Utility Fog

Sunday, 20th of June, 2010

Good evening! So much good music! It must be Sunday.
Even if it's not, you can LISTEN AGAIN via the link at the bottom! Everyone's a winner.

Playing "Pick the influence!" to start with. The wonderful Le Loup are a band I should've twigged to a while back, as I played a track from a split 7” back in April last year. Better late than never, I've picked up both their albums, and there's a definite parallel with Grizzly Bear here - first album mainly a solo effort by Sam Simkoff, with folky instrumentation and glitchy studio stuff; second album with full band and rapturous harmonies etc.
Adding to this effect, there's a direct connection between the first two tracks I played. It's not an exact quote, but surely must be a homage.
Then we had two pretty amazing tracks from the end of their (his) first album - as folktronic as it gets.

UFog fave Fieldhead has a new vinyl release coming out in July from Gizeh Records. The EP features the grainy processed sounds of five different female vocalists. It's the typical Fieldehead sound, albeit without beats, but with a whole new dimension added. Definitely recommended.
Meanwhile, ex-pat Englishman Part Timer, who's been based in Melbourne for a good few years now, continues to send me new music at a rate of knots. Tonight's tracks, though, come from a fully-fledged new EP that will come out under the name upward arrows, we can only hope soon. It's truly fantastic ambient stuff, with some surreptitious string samples (you'd never tell where they come from), acoustic guitar and a whole lot of atmos. Dude continues to be a winner.

Thanks to The Wire (and the fact that I'm a subscriber, we get to celebrate German label Staubgold’s 100th release with a few tracks from this month's download compilation.
Pedal is a duo I hadn't heard of before, featuring The Necks’ Chris Abrahams and classical pianist Simon James Phillips. Very pretty stuff.
Meanwhile, Reuber has been around for yonks, and his track is some great synth-led krautrock, quite in keeping with the contemporary psychedelic analogue synth scene...

Back to the indietronica, Foals are known for their melodic punky pop, but come out of a scene that's interested in folktronic and postrock elements as well. We heard a brief glitchy piano piece and then a nice slow-growing number, indie-dance with that popular African-style guitar stuff (a bit Vampire Weekend) that wouldn't be out of place on a Bloc Party album maybe.
We also heard Kieran Hebden’s epic version of a track from their previous album. Ultra-ace.

And then we get into a couple of retrospectives of electronic artists with new releases out. FIrst up, the amazing Benn Jordan aka The Flashbulb. His latest album is out now on his Alphabasic label, and features live strings and other instruments in amongst his electronics, piano and guitar. I gave a quick tour (well, quick relative to his large back catalogue) as a guide to just how talented this guy is at complex beat programming, unusual arrangements and, particularly on the last track, really beautiful melodies.
And from the same compilation as that last track, we heard a classic of beat-fuckery by Wisp.

Kattoo’s Volker Kahl is another beat-making and arranging genius, whose career stretches back to at least 1998 with his previous (now defunct) duo Beefcake. While his partner therein, Gabor Schablitzki, has gone on to some success in the electro/house realm as Robag Wruhme and part of the Wighnomy Brothers, Volker Kahl has kept the faith and continued to create complex glitchy beats and classical-influenced sounds as Kattoo. I couldn't help playing a selection from the Beefcake years (so much great stuff!) as well as a bit of older Kattoo. Go to his website and support the music direct!

Following these retrospectives, we're back to the present day, with brilliant new dubstep/pop producer Emika, who again on her new single uses her own vocals with a beautifully moody dubstep production. The remix by dubstep legend Pinch takes it into even more minimal and head-nodding territory, chopping up Emika's vocals in tasty fashion, and I found it led very effectively out of Sabre’s hypnotic track from last week's drum'n'bass set, showing just how nicely these scenes are cross-pollinating right now.

From Sydney/Adelaide, Collarbones give us a glitchy, bright piece of wonky. Their set on Friday at Hardware Gallery was wonk-tastic, and featured Marcus Whale’s vox, absent from this track.

Finally, some Autechre acid. Their second album of the year has been available for pre-order from Bleep for some time. As is their wont, Ae/Warp released the download edition some weeks before the physical copies are available, so pre-orderers like myself found it in our inboxes earlier this week.
It's certainly more in keeping with their recent stellar live sets than Oversteps. Still some very melodic bits, and plenty of beats. Hasn't quite sunk in yet, but I know this track is great!

Le Loup - Go East [Hardly Art]
Grizzly Bear - Easier [Warp]
Le Loup - Canto XXXIV [Hardly Art]
Le Loup - I Had A Dream I Died [Hardly Art]
fieldhead - an arrow (feat. Anneke Kampman of Conquering Animal Sound) [Gizeh]
part timer - ^^ [forthcoming on...?]
fieldhead - planks of wood (feat. Anna-Lynne Williams of Trespassers William) [Gizeh]
part timer - ^^^^ [forthcoming on...?]
Pedal - Sump [Staubgold, courtesy The Wire]
Reuber - Altweiber [Staubgold, courtesy The Wire]
Foals - Fugue [Sub Pop]
Foals - After Glow [Sub Pop]
Foals - Cassius (Keiran Hebden Version) [Transgressive]
The Flashbulb - Undiscovered Colors [Alphabasic]
The Flashbulb - your new human [accelmuzhik]
The Flashbulb - Kirlian Shores [Sublight]
The Flashbulb - Kirlian Isles III [Sublight]
The Flashbulb - Meadow Crush [Alphabasic]
The Flashbulb - Hometown UFO [Sublight]
Wisp - Uxe-Bu [Sublight]
Kattoo - ll--l- l--l-l ll-- ll-ll- ll-- l--ll l-ll l-l [jungle.clan.ag]
Beefcake - digilog [Hymen]
Beefcake - 5:09 [Hymen]
Beefcake - approx tks 13-15 from Drei [thrillbeatconstruction]
Kattoo - Place2 [Hymen/jungle.clan.ag]
Kattoo - l--l-ll- ll-ll- l- l--l-l l--l-ll ll-- l--ll-ll l- ll- l--l- [jungle.clan.ag]
Emika - Double Edge [Ninja Tune]
Sabre - Levelling Out Pt. 2 [Critical Music]
Emika - Double Edge (Pinch remix) [Ninja Tune]
Collarbones - Tashkent [download from Bandcamp]
Autechre - pce freeze 2.8i [Warp]

Listen again — ~ 174MB

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