Utility Fog

Another great bunch o’ stuff for you tonight. LISTEN AGAIN link at the bottom of the playlist, as usual!

Tonight’s big feature was the wonderful new compilation Music & Migration on Second Language.
We started, though, with a couple of tracks from Sydney post-rock band The Dead Sea, whose album was out in a limited fashion last year, but is available (again?) now. Excellent atmospheric stuff.

We then hopped across to the west for a couple of Perth bands: the cello-heavy shoegaze of My Majestic Star and the beautiful drone of The Ghost of 29 Megacycles (love that track/album title too!)

Speaking of drone, for a cassette on sound&fury, Jasper TX takes inspiration from a poem by Penelope Joy and creates a 15 minute ode to “Waverly Cemetery (Sydney)” (misspelled, sadly, in the original poem, but you can’t have everything). The track ranges, in typical superlative Jasper TX fashion, from drone to field recordings (lovely wind-on-microphone noise), to piano and post-rock…

Then we had the first of a number of tracks from the excellent Music & Migration compilation. Utility Fog favourite Fieldhead has contributed a mostly ambient piece. brave timbers’ piece is piano and layered violins; it’s Sarah Kemp, who plays with both Fieldhead and The Declinig Winter, whose track I’ll probably play next week!
We had a brief detour via Machinefabriek’s gorgeous remix of post-classical/folk/rock band Balmorhea, and then back to the first track on the compilation, from the reliably delightful Hauschka, with prepared piano and, I think, drum machine. Finally, Lene Charlotte Holm’s track was another highlight, and with a bit of digging (thanks Discogs!) I discovered that she’s one half of Iris to Hypnos, whose 7″ on Static Caravan was a mini-highlight of 2008.

The now-Melbourne-based Heidi Elva’s new album, lo-fi musings, should be out soon. She sent me a preview in the form of “Simple Pleasures”, a lovely dubby number that’s been in her live sets for a while. Meanwhile, John Part Timer was unable to resist a remix opportunity, and did some very juicy things to it under his kinda-dubstep alias Dark Mahoney & the Midnight Bitch. More please!

Next, we had a little mini-special on the work of Mr Owen Pallett, aka Final Fantasy. The new album is apparently set in a made-up world called Spectrum, first introduced by Owen in an EP from late 2008 called Spectrum, 14th Century. As well as a new track and one from this EP, we popped back to his debut album in 2005, and also heard an awesome number from a 7″ in Tomlab‘s Alphabet series.

It seemed suitable, after the strings and melodies of Owen Pallett, to delve into the rapturous romanticism of Sebastian Krueger’s Inlets, whose debut album is out in April. Plenty of woodwind along with the band and vocals…
Melbourne’s The Boy Who Spoke Clouds played in Sydney this week, but sadly didn’t really get the word out in time. Adam Casey and cohorts bring something really unusual to the dark folk sound. His debut album is out now; we also heard an unreleased (I believe) track from 2008 with Alex Taylor on violin and Emily Williams on cello.

From Austimer in the northern suburbs of Wollongong, Russell W produces a lovely blend of hip-hop beats, electronics and acoustic sounds. Among others, he does recall Four Tet’s sound, so I took the opportunity to play a number from There Is Love In You, which I’ve found to be the least compelling Four Tet album yet — but for all that, it has its moments. I’m sure I’ll play something else from it next week, and we’ll definitely be hearing more from Russell W too.

Jaga Jazzist used to be a firm favourite of this show; their first two albums, along with solo efforts from the Horntveth brothers and remixes by original labelmate Kim Hiorthøy, were the epitomy of the post-jazz thrill; complex and nimble jazz playing with all the jump-cuts and glitches you could ask for. Their previous album was released as just “Jaga”, and dropped the jazzist tendencies for more of a prog/post-rock vibe, and didn’t really do it for me, so I’m glad they’re back with the Jazzist, if not so much with the glitchy tendencies.
When the album is released I’ll do a bit of an overview with some favourite tracks.

The Dead Sea – Bandicoot [self-released]
The Dead Sea – respire [self-released]
My Majestic Star – Hi [Hidden Shoal]
The Ghost of 29 Megacycles – Love Via Paper Planes [sound&fury]
Penelope Joy & Jasper TX – Waverly Cemetery (Sydney) [sound&fury]
Fieldhead – Open Show [Second Language]
brave timbers – Let’s Never Go Back [Second Language]
Balmorhea – Remembrance (Machinefabriek remix) [Western Vinyl/Longtime Listener]
Hauschka – Lipstick Race [Second Language]
Iris to Hypnos – Hypodermic [Static Caravan]
Lene Charlotte Holm – Tracing Echoes [Second Language]
Heidi Elva – Simple Pleasures [self-released]
Heidi Elva – Simple Pleasures (unauthorized remix by Dark Mahoney & the Midnight Bitch) [unreleased, via Part Timer]
Owen Pallett – Midnight Directives [Domino]
Final Fantasy – Blue Imelda [Blocks Recording Club]
Final Fantasy – Please Please Please [Tomlab]
Final Fantasy – Hey, Dad! [Tomlab]
Inlets – Bright Orange Air [Two Syllables] {free download from Stereogum!}
Inlets – Roots on Sidewalks [Luv Sound] {free download EP! It’s awesome, go get it.}
The Boy Who Spoke Clouds – Fill This Room [Sun Sea Sky Productions]
The Boy Who Spoke Clouds – Misgiving [unreleased]
The Boy Who Spoke Clouds – Happening [Sun Sea Sky Productions]
Russell W – Confetti [Soviet Records]
Four Tet – Sing [Domino]
Russell W – Pastel for Alum [Soviet Records]
Jaga Jazzist – Toccata [Ninja Tune]

Listen again — ~ 168MB