Utility Fog

OK… bummer. No listening again to tonight’s show, cool though it was, because the logging software seems to have broken, so it wasn’t recorded.
We’ll make sure it’s back by next week! Post in the comments to tell me how sad you are.

Owen Pallett is no longer Final Fantasy. Fair enough. His new album is wonderful, and still wonderfully geeky. Augmented with orchestra, dabbling in electronics, this album might be his best yet.
William Ryan Fritch is another amazing multi-instrumentalist. He is “The Skyrider Band” in the next track’s Sole & The Skyrider Band, producing amazing layered hip-hop, but the free EP under his own name showcases his cello and heaps of other instruments, as well as vocals (although not on the tracks I played tonight).
Sole’s work with Fritch has been uniformly superb. I picked up their Plastique (mini-)album in the US in November, but didn’t hear about this precursor EP until afterwards. You can grab it for free, like quite a lot of stuff I played tonight (see links in playlist!)
We had a bunch of stuff tonight from, and related to The Elysian Quartet. Their self-released EP features improvisations stitched together on computer by their viola player Vincent.
Back in 2004 they recorded the first string quartet by Gabriel Prokofiev — yes, related to the famous Sergei, whose Romeo & Juliet has been unknowingly sampled by many a hip-hop artist. We heard Prokofiev’s own “Hip-Hop” mix of movement 1.
The quartet’s cellist Laura Moody has a solo EP out, in which she sings, beat-boxes (well… sortof) and plays cello. Pretty amazing stuff. And two of the others are Geese, who have done a number of awesome remixes lately, including one released early this year of Hot Chip.

From England we moved back to Australia, for a collaboration between Part Timer and Heidi Elva (who has recently moved to Part Timer’s adopted home of Melbourne). These two fit together hand-in-glove, and we can only hope there are more of these collaborations and they get released soon.
Late last year John Part Timer released an EP as scissors and sellotape on the boutique cotton goods label. It sold out in about 10 seconds, but he kindly sent me a copy, complete with the stunning packaging. And on the day I received his parcel from Melbourne, an email turned up with another as-yet-unreleased track, this time a lovely remix of Czech band gurun gurun, to come out later this year.
From Melbourne to Perth, with a couple of shoegazey tracks. First off with luscious cello, My Majestic Star. I’ll certainly be playing more from them next week – it’s a varied album, albeit mainly in the shoegaze area.
The Ghost of 29 Megacycles used to be Greg Thaw solo, but for their debut album, it’s a trio. Lovely vocals and drones on sound&fury.

Next up, the first track to be taken from LOAF‘s Explorers’ Club series. Check out the link — it’s gonna be awesome, and the first one lives up to all expectations. Peter Broderick’s track is a superb concoction of piano, guitar, drums & cello.
Zelienople give us some of their minimalist dreampop/postrock. I need to explore this band a lot more!
And then Sweet Billy Pilgrim’s contribution to the aforementioned Explorers’ Club – banjo-led postrockfolk, since you were asking for a genre.
Keeping it folky, we have a sneak preview of Sam Amidon’s new album – clearly it’s going to be amazing. A re-tooled folk song not unlike the incredible folk adaptation he sang on Nico Muhly’s latest album.
I was reminded a little of the Appalachian folk adaptations by Brian Harnetty, and thence to The Books, whose delightful live show I witnessed earlier tonight.

We then headed back to William Ryan Fritch (OMG the cello playing) and then a remix of him with Sole by none other than b.fleischmann. Then we had to hop back to Sydney for an excellent percussion-and-spoken-samples jam from Dane Frankcom, after which Mr Fleischmann serenaded us with an extract from 2003’s “Take your time” — the glitchy pianos and Christof Kurzmann’s vocals in the last 10 minutes or so. Still a wonderful track (45 minutes long in total).

The new track from Sydney’s Alpen bodes extremely well for his new album. It’s actually Danny Jumpertz, one of the two people behind New Weird Australia, not to mention Feral Media… Alpen’s guitar riffs reminded me that I wanted to play Retribution Gospel Choir, the rockier side project of Alan Sparhawk from Low. His usual beautiful songwriting in a different context.
Then we’re back with Owen Pallett for two more cuts from his album. In between, another New Weird Australia track, this one from Melbourne’s Automating, whose processed field recording is engaging and just a little scary :)

Owen Pallett – Keep The Dog Quiet [Domino]
William Ryan Fritch – the snow rusted the earth [Asthmatic Kitty] {free Christmas EP! Download here]
Sole & The Skyrider Band – cutoffmoon [Sole One/Fake Four] {free download EP from here!}
the elysian quartet – untitled track 3 from self-released EP [self-released]
Gabriel Prokofiev – String Quartet No. 1, performed by the Elysian Quartet (Gabriel Prokofiev “Hip-Hop mix” of First Movement) [Nonclassical]
Laura Moody – They’re Saying It’s Over [self-released]
Hot Chip – One Pure Thought (remixed by Geese) [EMI]
part timer w/ heidi elva – as-yet untitled track [direct from part timer]
scissors and sellotape – untitled track 7 [cotton goods]
gurun gurun – ano uta (part timer remix) [unreleased, courtesy part timer]
My Majestic Star – Stranger [Hidden Shoal]
The Ghost of 29 Megacycles – The Cold Light of Silence [sound&fury]
Peter Broderick – Robbie’s Song [Lo Alternative Frequencies]
Zelienople – All I Want Is Calm [Type]
Sweet Billy Pilgrim – Amina [Lo Alternative Frequencies]
Sam Amidon – How Come That Blood [Bedroom Community] {free download via Pitchfork!}
Brian Harnetty – i’ll cross the briny ocean, i’ll cross the deep blue sea [Atavistic]
The Books – the future, wouldn’t that be nice? [Tomlab]
William Ryan Fritch – cotton wamth on sore, chafed hands [Asthmatic Kitty] {free Christmas EP! Download here]
Sole & The Skyrider Band – black (b.fleischmann remix) [Sole One/Fake Four] {free download EP from here!}
Dane Frankcom – Word Tone [self-released/demo?]
b.fleischmann – Take your time (extract – last 9-10 minutes) [Morr Music]
Alpen – A Meditation on Flight [New Weird Australia] {of course it’s another free download, follow the NWA link}
Retribution Gospel Choir – Hide It Away [Sub Pop] {free download from Stereogum}
Owen Pallett – Flare Gun [Domino]
Automating – When Use Becomes Abuse [New Weird Australia] {free download, follow the NWA link}
Owen Pallett – What Do You Think Will Happen Now? [Domino]