Utility FogYour weekly fix of postfolkrocktronica, dronenoise, power ambient, post-everything improv... and more? Sunday nights from 9 to 11pm on FBi Radio, 94.5 FM in Sydney, Australia. {Hey! Sign up to Utilityfoglet and get playlists emailed to you after each show!}
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Playlist 12.09.10 (11:10 pm)
There is nothing that grows in your Arctic World... Good evening! Tonight, I decided to start with a bit of a classic of Oz Rock, from the band of the man who was ultra-political until, um, he became a politician. The Oils’ three albums of the mid-'80s, 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1, Red Sails in the Sunset and Diesel and Dust are all brilliant, and if the latter cut down somewhat on the studio experimentalism, there's still a lot of sonic goodness there, as we hear in the simple sampled backbeat and great string arrangement here. And... James Blackshaw has a new album out! His 12-string classical guitar has been replaced with a 12-string electric, but he's still playing piano more (including on the gorgeous “Part 1”), and includes more strings. I love the floor-tom and spoken numbers that arrive when “Part 6” hits. Highly recommended. More Nils Frahm tonight, including more from his collaboration with cellist Anne Müller. Read back to my last couple of playlists for my raves about these artists. Piano? Ah yes, piano. On Tuesday I was very fortunate to finally be able to see the amazing musicianship of The Bad Plus live at the Basement. They didn't play my favourite piece ("Prehensile Dream") but they did play their exquisite cover of Aphex Twin's "Flim" as an encore. Their new album is all originals, and it's one of their best yet. I love the way their chord changes are almost classical (or baroque) through the jazz syncopations on the title track "Never Stop", and "People Like You", like my aforementioned favourite, is a ballad with a long and patient melody, a real beauty. From there we skip to the melody-drenched pop sounds of Brad Laner, who once made shoegaze as Medicine, then minimal and maximal glitchtronica as Electric Company, and earlier this year put out a similarly electronically-twisted pop album on Planet µ as one half of The Internal Tulips. It's probably true that none of the melodies here are memorable enough to storm up the charts, but it's always enjoyable to hear sonic experimentation along with unabashed pop. Kurt Weisman’ brother Chris has featured on this show before. I found this album in Melbourne last week. Utterly insane psychedelia, with songs merging into long expanses of electronic burbles and general madness. Gotta love it. Genre-crossing doesn't come any more extreme or accomplished as Nico Muhly, but his new album is almost a pure classical work. Except for the bits that sounds like adapted folk songs, and the bits of programming by label-mates Valgeir Sigurðsson and Ben Frost... I recommend ordering it from Bandcamp (see below) so you can get the two bonus tracks. I particularly like the textures in "Twitchy Organs". In between the two Nico tracks, however, we had the rather gorgeous sounds of a new improv/sound trio who I can only hope work together more in the future. This first album from Fennesz • Daniell • Buck is a recording of a gig in Knoxville, TN, and the three consummate musicians create a swirling sound with a big range. Nico Muhly's twitchy organs (*ahem*) segue into a little featurette on the wonderful glitchy laptop folk of Espen Sommer-Eide, aka Phonophani, and his work with Dag-Are Haugan as Alog. They have a very distinctive sound, using little snippets of audio and (usually acoustic) instruments played in a sortof faux-naïve style, and it's beautifully immersive listening. "Violence and magical danger" is one way of putting it... The vocals on "son of king" seem to be Chinese speakers, and whether they're actually saying those words in the end or being chopped up to sound like it is probably irrelevant. On the other hand, on Espen's new album there are some more literal vocals, sung lyrics to a typical Phonophani/Alog backing. And then, finally, we make it to the heavy beats part of the night, and coming up shortly, the heaviest of them all! Surprising that SALEM’s slo-mo hip-hop/dubstep style, which they're calling witch house or drag, isn't the heaviest, but then I chose something a bit different for tonight, something almost trip-hoppy that closes their debut album. And then... well, here it is. It probably shouldn't be a surprise that Shit&Shine’s repetitive dirge-noise templates fits dubstep so snugly, but there you go. The two long tracks on this 12” (with handy free download thrown in) are the heaviest, dirtiest, and skankiest thing you'll probably hear all year, and you'll be laughing even while you can't help nodding your head. Next week we'll hear the (if anything heavier) flipside, so stay tuned. Back to something resembling normality, the insane chuckles of Terror Danjah’s gremlin seem strangely tame. When the beat kicks in, with the bassline on all four beats and grime's typical off-beat hits, it's got a great skank to it. And back to witch house, Balam Acab are one of the other big names in this genre, and their debut(?) 12" should be heard by anyone who's a fan of Mount Kimbie and their ilk. Well OK, it's a whole lot queasier, but the opening track's very dubsteppy/wonky. 48/4 is one of the representative's of Sydney's wonky oneofour collective, who trade beat-making tips and have developed a sound that loves arpeggios and triplets. This track is nicely bass-driven, in keeping with the previous tracks. And to finish? Well, this week I was listening through my old Pop Will Eat Itself archives. I was a massive fan from the start of the '90s of their samples and riffs, and the endless permutations of remixes and versions they issued with Designers Republic artwork. Recently they reformed for a few shows, but Clint Mansell is too busy being a swanky film composer these days, so Graham Crabb is continuing the reformed Poppies without him. Probably quite dated-sounding but fun. Meanwhile, I dug out this awesomely oppressive and dubby "Kill Your Terrorvision" (spot the related pop culture reference?) remix they did of Terrorvision back in about 1994 for your enjoyment. Midnight Oil - Arctic World [Sony BMG] Listen again — ~ 172MB 3 Responses to “Playlist 12.09.10”
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email: utilityfog at frogworth dot com bsky Mastodon 
Utility Fog teeters on the cusp between acoustic and electronic, organic and digital. Constantly changing and rearranging, this aural cloud of nanotech consumes genres and spits them out in new forms. Whether cataloguing the jungle resurgence, tracking the ups and downs of noise and drone, or unearthing the remnants of glitch and folktronica, all is contextualised within artist & genre histories for a fulfilling sonic journey. Since all these genre names are already pretty ridiculous, we thought we'd coin a new one. So "postfolkrocktronica" it is. Wear it. Now available: free "Live on Utility Fog" downloads! We got tasty rss2 or atom feeds - get Utility Fog playlists in your favourite RSS reader/aggregator. There's also a dedicated podcast feed. Click here to subscribe in iTunes. Archives of all previous playlists and entries are available:
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September 16th, 2010 at 12:14 pm
"back when peter gabriel had a political edge" - that's funny!
September 16th, 2010 at 12:15 pm
oh, did i type gabriel when i meant garrett?
September 16th, 2010 at 12:16 pm
You did! Haha :)
*phew* I was worried I had. Glad you appreciate it anyway :P