Many wonderful sounds for you tonight, including an interview with Michael Muller from the wonderful Texan band Balmorhea…
LISTEN AGAIN link at the bottom, as ever.

But to start off, an album that I really shouldn’t have neglected for the last month or two. Second album proper from High Places, whose music I first heard in the excellent Tokyo record store Warszawa, the perfect setting for something of a spin-out. They haven’t exactly gone mainstream since then, and the effects-laden tribal percussion and other freaky sounds are still present; but there might be a bit less tampering with the vocals, which leads to a fantastic weird pop album.

This week I also finally got hold of Clint Mansell’s beautiful soundtrack to Duncan Jones’ extraordinary movie of last year, Moon. A highly effective two-note piano refrain, and an excellent post-rock in this piece. Of course if I’m playing Clint I have no choice but to play something from the Poppies, who were for more than half a decade my favourite band in the whole world. I decided to play it safe(ish) and not jump back to their grebo origins or even their intergalactic punk-rock hip-hop, but instead we had the epic remix of “Everything’s Cool” by the ubiquitous (at the time) Youth.

Andrew Khedoori’s Preservation label is a decidedly internationalist Sydney label, and while you may not have heard of most of their artists when they first arrive on the label, the quality is guaranteed. The latest offering is from Finnish artist Ous Mal, previously released on the equally reliable UK label Under The Spire. It’s got that strangely Finnish sensibility – out of focus, unfamiliar influences clashing in pleasing ways. Plus cello, which always helps :)

Speaking of cello, a goodly portion of the new album from the boats (which compiles hard-to-find tracks from the last few years with a bunch of unreleased stuff, and is well and truly their best work in yonks) features the brilliant cellist Danny Norbury. The best results combine his multi-tracked cello with the minimal electronics the boats do so well. And as for minimal electronics, we had a memory brush past us of Craig Tattersal’s other band the remote viewer’s timeless classic first album from 1999. This desparately needs re-releasing, or at least needs to be made available digitally.

Which brings us to Balmorhea. Michael Muller is a lovely fellow and had some very interesting things to say. I’m afraid I forgot to offer the interview as a separate download as well, but if you’re keen to have it on its own, let me know and I can probably arrange it. I think the selection of their tunes shows their impressive range – almost postrock, folky Americana, post-classical (if you will), drone and field recordings…

Balmorhea’s closing piano extravaganza somehow put me in mind of the harp runs from one of the albums of the week, Flying Lotus’s incredible Cosmogramma. FlyLo is the nephew of jazz great Alice Coltrane, who is referenced in the first of a few tracks I played tonight. There’s also some cute scatting, some Ninja Tune-style hip hop and some off-kilter wonky goodness too.

Another American playing in the outskirts of dubstep & hip-hop is Starkey. The new album ramps up the dancefloor sheen and adds vocalists to about half the tracks, and so it doesn’t all suit Utility Fog (although very fine stuff). “Marsh”, from his debut album, is as wonderfully twisted as ever.

Japanese electronic artist Geskia also likes play with the hip-hop beats. Tonight we didn’t hear one his own productions as such, but sampled instead the heavy dubby sound of perennial UFog favourite Bracken.
Bracken then gets the remix treatment himself, from Buddy Peace, in a cut from his excellent remix album from a couple of years ago, which I played because Buddy Peace just did a nicely scratchy remix of a new Caribou tune, which you can download from the link below.

Also wonkying up the beats is Vorad Fils, aka John Hassell, from Seekae. After the familiar delight of those kidz’ “Void”, we had a lovely long ambient piece from John.

Speaking of ambient and long, ex-pat Aussie Robert Curgenven is in town for one more week before heading overseas again. He’s playing this coming Sunday at the Cad Factory, for Harmonic Territories #8, also featuring improv trio Espadrille, sound artist Kraig Grady and experimental songwriter Anna Chase. Should be fantastic.

Finished tonight with a short piece from Edwin Montgomery’s quiet guitar album – gorgeous guitar fx – and some scary goodness from Monstera Deliciosa and Crab Smasher Grant Hunter.

