Utility Fog

Sunday, 28th of March, 2010

I was away on tour this weekend (and purchasing musics in Melbourne for your entertainment, dear listener!), so the fabulous Shannon O'Neill, Jennifer Teo and Adrian Bertram came in to hold the fort.

Here's what they played.

Lucas Darklord - Asmoir 5
Wayne Butane - We Smell Sausage
Buttress O'Kneel - Kung Fu Core
Stock, Hausen und Walkman - Flagging/Dirty 30
Nat - An Ending for the Beginning
Blevin Blectum - Cygnet
Kelpe - Closed Cup Headroom
Ulver - Theme 10
µ-ziq - Prongh Seemness
Cluster - Malturi Sa
The Black Dog - The Crete That Crete Made
Pierre Bastien - Noon
OOIOO - Hewa Hewa/Uda Hah
Melt Banana - Last Target on the Last Day
Melt Banana - Chain-Shot have some fun
OOIOO - Nin na Yama
Ruins - Komnigriss/Messiaen
Vampillia - Setinarepce/Heyoah
The Golddiggers - An A Flat Cricket and a B Flat Frog
Scatterbrain - Don't Call Me Dude
Ralph Smedley - Suffocate
Shockabilly - Bluegrass Breakdown/People Are Strange
Rick Powell - I Walk the Line
Howitzer Industries - TestV01
Ministry - The Missing
Fishbone - Date Rape
Severed Heads - Cyflea Rated R [Live at Ozone]
Bring Philip - Underthinking Time
Roger Doyle - Entry Levels 1 & 2
Asmus Tietchens - Tielmenge 7 (Tielweise)
Howitzer Industries - untitled
Shannon O'Neill - TV Scrub
Pimmon - Don't Remember
Pimmon - Dervieux
Nudge - Harmo
Black Francis - Threshold Apprehension
Lloyd Bridges - Snorkel Diving

Sunday, 21st of March, 2010

Evening!
LISTEN AGAIN link down below the playlist kidz.
Just to let you know, next week the wonderful Shannon O'Neill will be filling as I'm on tour with FourPlay...
Following Sunday I'm back in action, and that arvo I'm playing a rare Raven gig at 1/475 King St Newtown. Facebook event here - it's for the launch of a 3” of mine, plus one for the brilliant Crab Smasher, also playing. Both 3”s on Marcus Whale's CURT label.

To start, RIP Alex Chilton. Two of his beautiful songs started tonight's show. This Mortal Coil were responsible in a way for Big Star’s cult status from the 1980s on, so we heard their version of "Holocaust", but the original of the devastating "Kangaroo".

Also incredibly sad news now confirmed is that Sean Stewart from Melbourne indie-noise-goth trio HTRK has passed away. Absolutely tragic for all concerned, I have no words — played two tracks as some kind of memorial.

Sydney's Howling Bells get the Ulrich Schnauss epic electronic-shoegaze treatment, from a compilation of 14 of Ulrich's remixes from the last while. A few well-loved ones are missing (where's Sia?) but it's a fabulous journey, and essential plays like a new Ulrich Schnauss album, which is a nice thing in itself.

And the first hint of a huge feature in the middle of the show on Icarus, one of my favourite bands, who are playing in Sydney this Friday.
Details at this Facebook event. Part of Emily McDaniel's Refraction series, the gig starts at 6:30pm on Friday the 26th, with Shoeb Ahmad (see below), Jon Hunter of The Holy Soul (etc), and UTS student Jordan Bryon.
It's at Bon Marche Studio at UTS, and it's gonna be awesome folks!
This first track is from their new live self-released album all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds, nice Voltaire reference there guys!

Shoeb Ahmad’s playing at that gig too, yeah. His newest release is called Blossoms, and features 8 tracks in which he bends the music of his North Indian heritage into doom-drone. Lovely.
And next up, the legendary Four Tet remix by Icarus, folktronic drum'n'bass as only they can do it.

Did someone say drum'n'bass? Breakage appears next with some very dubstep-tinged d'n'b from 2007, one of my favourite tracks from that year. He's got a new album out where he explores dubstep, drum'n'bass, dancehall and probably other genres starting with "d". Awesome stuff, that leads us directly into the wonderful world of Icarus.

