Bliss, Murphy, Rusher is a remembrance by Jack Rusher, published here Wednesday, October 16, 2002. It is part of Memories.
Three men making noise.
I joined with DJ Unagi and Michael Murphy to form a drunken instrumental jam band called BMR. We met on weekend afternoons, drank strong brown liquor and made noise with our chosen instruments: turntable, bass, and guitar. Some of this noise could be construed as music by those blessed with generous ears.
We were intrigued by the idea of a funky improvisational trio with a DJ serving as the rhythm section. This led to such strangely conventional jams as Pimp Walk and Rainy Day Bourbon, along with more strongly blues-hop offerings, like Make Out Party.
There were also more fanciful excursions. Funky Spies starts with a long excerpt from a scratchy spy film soundtrack and eventually turns into something more in keeping with our theoretical dance agenda. Stop Tickling Me features DJ Unagi’s tea-whistle scratch technique over a more up tempo drum line and surprisingly restrained instrumental stylings from M. Murphy and myself. Toxic Atmosphere features some Do Say Make Think inspired atmospheric noise, completely eschewing our regularly scheduled funk.
The most polished piece, which is also the only one to have been post-processed, is the filmic Run Like Hell, which was glued together using samples extracted from our jams by DJ Unagi.
We were charmed to welcome, as a guest musician one afternoon, the lovely and talented Alyson Carrel on bass. She displaced M. Murphy to the baritone guitar, for the shockingly hardcore Rock In A Hard Place.