definitely more like 3.5 stars but I'll round up for this one. It's clearly for Ramleh fans and completists only, and if you are one then it'll warrant 4 stars. For one thing, it's the only game in town. Johnson (Richo), formerly editor of Grim Humour magazine and head honcho of Fourth Dimension Records, is the ideal author for this, and brings a zine sort of approach to it. The sections of the book are each separate interviews, mainly with Ramleh principal member Gary Mundy but also bringing in other former and current members of the band. The final section of the book is a lengthy but not completely exhaustive exploration of the band's catalog of releases. Basically, if you're interested in the band (and Mundy's label Broken Flag), and its evolution from "power electronics" to out-noise-rock, then you'll find the book an interesting read.
December 14, 2022
A book of interviews with Gary Mundy and a couple other folk related to the long-running cult UK underground musical phenomenon Ramleh, followed by Gary touring you through every single LP, tape and 7 inch in Ramleh's discography, personal anecdotes included. The interviews can get a bit rambly at times, but they help give you an idea of Gary as a person and of the kind of environment that Ramleh was born into. Generally there's very little to complain about here, it's very breezy, straight to the point and makes me wish that every book about a musician had followed a no-nonsense template like this. This one is especially valuable, since Ramleh is no Rolling Stones, and information about the band, their history and the philosophy behind their work is very hard to come by outside of firsthand accounts like this.
A recommended companion to this is the elusive one-off As Loud As Possible zine (if you can find it), which features a detailed interview with Gary about his Broken Flag label, and provides a similar tape-by-tape overview of every single release that came out on it.
A recommended companion to this is the elusive one-off As Loud As Possible zine (if you can find it), which features a detailed interview with Gary about his Broken Flag label, and provides a similar tape-by-tape overview of every single release that came out on it.
May 16, 2022
A book about one of my favorite bands, I loved reading through this. The extensive interview with Gary Mundy was very enlightening, and it was great that the book provided ample space for the entire Ramleh extended family. Very fun read
July 20, 2021
Well worth it for all the first-person of-the-moment narratives from a scene that has little in the way of hard documentation save for word of mouth. I wasn't crazy about Johnson's editorialization, though; books like this work best when the collators get out of the way (see also: Tape Delay).
July 6, 2022
Good for the ultra fans that want a lot of interview material and archives of posters / photos and whatnot. Wish it was written a bit better or was more selective with the interview segments because it felt like it was going in circles at certain points.
September 13, 2024
I like Ramleh, just not this much.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews