Under the Lens - of the censor

The cultural censorship of Western media extended far beyond jazz and rock ‘ n roll music, literature and film in the Eastern bloc. It encompassed architecture, dance, theatre and even graphic design. Even when western films could be shown in later communist periods under some of the less authoritarian regimes, the posters that advertised them came under scrutiny.

Familiar Strangers: Hollywood and British Cinema in Polish Poster Art is currently showing at Coal Drops Yard, London. The exhibition unveils how Polish poster artists interpreted US and UK films while navigating — and subtly critiquing — the harsh realities of Communist and post-Soviet Poland - at a time when censorship, propaganda and surveillance were omnipresent.

All photos courtesy: Kinoteka Polish film festival

Ready To Transmit?

A little off-topic, but I recently made a radio program with producer Monica Whitlock for BBC World and Radio 4.

During my researches into Bone Music, I got interested in radio (an important source of forbidden music to make x-ray records). That took me deep into the extraordinary world of shortwave, number stations - and Morse code.

Morse Code is a nearly 200 year old language, once used in every nation, the sound of which most of the world recognised, without a clue what was being said. Its words are composed of just dots, dashes and spaces, transmitted over distance in coded signals of electrical pulses of sound or light.

It was invented by an artist and used by soldiers, spies and sailors; its mysterious tones soundtracked the cold war and were a sonic weapon in the Allies' arsenal against the Axis powers in World War 2.

But what has happened to it in the age of cell phones, email and instant messaging?

Does it even still exist?

We set off on a journey to find out - and it took us to some extraordinary places and people.

Click below to listen:

For anyone who doesn’t know (as I didn’t), what the difference between Shortwave and Longwave radio is. - here is a nerdy if simple explanation.

Shortwave Radio (SW) can travel long distances by bouncing off the ionosphere

Its advantages:

• Can reach thousands of miles, even across continents.

• Works well for international broadcasting and emergency communication.

• Can be received in remote areas without needing satellite or internet access (good for spies)

Its disadvantages:

• Signal quality can be affected by atmospheric conditions and interference.

• Requires specialized radios that can tune to shortwave frequencies.

• Fading and distortion are common due to varying ionospheric conditions.

Longwave Radio (LW) travels as ground waves, following the Earth’s surface.

Its advantages:

• Very stable signals with minimal interference, making it ideal for continuous broadcasting.

• Can cover large areas, especially useful for national broadcasts in Europe.

• Works well in tunnels, valleys, and over water.

Its disadvantages:

• Limited range compared to shortwave—typically reaches only a few hundred miles.

• Requires large antennas for both transmission and reception.

• Not widely used in some parts of the world, such as the U.S., limiting its reach.

Which One is Better?

• If you need global coverage, shortwave is the better choice.

• If you need reliable regional or national coverage, longwave is more stable.

Many broadcasters have moved away from both in favor of FM, digital radio, and internet streaming, but shortwave still plays an important role in international news, military, and emergency broadcasts - and some other crazy situations as you wil learn if you lsten to the BBC radio program.

Cultural Censorship in the UK?

“A culture of self-censorship and fear of backlash from funders, colleagues and the public is convincing arts and cultural workers to stay silent on important issues”, according to new research from ArtsProfessional (link)

I noted previously in this piece that the cultural effects of the war on Ukraine are not just happening in Russia:

“It has also been very disappointing to witness ludicrous black and white thinking applied to ’Russians’ (millions of whom don’t support Putin and / or live abroad), and to Russian culture here in the UK. I was personally challenged about the appropriateness of promoting a show by Russian theremin player Lydia Kavina (a British resident of over 25 years). A friend who is living in semi-exile in Turkey and resolutely anti-war was ‘disinvited’ from a festival he had been booked for in Bournemouth because he was Russian.”

Unfortunately this seems to still be the case.

I was recently told by someone who had hoped to make a Bone Music event, that we wouldn’t be able to after all because of “colleagues who were worried about the sensitivity of it being seen as an ostensibly 'Russian' event” *

I find this rather tragic.

Not for this project - there is plenty happening for us - but it seems at best misguided, at worst, a kind of weak virtue signalling.**

Apart from the fact that the theme of Bone Music is cultural resistance in the face of tyranny - and the power of culture across political borders - what difference can be made by such an attitude? Because we abhor the war on Ukraine should we cancel concerts of music by Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich because they are ‘Russian’? Or not show Doctor Zhivago or Stalker? Will the Russian regime care - even if they knew? If anything they would probably find it useful.

Just to repeat - and at the risk of sounding pompous - culture is one of the most important things that connects us - beyond, ideology, nationalism, politics and beyond conflict - and it is one of the things that can help to reconcile differences and bring about resolution after conflict.

What do you think?

* Ironically Bone Music is not just a ‘Russian’ project, but a Ukrainian, Hungarian, Baltic project and a significant part of it is about artists living in exile from the Soviet Union.

**Just to note: it hasn’t been any Ukrainians who have made any of these decisions.

Bone Music on France TV

Film maker Michael Patin came all the way form France to Northern Scotland last year to make a film about the project for Arte Studio in France,

It’s terrific - and funny - Check it out below

Tuts on the Trolley Bus


‘In our speeded-up world, transformation can happen much more quickly, especially if those to whom it matters the most – the young – believe that it can.’

Miriam Dobson wrote a thoughtful review of my book Bone Music in the London Review of Books

She says that I see grounds for optimism in the story of Bone Music with regard to the current conflict - and I do. Interestingly, so does my friend Artemy Troitsky - living in exile in Tallinn and recently declared an enemy of the state by the Russian government. Another friend, a famous `Russian rock musician (also living abroad), believes the internet is beyond state control in Russia - because of its inherent decentralised structure. It is often technology - aligned with countercultural endeavour - that brings about change:

“In the early 1960s, the Soviet government made the rash decision to mass produce reel-to-reel tape recorders. Fifty million were sold in the following decades. With music lovers now able to copy tracks quickly and cheaply, the recording lathes became obsolete and skeleton records were discarded. But for the authorities the challenge of non-conformist behaviour remained the same. In naming and shaming certain tastes and styles, they helped to produce the phenomena they feared. The more they denounced cultural dangers – first the stilyagi, then the hippies and rock groups – the more they lifted the curtain on a world of possibility”

The LRB piece by Miriam is HERE

Australia's Late Night Live

I recently loved talking with radio legend and veteran broadcaster Philip Adams about Bone Music for Late Night Live on Australia's ABC National Radio.

I was delighted to learn that he helped smuggle emigre tunes into the Soviet Union in the 70s on vinyl.

Bravo.

You can listen HERE

Bone Music on History Hit

Bone Music recently featured on the blockbuster podcast' ‘‘History Hit’ ’ - it’s fun interview with uber Historian Dan Snow.

“While rifling through a stall at a flea market in Leningrad- now St Petersburg- composer and music producer Stephen Coates came across something unusual. It looked like a vinyl record, but when he held it up to the light, he noticed he could see the pattern of human bones on it. It was a bootlegged record made from an old x-ray. He dubbed his find "Bone Music" and set out to find out more about this ghostly flexi-disc, and the others he soon found like it.”

You can listen below, grab it HERE - or at all the usual podcast places..

Bone Music Book

OUR NEW BOOK BONE MUSIC IS SHIPPING

Our publishers Strange Attractor have made a super special signed hardback limited edition of 350 copies.

it includes an exclusive risograph print (see below) and a 7″ flexidisc of original 1930s music taken “off the bone” (Hungarian jazz and a forbidden Russian emigre song). 

With original photography by Paul Heartfield and design by Tihana Spare, it looks incredible.

The soft cover version of the book is available internationally through all the usual outlets. In the US check HERE for retailers.

The book tells the secret history of the ghostly Soviet bootlegs of forbidden music cut during the cold war era and of the people who made, played and paid for them.

During the Cold War era, the songs that Soviet citizens could listen to were ruthlessly controlled by the state. But a secret underground subculture of music lovers and bootleggers defied the censors, building recording machines and making their own records of forbidden jazz, rock ‘n’ roll, and Russian music, cut onto used hospital x-ray film. 

Who were they? Why did they do it and how was it even possible? Based on years of interviews and oral testimonies, Bone Music continues the story of X-Ray Audio, presenting the stories of the original Bone bootleggers, their customers and persecutors, evoking their spirit of resistance to a repressive culture of prohibition and punishment

BONE MUSIC contains an expanded detailed history of the culture of the Soviet X-Ray Underground, with new testimonies from actual bootleggers and buyers, a whole section on the x-ray culture of Budapest and detailed study of the technical means of making bone records.

We’d like to acknowledge that the book would not exist without the help, knowledge and work of many people - particularly Artemyi Troitsky on the subject of the Soviet underground and Maxim Kravchinsky on the subject of forbidden Russian song. Their writings and understanding of the era provided a basis for much of the research

Praise for X Ray Audio (Bone Music’s Predecessor)
“An archive of samizdat creativity, cultural resistance, daring entrepreneurialism.” - Sukhdev Sandhu 

“Stephen Coates – strangely, an Englishman – knows more technical and biographical details of the Bone Records story than anyone else.” - Artemyi Troitsky 

“One of the 25 most essential books for record collectors.” - Vinyl Factory

The Risograph that comes with the limited edition hardback is a print of an 'anti-social' behaviour propaganda poster: 'RADIO-active Element!’

A 'stilyagi' youth is playing rock 'n'roll loudly out the window of a communal apartment block. The poem says something like:

“Foxtrots and Tangos - 

A nightclub racket without end

Here's one that nobody loves

And everyone good should condemn!”