Icarus’ first two albums were pure drum'n'bass heaven - intensely complex drum programming, bass drops and atmospherics. Plenty of experimentalism already there, especially in the second album, and then as we progress forwards through their catalogue we hear the drum sounds get muffled and tampered with, and all sorts of other sonic adventurism added into the mix. Hopefully the music speaks for itself. They're very well worth investigating further.
I interviewed the two of them for the forthcoming issue of Cyclic Defrost, so check it out shortly for heaps more.

My mates & colleagues in New Weird Australia are having a showcase on Saturday (damn them! I'll be away) and we heard two artists who will be playing there (note the link in the playlist where you can download both tracks!)
Karoshi’s been working hard for the last few years at his high-quality electronica/folktronica, and has a new album in the works. Hobart's Paint Your Golden Face have a very Aussie take on something like freak-folk, and I'm sad to be missing them live this time round. Check out the gig at St Petersburg, 21 May St, St Peters, this Saturday night (March 27th).

Another Ulrich Schnauss remix, and this one's a favourite from the last couple of years, from Katharina Franck. Just a beautiful song made all shimmery and golden by our Ulrich. What a lovely chappie.
And more from a couple of other recent new releases. Autechre’s best album in ages, Oversteps, is now available in the physical record stores, and Spartak’s fabulous Verona is available direct from Shoeb (see link below) for a very decent price (including postage).

My Icarus special meant I had less room than I wanted for a few excellent new releases, a couple of which were shunted over to two weeks' time. But I couldn't let the night go without a couple of tracks from Jasper TX’s absolute stunner of a new album, the 2CD set A Voice From Dead Radio. There'll definitely be more of this coming next time I'm around, but tonight we had one highlight plus the remix from the ever-reliable Peter Broderick, whose meticulous reworking is as good as you'd expect considering his first-class work over the last year plus...

And finally, finishing up with another release I couldn't allow to slip back another two weeks: the latest disc on Sydney's Preservation, a lovely bit of folktronica (etc) from Ben Swire. More of this coming too, minimal electronics and some guitar & double bass.

This Mortal Coil - Holocaust [4AD]
Big Star - Kangaroo [Rykodisc]
HTRK - Look What's Been Done [Fire]
HTRK - Fascinator [BLAST First (petite)]
Howling Bells - Setting Sun (Ulrich Schnauss remix) [Rocket Girl]
Icarus - Uke ’Em [self-released, through Not Applicable]
Shoeb Ahmad - Blossoms part 4 & 5 [hellosQuare]
Four Tet - My Angel Rocks Back and Forth (Four Teas on English Time mix by Icarus) [Domino]
Breakage - Clarendon [Digital Soundboy]
Breakage - Open Up [Digital Soundboy]
Breakage - Temper feat. Kemo [Digital Soundboy]
Icarus - Moon Palace [Hydrogen Dukebox]
Icarus - Jemo [Hydrogen Dukebox]
Icarus - Oott [Output]
Isambard Khroustaliov - Mou Iranai [Not Applicable]
Icarus - Dolphin Lylic [Temporary Residence]
Icarus - Gnog [Leaf]
Icarus - keet [Rump Recordings]
Icarus - Husky Offset [self-released, through Not Applicable]
Karoshi - Re-Animate Me [New Weird Australia showcase] {free download from here!}
Paint Your Golden Face - Television Is About Pictures [New Weird Australia showcase] {free download from here!}
Katharina Franck - Faithful Friend (Ulrich Schnauss remix) [Rocket Girl]
Autechre - d-sho qub [Warp]
Spartak - Tweezer [Low Point] {available locally through hellosQuare. Cheap! Awesome!}
Jasper TX - A Beacon to Lead Us There [Under The Spire]
Jasper TX - A Beacon to Lead Us There (Peter Broderick remix) [Under The Spire]
Ben Swire - Passing Through [Preservation]

Listen again — ~ 179MB

Sunday, 14th of March, 2010

Hello folks! If you want to LISTEN AGAIN, link's at the bottom. Note: listening again is in mono. Sorry, just how it comes.

Appropriation was the theme of SNATM, so you get yourselve some interesting sampling in the first track! Er, yes, it's my band, but remixed by the amazing Melbourne artist Buttress O'Kneel - who gave us an amazing 5 (FIVE) amazing remixes, at least some of which will be on a forthcoming remix album...