High Places – On a Hill In a Bed On a Road In a House [Thrill Jockey]
Clint Mansell – Welcome To Lunar Industries (Three Year Stretch) [Black Records]
Pop Will Eat Itself – Everything’s Cool (Youth‘s Safe As Milk Mix) [Infectious Records]
High Places – Drift Slayer [Thrill Jockey]
Ous Mal – Tuulensuoja [Preservation]
Ous Mal – Kotlin (feat. Iiris Tötterström, cello) [Preservation]
the boats – veleta two step (feat. Danny Norbury, cello) [flaü/Home Normal]
the remote viewer – untitled tk 4 from self-titled first album [555 Records of Leeds, UK]
the boats – the arrow home (feat. Danny Norbury, cello; Chris Stewart, vox) [flaü/Home Normal]
Balmorhea – Night in the Draw (Jacaszek remix) [Western Vinyl]
Balmorhea – Process [Western Vinyl]
…interview with Michael Muller from Balmorhea, feat. “Harm and Boon”, “Baleen Morning”, “Bowsprit”…
Balmorhea – November 1, 1832 (Peter Broderick remix) [Western Vinyl]
Balmorhea – Steerage and the Lamp [Western Vinyl]
Flying Lotus – Drips / Auntie’s Harp [Warp]
Flying Lotus – MmmHmm (feat. Thundercat) [Warp]
Flying Lotus – Do the Astral Plane [Warp]
Starkey – Spacecraft [Planet µ]
Starkey – Marsh [Planet µ]
Geskia – Second Coming (Bracken Remix) [flaü]
Bracken – We Cut The Tapes and Scatter (Steinbeck Ultramagnetic remix by Buddy Peace) [no label/Anticon]
Caribou – Sun (Buddy Peace “Plasmic Meatball” Remix) [Domino, available as free download from Buddy Peace’s SoundCloud]
Vorad Fils – Temple Leak [Feral Media]
Seekae – Void [Rice is Nice]
Vorad Fils – The Warmest Static [Feral Media]
Robert Curgenven – Gran Coda Andante [LINE]
Edwin Montgomery – The Last Night [Monstera Deliciosa]
Grant Hunter – When a new baby arrives [Monstera Deliciosa, edition of ONE *hehe*]

Listen again — ~ 208MB

Quite a journey tonight, from late-’60s French freak folk (can I call it that? please?) to noise, to postrock/drill’n’bass… and more!
Wanna LISTEN AGAIN? See end of playlist as per usual.

I have only just discovered, via an internet friend, the amazing music that Brigitte Fontaine made with collaborator Areski Belkacem, and particularly on an incredible album working with avant-garde jazz pioneers the Art Ensemble of Chicago. I played the title track of the album Comme à la radio, and later another gorgeous folk song. Incredible music from 1969 still having repercussions today.

Next up, a few things reminded me of this wonderful track from Spartak’s recent album. I was talking to Shoeb from the band last week on the show, and then this week John Part Timer sent me his remix of singer Lucrecia Perez’ solo project The Sound of Lucrecia.
Her vocals over the improvised Spartak track are a wonder, and her own music a revelation. I’m thinking it’ll be available in Australia later this year via Shoeb’s hellosQuare Recordings. And Part Timer’s remix is one of the best thing’s he’s done lately.

One of a few artists being featured on tonight’s show is Serafina Steer, who I’ve been playing since her first 7″ on Static Caravan. We heard that tonight, as well as a couple of tracks from her new album. Still plenty of her signature harp and vocals, with some different collaborators: on the Peach Heart 7″ she worked with Mike Lindsay from Tunng; the new album is co-produced very sensitively by Benge and Capitol K, and although not altogether folktronic, it’s a very modern take on folk songs.

Sydney’s Gail Priest, who we heard on last week’s show as well, gives us a few tracks tonight. Two come from her new EP which you can grab from her Bandcamp right now – an amazing piece of vocal manipulation and a gorgeous piece of hi-fidelity guitar and effects. The other track is almost techno – the one track from her previous album imaginary conversations in reverberent rooms which edges towards dance music.

We went from Gail Priest’s technoid sounds to some other rhythmic explorations, starting with Daniel Lopatin’s Oneohtrix Point Never, with a track which can only be found in Wire Magazine’s third subscriber-only Behind The Radar compilation. His familiar blissful but edgy analog synth patterns make us even more excited for the new album(s! – I believe) on their way from him this year…
And then the man whose noise label brought Lopatin to our attention, Carlos Giffoni. Inspired no doubt by the analog synthesiser nostalgia of a number of noise exponents of late, Giffoni has formed No Fun Acid, and I chose to play a track from This Is No Fun Acid 2, a 12″ which features a rather incredible remix by Gavin Russom. It’s quite an epic number and worth every minute.