Interestingly, this seems to reference the lines: ‘One that nobody loves and every living thing curses” from the poem ‘Demon’ (1832) by Mikhail Lermentov which would be familiar to many Russians and be a comment on the lack of culture of the intended targets,

Bone Music Launch: London

Join us in celebrating the publication of Bone Music the follow up to the acclaimed X Ray Audio

We will be hosting a book launch at London’s HORSE HOSPITAL on Tuesday November 1st

If you’d like to join us EMAIL us for an invite.

As well as introducing the book, there will be a short talk with films and images

More events and festival appearances to follow

The Library of Bootlegs

Bootleg and vinyl junkies will love this:

In the depths of the The British Library Sound Archive lies a wonderful treasure trove of illicit audio recordings... This is the British Phonographic Institute donation of over 4000 bootleg vinyl records, CDs and cassettes given to the library in 2002.

In the latest instalment of Irregulars Online for FOUR CORNERS BOOKS I dig deep into this unique archive, to take a closer look at the strange and striking artworks created for vinyl bootleg album covers — rock’n’roll relics from a pre-Internet age.

Featuring bootleg covers from an all-star cast, including The Beatles, Cat Stevens, Genesis and The Sex Pistols.

Read the article HERE

Radio documentary to come

Thanks to Kevin Foakes / DJ Food for photography

Sex Pistols: Bad Boys Bootleg

Bowie: Ziggy’s Last Stand Bootleg

The Beatles: Rubber Saul Bootleg

Bone Buyers Beware

Orignal X-Ray Record

Orignal X-Ray Record

We have been contacted by several people who have bought x-ray records online (usually from a Russian or Georgian source) asking if they are genuine. It is difficult to tell definitively without actually examining them, but from the images, the look of the surface (and often from the content) our impression is that many, if not most of them, are modern. That is fine is you know what you are getting but fraudulent if they are being sold as ‘original Soviet era bootlegs*

As a result of the X-Ray Audio Project, a lot more people know about bone records and understandably some want to own one - so inevitably a market has developed, with crazy prices being asked. Where there is money to be made, there are people wanting to make it …. Even we have been contacted by a Russian guy offering to sell us records he has cut himself.**

So generally we would caution people against buying online, but to at least be careful with regard to the following:

Modern x-ray record of Marc Almond performing Vadim Kozin’s song Druzbha (Friendship) at Rough Trade Records 2017

  • If the song or artist dates from after 1964 / 1965 (the x-ray culture mainly died out then)

  • If the image seems very clear or clean (old records deteriorate and surviving ones are usually dirty and blurred)

  • If the tone of the disc is blue-green (modern x-ray film is a different colour than old film)

  • If the image is of a skull or something dramatic with jewellery or artificial parts (always much rarer than ribs and indistinct images)

  • If the surface is very smooth, shiny or seems like plastic (modern x-rays are a different material than old ones)

If buying from Ebay, Popsike etc ask for a guarantee that a record is an original from the era (not just recorded on an old machine)

The sound of a modern x-ray is different than that of an old one - they tend to be quieter with a lot of high frequency ‘swishing’ noise rather than a more vinyl / shellac type crackle and hiss.

————————————————————————————————

*Of course, modern X-ray records are cool - we cut them ourselves as part of our live performances and demonstrations - but just don’t be fooled by fakes and understand what you are buying.

** In some ways of course in ‘the spirit of bootlegging’ and even in the original x-ray era, punters never really knew what they were getting but we are only interested in buying original records for this archive, not for profit. If you have records you can contribute, please be in touch.

Bone Music in Berlin

I am very pleased that the BONE MUSIC EXHIBITION will be in BERLIN August 14 - September 5th with live events during the opening weekend and on the 28th / 29th August.

As well as the exhibition there will bone record cutting from live performance by wonderful musicians, film screenings, round table discussions and collaborations with the Berlin Stasi Museum.

ROLLING STONE have covered the show

We will be recording testimonies from Berlin citizens (East or West) on the subject of forbidden, censored or underground music. If you have any stories to tell, we would love to hear from you - CLICK HERE to be in touch.

For more details go HERE

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Young people suspected of listening to Western music, secretly photographed by the Stasi (1969). Images courtesy of BSTU

Our Bone Music Documentary for BBC

“a remarkable listen – full of joy as well as darkness – and a fascinating insight into a repressive world, human ingenuity and the power of music. “

- Hugh Levinson

Our documentary on the x-ray underground for the BBC radio series Between the Ears is available HERE - in the UK and many countries.

It is based around interviews we have made in Russia over the last few years. There is some truly wonderful oral history and personal testimony from people who made, played and paid for bone records.