We heard a couple of tracks tonight from Spartak’s just-released new album Verona, out now on English label Low Point. Stunning stuff as ever from Shoeb & Evan, on this first track playing dual prepared guitars, panned left and right.

South African "zef" group Die Antwoord have taken the interwebs by storm over the last few months. Their website's pretty amazing, as are the videos you can watch there, and I've been listening to the album recently and thinking that stripped of all the image and hype it's just great music and great Afrikaans/English rapping. So, enjoy (strong language btw...)

Brazilian singer Cibelle stole our hearts and minds a few years ago with her album The Shine of Dried Electric Leaves, partly produced by Mike Lindsay of Tunng, and the "Noite de Carnaval" single with Matthew Herbert remixes. This new track, courtesy of Pitchfork, is the first from what sounds like a fabulous new album, with none of the electronic adventurism abandoned. Love the dubstep bass pumping away in there...

Funckarma have been exploring dubstep sounds for a while now, as an influence in their releases and in particular on their Dubstoned series of EPs. The third one has just dropped, on 12” and digitally, and the 12” comes with a free download of WAV files of the whole thing plus two bonus tracks (also included in the digital release). Although none of this is exactly dubstep, the influence is strongly there, and these boys are two of my favourite electronica producers of the last decade (1999 was their first EP). So... brilliant stuff.
Later on we heard a lovely remix of an old track by L'usine...

Next up the absolute kings of electronica Autechre with a remix from back in 1998 of drum'n'bass artist Lexis — extraordinary melding of styles. Couple of beauties from the new Autechre album too.
And then another classic from around 1998, from holosud — a due made up of Mouse on Mars associates FX Randomiz and Schlammpeitziger. It's the sort of stuff that could only come out of the a-musik label in the mid-late '90s.

...And Tunng. Well, I had my doubts about how they'd fare post-Sam Genders, and on the whole I think they're confirmed. Mike Lindsay is a wonderful producer but they're somehow quite a bit more generic here. The one track I played from their new album is a real beauty, no doubt, but most of the rest doesn't really bear multiple listens. Nice Dntel remix on the UK indie stores bonus CD though...

Couple more remixes from the seemingly ultra-busy classically-trained Mr Son Lux. An alternative mix of one of the My Brightest Diamond tracks we found him remixing a few weeks ago, and a pretty special version of a Why? song from Eskimo Snow.

dakota suite’s remix album, which I featured a couple of tracks from last week, is still going strong - it's a gorgeous piece of work. Hauschka prepared-pianos it up very nicely, and Machinefabriek is all delicate and sensitive.

Also, new Fieldhead this week. First short track is courtesy of new label nóthings66, whose duskscape not seen compilation features an interesting mélange of electronic and other styles, including the aforementioned L'usine remix of Funckarma (an old track but welcome).
But our Fieldhead also appears on a (seemingly already sold out) split/combined EP with Static Caravan artist Iris to Hypnos, each remixing two of the other's tracks. Got quite a response from these tunes tonight, so it's a shame if it's gone. Check the label website and potentially pester Norman Records (link to sold-out item).

Second Spartak outing for tonight features the angelic vocals of Lucrecia Perez. Go and buy this CD, peoples! PayPal link on their MySpazz, or find an online retailer (there are plenty).

Tonight we also have available the third installment in the LOAF Explorers' Club, with a new band from Montreal called Oen Sujet. It's... intriguing stuff. A little bit pop, somewhat electronic, a tad experimental.

Further electronic dalliances are rounded out with a New Weird Australian tune from near Sydney by The Atlas Room. Freaky and freakin' great.

Then, finally, Yellow Swans’ final album graces our ears, with a submerged (almost subliminal) beat and loads of gorgeous noise. Two tracks from this album, with a long droney and somewhat noisy track from ex-pat Aussie Robert Curgenven, who's on these shores for a while. Look out for an interview in May, when he's also playing in Sydney. I'll let y'all know.

After the second Yellow Swans tune, an uplifting number from the new The Besnard Lakes. I'm absolutely caning this album at home, as well as their two previous ones. I wanted to play "Like The Ocean, Like The Innocent" again (see last week) because it rocks my world, but Olga gets to sing lead on this one, and like I said, totally uplifting. YAY.