Back to The Wire’s BTR comp with Jacques Beloeil, who seems to have very little info about him on the internets. Digital and analogue noise that’s so extreme we had a listener wondering if there was something wrong with the transmitter; and yet even the modulated digital feedback seems to me to exhibit the hand of a real human intelligence. It’s a fascinating listen.

Also tonight, I finally got to play the collaboration between two of my favourite noise artists, Yellow Swans & Burning Star Core. C Spencer Yeh of BxC scrapes and howls on his violin over dense drones from Yellow Swans. After Beloeil this is beautiful chamber music :)

And the last hour of tonight’s show features a few more artists who deserve a few tracks in a row. First off, multi-instrumentalist prodigy William Ryan Fritch has a new album out as Vieo Abiungo, showcasing his musical prowess on a huge array of instruments, in something of a world music vein. He’s probably best known as the backing for Sole as The Skyrider Band, where he can be anything from sample-based hip-hop to rock band.
And our Part Timer pops up with another forthcoming remix, quite ambient and taking full advantage of the strings and vocals of Fritch.

Next are 65daysofstatic, long beloved of this show. I’ve been playing them since their first EP, from which we heard a wonderfully raw track tonight. Also the explicitly drum’n’bass-meets-postrock of “await rescue”, and then… The Cure! The boys toured the USA with Robert Smith’s band in 2008, and as well as being asked to remix the band, they managed to get him in for a vocal appearance on their new album. They’re still in fine form, and the new album can actually be found locally in Australia – so, no excuse!

Finally, it’s no secret (er, why would it be? weird expression!) that I’m a huge fan of Newcastle/Sydney noisesters Crab Smasher, and I recently discovered a blog post on Grant Hunter’s Monstera Deliciosa with a really old cassette of theirs which was a fun listen. I also jumped back to 2007 for what’s still one of their best releases, the Impossible Monsters EP, and finished with something from their latest EP, the doctor is in… over his head, which is undoubtedly some of their best work yet – nuanced free improv that you need in your earholes.

Brigitte Fontaine et Areski avec the Art Ensemble of Chicago – Comme à la radio [Saravah]
Spartak – Second-Half Clouded (feat. Lucrecia Perez) [Low Point]
The Sound of Lucrecia – Ara [Pruna]
The Sound of Lucrecia – Ceniza (Part Timer‘s “Bless You” remix) [forthcoming on hellosQuare]
Serafina Steer – Day Glo [Static Caravan]
Serafina Steer – Peach Heart [Static Caravan]
Serafina Steer – Drinking While Driving [Static Caravan]
Gail Priest – Etchings [get via Bandcamp!]
Gail Priest – body in birmingham [self-released]
Oneohtrix Point Never – Fourier Ocean Scenes [unreleased, via Wire Mag]
No Fun Acid – No Fun Acid 2 (Gavin Russom remix) [No Fun Productions]
Jacques Beloeil – Bidule 9 (Guillotine edit) [Entr’acte via Wire Mag]
Gail Priest – Phantoms [get via Bandcamp!]
Yellow Swans & Burning Star Core – Skylab, Columbus OH, September 2006 [Blossoming Noise]
Brigitte Fontaine et Areski avec the Art Ensemble of Chicago – Le Noir c’est Mieux Choisi [Saravah]
Vieo Abiungo – In A Wash or Haze [Lost Tribe Sound]
sole & the skyrider band – a sad day for investors [anticon]
Vieo Abiungo – Fugue [Lost Tribe Sound]
Vieo Abiungo – Blood Memory (Part Timer remix) [forthcoming on Lost Tribe Sound]
65daysofstatic – await rescue [Monotreme]
65daysofstatic – play.nice.kids [Dustpunk Records]
65daysofstatic vs The Cure – Freakshow [here’s Robert Smith explaining why you shouldn’t buy this from iTunes!]
65daysofstatic – Come to Me (feat. Robert Smith!) [Hassle Records]
Crab Smasher – skeleton fury [old stuff available at Monstera Deliciosa]
Crab Smasher – The Moon Rattled Inside Her [Squeamish Recordings]
Crab Smasher – How To Dodge Red Shells [new stuff from Bandcamp]

Listen again — ~ 175MB