Utility Fog

Sunday, 6th of February, 2011

Tonight, an interview with Preservation artist Area C, and lots more!
LISTEN AGAIN via the link at the bottom, as per usual.

We started with a handful of tracks from French artist ensemble, aka Olivier Alary, who's been making music since at least 2000, when his debut was released by legendary (even then!) IDM label Rephlex. Featuring Chanelle Kimber's vocals and skittery glitch-beats, it was understated and probably under-heard, but I think it still stands up pretty nicely now. In the interim between that and his second album, Alary worked quite a bit with Björk, remixing a bunch of tracks and ending up co-writing "Desired Constellation" with her too. In 2006 he finally released his second album, self-titled to perhaps denote a new beginning, and a number of singers guested on it, including Cat Power and Lou Barlow; but I rather like one of the tracks with Mileece.
Another 5 years on we're treated to another album, Excerpts, which moves even further from the experimental electonic beginnings. With a string quartet and various other instrumentalists fleshing out the sound, and vocals from both Alary and Darcy Conroy, it's beautifully arranged and features some assured songwriting. Wonderful stuff.

Next up, we had a chat with Erik Carlson about his solo project Area C, whose new album is out now on Preservation. He's got a fascinating background in music, architecture and theory, and is making some very hypnotic and beautiful stuff based around effected guitar loops and keyboards.
You can download the interview separately here.

Piiptsjilling is a very interesting collaboration between Rutger Zuydervelt aka Machinefabriek, Jan & Romke Kleefstra and Mariska Baars aka soccer Committee. It's got the minimalist sound art of Machinefabriek, with tasteful bits of guitar, Barrs' lovely vocals, and the evocative poetry (even if we don't understand the words) of Jan Kleefstra. Beautiful listening.

I've never totally gotten into Tim Hecker, about whom other people go into spasms of ecstasy when discussing him... But the new album, Ravedeath, 1972 (excellent title) is indeed rather beautiful. I like the tinkly piano hidden behind the big organ drone in this one.

Konntinent has been putting out icy ambient electronic sounds, always with a sense of great space, for a couple of years. Nice to hear something new from him, and it comes recommended.

Rockwell, along with the Critical Music label, was one of the discoveries of last year: smart, different, dance-floor-oriented drum'n'bass. His new EP features a This Mortal Coil sample in the title track, but I decided to play two others: one with a first class bassline, and one slightly tougher remix of an earlier track, plus a track from last year with very tricky drum programming.

From Ulterior Motive’s Rockwell remix we head into even harder territory with Submerged, one of the drum'n'bass/breakcore producers behind The Blood of Heroes. We heard a track each from his 2007 & 2008 albums, both very hard and dark, plus a couple of remixes by the aforementioned supergroup, by two of the other members.

One of tonight's random tracks comes from Himuro Yoshiteru, a wonderful Japanese producer whose track "Tonoma Shock" from from 1998 is one of my favourite idm/drill'n'bass tunes ever. I'd somehow missed his 2005 album on Zod and recently picked it up via the Ad Noiseam online store. This is a very friendly track with his signature hip-hop beats and melody.

Next up, those custodians of idm Funckarma, with a couple of new tunes: one from their latest Dubstoned EP, although only tangentially dubstep, and the other from a self-released EP which, like most of their new music, can be picked up digitally for a reasonable price at their site. Killer programming, like nobody else can do it.

Back with the FatCat label, and the label basically made its name in the 1990s with their split 12" series; from the 2nd one, we heard a classic idm tune from Ad Vanz (Rob Hall from Skam) vs Gescom (in this instance almost definitely just Rob & Sean from Autechre). Slow-moving synth harmonies and busy, crunchy idm beat - just what you needed.

The youngest producer for tonight goes to Jordan Dorjee, whose music is built from turntable and laptop, but this ain't DJ Shadow. Deconstructed and quite evocative, this is a mighty promising debut!

And then back to Brisbane's AXXONN. To be honest, I love his/their non-album stuff better than Let's Get It Straight, and "Drone Study 1" is hugely impressive, big crescendoing drones, with ultra-clear natural sounds interjecting across them near the end. But there are some great tunes on the album, once one gets over the expectation that it'll be drone/noise. The vocals are appropriately far back in the mix, with drum machines and synths making for that noisesters-doing-electropop thing that's happening nowadays. And Little Scout’s remix of the title track adds their female vocals and some lovely melancholy to the equation.

ensemble - Envies d'Avalanches [FatCat]
ensemble - sketch proposal 10 [Rephlex]
Björk - sun in my mouth (recomposed by ensemble) [One Little Indian]
ensemble - Summerstorm feat. Mileece [FatCat]
ensemble - Things I Forget [FatCat]
Area C - Twos [Preservation]
...interview with Erik Carlson aka Area C. "Ebbs to a Steady Burn" under interview...
Area C - An After Image [Preservation]
Piiptsjilling - Unkrûd (Ill Weeds) [Experimedia]
Tim Hecker - Hatred Of Music II [kranky]
Konntinent - New Neo Tokyo / From The Beach, Odaiba Bay [Debacle Records]
Rockwell - Live For The Moment [Critical Music]
Rockwell - Tribes [Critical Music]
Rockwell - Noir (Ulterior Motive Remix) [Critical Music]
Submerged - Ghosting [Sublight]
The Blood of Heroes - Salute to the Jugger (Bill Laswell Original Mix) [Ohm Resistance]
Submerged - Doctored Intelligence (Version) [Ohm Resistance]
The Blood of Heroes - Remain (Justin K Broadrick Remix) [Ohm Resistance]
Himuro - My Beats Your Beats [Zod]
Funckarma - Mepeche (w/ Phinx) [Thin Consolation]
Funckarma - Wack Spine [Funckarma]
Ad Vanz vs Gescom - Viral [FatCat]
Jordan Dorjee - Nothin' But Wax [unreleased demo]
AXXONN - Drone Study 1 [AXXONN]
AXXONN - Choc Milk Addiction [Useless Art]
AXXONN - Let's Get It Straight (Little Scout Remix) [Sonoptik] {free download!}

Listen again — ~ 170MB

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