It evokes the culture which gave birth to the bootlegging of forbidden music, who they were bought and sold at risk - and features the Russian band Mumiy Trol who came into the studio specially to record a song to x-ray.

It was produced ny Monica Whitlock and Paul Heartfield cut the x-ray record on our 1950s recording lathe.

Listen HERE

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X-Ray Audio at Morbid Anatomy

On Monday November 9th at 5:30 pm EST, I will be giving a live Zoom lecture on the Soviet x-ray bootleggers including some of the most recent research from the upcoming book ‘Bone Music’ to be published next year by Strange Attractor / MIT press.

The lecture is for our friends the Brooklyn Based collective Morbid Anatomy

"They are images of pain and damage overlaid with the sounds of pleasure, fragile photographs of the interiors of Soviet citizens inscribed with the music they secretly loved, skin-thin slivers of DIY punk protest"

“Leningrad 1946: huge amounts of music have been censored by the Soviet state including Western Rock ’n’ roll and Jazz and forbidden Russian songs. Music-mad bootleggers have come up with an ingenious way to defy the censor by making and distributing their own records. But to do so they have to risk their freedom and build their own recording machines out of sight of a brutal regime. And what do they use as the materials for the records? X-ray film secretly obtained from hospitals after dark”

This is their story

More Details HERE

X-Ray Audio with The Project Archivist

I spent an hour in conversation with The Project Archivist on his podcast.

We discuss the Soviet x-ray bootleggers, Western youth culture and the worth of vinyl as a medium.

“Stephen Coates Joins us To Talk About Bone Music. In the USSR during the cold war era, the music people could listen to was ruthlessly controlled by the State. But a secret underground subculture of music lovers and bootleggers defied the censor. Incredibly, they built their own recording machines and used an extraordinary means of copying forbidden jazz, rock 'n' roll, and banned Russian music to risk making their own records. They Built Their Own Recording Machines And Used Repurposed X-Ray Plates As The Base For Strange Beautiful Discs They Sold Secretly”

Click HERE to listen

Bone Music on the BBC

“a remarkable listen – full of joy as well as darkness – and a fascinating insight into a repressive world, human ingenuity and the power of music. “

- Hugh Levinson

We’ve just completed a documentary on the x-ray underground for the BBC radio series Between the Ears

It was broadcast on Sunday November 17th at 18.45 GMT and is available HERE - in the UK and many countries.

It is based around interviews we have made in Russia over the last few years. There is some truly wonderful oral history and personal testimony from people who made, played and paid for bone records.

It evokes the culture which gave birth to the bootlegging of forbidden music, who they were bought and sold at risk - and features the Russian band Mumiy Trol who came into the studio specially to record a song to x-ray.

It was produced ny Monica Whitlock and Paul Heartfield cut the x-ray record on our 1950s recording lathe.

Listen HERE

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X-Ray Audio in Budapest

We are very pleased will be at The Contemporary Arts Festival in Budapest on Wednesday 16th October.

Istvhan Makai at work

Istvhan Makai at work

Its an treat to be able to tell the story there because Budapest was one of the first places that x-ray recording emerged in the 1930s, with the brilliant recording engineer Istvhan Makai who built his own recording lathes and made many amazing sounding records. (There will be much more in Makai in the revised edition of our book.)


Even better is that we are working again with our friend the wonderful Hungarian jazz singer Veronica Harcsa and will recutting her perfomance to x-ray live.

More details HERE

X-Ray Audio and Rebel Sounds

Our next live event will be at the Imperial War Museum in London on September 21st.

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We will be working with Ayse from SAVAGES on a performance / x-ray sound experiment, talking about the Soviet x-ray era and showing some materials from our exhibition.

The event is part of the live REBEL SOUNDS series running in parallel with the CULTURE UNDER ATTACK program currently showing at the museum.

As part of the series, we were with the Museum at the WOMAD festival performing with the musician / activist / artist EMMANUEL JAL and his sister NYARUCH They told their harrowing stories - (Emmanuel was a boy soldier in Sudan in unbelievably terrifying conditions) and we cut them singing together to x-ray.

Check out the video below to see

Film by Matthew Norman courtesy of Imperial War Museum

It’s important for us to bring the narratives behind the Soviet x-ray culture - culture under attack, music as resistance, human endeavour and the transformatory potential of the arts - into the present. Music is still censored, culture is still under attack in many places in the world.

X-Ray Audio live events are always special, celebratory occasions.

Some of the responses of the audience at WOMAD.

“Thought provoking, emotionally intense and very important message”
“Fascinating, excellent, thank god for passion like this in the world!”
“Awards should be given for this stunning presentation of a fantastic time in history”
“Fascinating insight into a time I knew nothing about”
“Such an amazing enlightening, informative and joyful experience! Thank you”
“Lively, informative information. Really informed by the live recording with Emmanuel Jal & sister – a very memorable event!”

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