FourPlay String Quartet - Bollyrock (Buttress O'Kneel Temptation of the Key remix) [unreleased]
Spartak - Morning Prayer [Low Point]
Die Antwoord - Fish Paste [unreleased, but they've just signed to Interscope!]
Cibelle - Man From Mars [Crammed Discs] {download from Pitchfork}
Funckarma - Solaz Flair [eat concrete]
Funckarma - Nays of dight [Ad Noiseam]
Funckarma - Moor [eat concrete]
Lexis - Hypnotise (Autechre slow mix) [Certificate 18]
Autechre - see on see [Warp]
Autechre - known(1) [Warp]
holosud - alaune [a-musik]
tunng - with whiskey [Full Time Hobby]
tunng - bricks (dntel remix) [Full Time Hobby]
Why? - These Hands (Son Lux remix) [Anticon]
My Brightest Diamond - The Diamond (Son Lux Alternate mix) [Asthmatic Kitty] {unreleased mix available from RCRDLBL} {and sampling I wish I could remember what! Prokofiev? Tchaikovsky?}
dakota suite - a quietly gathering tragedy (hauschka remix) [karaoke kalk]
Fieldhead - Almost Everything There is to Know [nóthings66]
dakota suite - one day without harming you (machinefabriek remix) [karaoke kalk]
Iris to Hypnos - Stele 31 (Fieldhead Remix) [Static Caravan]
Fieldhead - Document 1 (Iris to Hypnos Until Ripples Fade Remix) [Static Caravan]
Spartak - Second-Half Clouded (feat. Lucrecia Perez) [Low Point]
Oen Sujet - Circled, Centred [L-O-A-F]
L'usine - Fog (original version by Funckarma) [nóthings66]
The Atlas Room - Iris [New Weird Australia] {download the latest free comp now!}
Yellow Swans - Foiled [Type]
ex - Largo Capriccioso [LINE]
Yellow Swans - Limited Space [Type]
The Besnard Lakes - Albatross [Jagjaguwar]

Listen again — ~ 178MB

Sunday, 7th of March, 2010

Evening! Help us out why don't you? Support FBi and keep us on air!
And you can LISTEN AGAIN via the link at the bottom.

Sad news that Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse took his own life this week. Played a track to see him off, in collaboration with Christian Fennesz. Fennesz's laptop power trio FennO'Berg are back with a new album, on which the jury's still out - but I haven't had a chance to listen properly yet. This track stood out enough to get the thumbs up tonight!

Montreal's The Besnard Lakes’ new album sounds remarkably like The Besnard Lakes — and that's a great thing! If you're familiar with their last two albums you'll know what to expect - and it's as rapturous and epic as ever.
Fellow Canadians The Arcade Fire slipped in next - for some reason this song was on my mind for a few days this week, and it is a very fine one I must say.
And we had a little reminder of The Besnard Lakes’ first album.

First off in our little "classical" music-influenced theme tonight is The Knife’s opera based on the life and works of Charles Darwin, written "in collaboration" with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock. It's pretty crazy cool stuff, with scene-setting experimental sounds, enormous analog synth lines, operatic (and non-operatic) vocals and some percussion... A definite winner.
Speaking of classical influence, also another track from that amazing These New Puritans album, with wind ensemble in amongst the percussion and almost new wave attitude...

More classicism with Icelandic composer Daníel Bjarnason, whose "Bow To String" is the first work on his new album for Bedroom Community. Countless multi-tracked celli make for a rich and richly-rhythmic sound, with a little help from label boss Valgeir Sigurðsson. From Valgeir we also heard a wonderful track from his new album, featuring many other Bedroom Community artists as guests, plus an older glitchy electronic piece which ushered in a bit of an electronic segment. However, in between we had a reprise of the one track as yet available from Sam Amidon’s new album — blissful rhythmic ostinati and an authentic folk voice.

The electronica begins with Sydney's Vorad Fils, who happens to be one of the members of the beloved Seekae, and has an album coming out via Feral Media soon! Classic electronica.
It's the first in a number of tracks tonight from New Weird Australia Volume Five, which you are hereby instructed to go and download now. Get the others too if you haven't yet!
There. Good.

Next, Scottish glitch-hop artist Loops Haunt. Nicely twisted, syncopated and chopped stuff. And while it's definitely more on the dancefloor tip, it's still very much listening music too, and strangely appropriate as a segue into a new Autechre track, from their stellar Oversteps. Raved about it last week, and I think we'll be back for more for a good few weeks yet (at least until the album comes out on CD!) This track starts off a bit oddly but swiftly becomes something fascinating, and the last minute or two as it tails off are pretty amazing.
And then a rarity - an artist about whom I know pretty much nothing! Racoon is on the Italian label Disasters by Choice and makes very Mém-influenced electronic/folktronic sounds. It's very pretty and I'd love to know more...

We had a brief tag-team tonight between two excellent remix albums, from Aarktica and dakota suite. The former takes the drone-pop of Jon DeRosa's Aarktica and either takes it more in the droney-guitar direction or adds some nice crunched beats etc... But UFog-favourites The Declining Winter add some extra vocals and Sarah Kemp's multi-tracked violin for something very special.
The dakota suite remix album actually came out last year but has just been re-released by German label Karaoke Kalk for greater coverage, and it's brilliant. Tonight, Peter Broderick is at his usual heights with a very soft and reflective piece worthy of multiple re-listens, and Deaf Center contribute something layered and evocative. More of these to come...

Aaron Martin’s latest album isn't on Sydney's Preservation, but Experimedia are well-known for their beautiful packaging too. Aaron here seems to be taking things in an even more abstract sound-related direction, but the second track I played is one of his best cello-related works yet, a multi-tracked delight.

Further New Weird Australia offerings include the wonderful Sydney-based sound artist Gail Priest, whose vocal processing is a wonder, the ever-fab Crab Smasher with a bit of almost Sonic Youth-like rock jamming, and Red Plum & Snow — new project for Kris Keogh of Blastcorp, taking vocal-swapping acoustic guitar folk-pop in very interesting directions :)

Also in there, the improv guitar, sax, drums and other stuff from Sydney's Espadrille, and a b-side from Collarbones, more glitched-up electronic pop.

sparklehorse + fennesz - Goodnight Sweetheart [Konkurrent]
Fenn O'Berg - Part IV [Editions Mego]
The Besnard Lakes - Like the Ocean Like the Innocent Pt I: The Ocean / Pt II: The Innocent [Jagjaguwar]
Arcade Fire - Neighborhood #3 (Power Out) [Rough Trade]
The Besnard Lakes - This Thing [Breakglass]
The Knife in collaboration with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock - Epochs [Rabid/etcetc]
These New Puritans - Hologram [Angular/Domino]
The Knife in collaboration with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock - Tumult/Colouring of Pigeons [Rabid/etcetc]
Daníel Bjarnason - Bow To String Mvt I: "sorrow conquers happiness" [Bedroom Community]
Valgeir Sigurðsson - Grýlukvæði (feat. Sam Amidon, Nico Muhly & Ben Frost [Bedroom Community]
Sam Amidon - How Come That Blood [Bedroom Community] {free download via Pitchfork!}
Valgeir Sigurðsson - Focal Point [Bedroom Community]
Vorad Fils - Temple Leak [New Weird Australia] {download the latest free comp now!}
Loops Haunt - Huarache [Fortified Audio]
Loops Haunt - Joplin [Black Acre]
Autechre - d-sho qub [Warp]
Racoon - the anonymous brother of Lili Chou Chou [Disasters by Choice] {one wonders if the titular person is Racoon, since I can find practically no information about them on the interwebs!}
Aarktica - In Sea (remixed by Mason Jones) [Silber]
dakota suite - very early one morning on old road (deaf center remix) [karaoke kalk]
Aarktica - Am I Demon? (remix by The Declining Winter) [Silber]
dakota suite - this failing sea (peter broderick remix) [karaoke kalk]
Aaron Martin - Ice Melts Onto Fingers [Experimedia]
Gail Priest - Etchings [New Weird Australia] {download the latest free comp now!}
Aaron Martin - Water Tongue [Experimedia]
Espadrille - out of space part 3 [self-released]
Crab Smasher - Skin Destruction [New Weird Australia] {download the latest free comp now!}
Red Plum & Snow - I Would Die 4 U [New Weird Australia] {download the latest free comp now!}
Collarbones - late nights [Collarbones Bandcamp] {download free - follow the link!}

Listen again — ~ 180MB