Utility Fog

Sunday, 13th of March, 2011

Tonight, I'm back from Japan, and returned just left a few days before a mindboggling disaster struck this beautiful country. The earthquake and tsunami have left thousands dead and many tens of thousands more lives affected forever. Tokyo survived incredibly well due to brilliant engineering and architecture, but nevertheless, apartments were absolutely turned upside down by the quake and its many aftershocks. Tonight and next week (at least) will feature a lot of the music I bought and was given while over there (it literally took a small suitcase to bring it all in tonight).
LISTEN AGAIN as usual via the link at the bottom.

While in Japan I go to see my friends (and one of my favourite bands in Australia) Spartak playing a couple of gigs in Tokyo, and thus a few excellent like-minded Japanese bands as well. The shows were organised by Yasuhiko Fukuzono of flau, a fantastic record label that I've known for a long time since they released Part Timer's second album. But I hadn't quite made the connection, and so when I was introduced to Yasuhiko by Shoeb I didn't quite know who he was — but he instantly said "Peter... is that Peter Hollo? We're friends on Facebook!"
I was floored. We are Facebook friends, and I hadn't even worked it out. Yasuhiko makes incredible electronic/folktronic music also as aus, and I managed to find a few albums from his back catalogue while I was over there too.

Throughout tonight's show we heard a lot of music from flau — some found in Japan's many superb record stores, and a pile give to me by the very lovely Yasuhiko.
I started with a beautiful track from Kanazu Tomoyuki, with horns/woodwinds and very sensitive piano from the artist himself, along with some electronic contributions by Yasuhiko.

Next up, the first of a number of tracks by aus — see later for more, this one sourced from the original Lang album. I've had the remix CD for some time (see the extraordinary Bracken remix below; I'll be playing something else from that next week!) and have only just now discovered what a piece of genius the original album is. Released on Preco, the label run by Osamu of the very excellent online store Linus Records.

At one of the Spartak gigs, the first support came from cuushe. She was joined by a guitarist and sax player, with the rest of the backing off laptop. The album itself features aus doing a fair bit of electronic production and processing, and some lovely songwriting in that Japanese vocal style.

el fog had a release on the moteer label and I hadn't picked up that he's Japanese. Yasuhiko passed the album on and it's brilliant and subtle - vibraphone and minimal electronica/dub.

Fragmented though the beats are on el fog's album, it's nothing compared to the nano-jazz of SJQ (Samurai Jazz Quintet). This is like Atom™ if he was a free jazz quintet on copious amounts of caffeine. Insane as only the Japanese can be.

I latched onto kangding ray's Pruitt Igoe EP last year because of the Ben Frost remix, and knew I had to find his earlier material. In Kyoto I found two excellent record stores — Art Rock #1 and Parallax Records, the latter of which had not only two walls of contemporary classical, sound-art and classic musique concrète, but also impressive back catalogue of raster-noton, Mego and other labels. PLUS heaps of Japanese labels and experimental artists, and nicely-curated electronica and postrock sections.
As you can see from tonight's playlist, the kangding ray lived up to all expectations.

Quick jump to a new track which appeared on the internets just after I got back. The new Prefuse 73 will involve some impressive guests, among them Shara Worden aka My Brightest Diamond, who turns everything she touches to gold (or is it diamond?) Beautiful work.
Apparently the late, lamented Trish Keenan from Broadcast also appears on the album, and it's embarrassing that it was only after hear untimely death that I sought out Broadcast past the (many) compilation appearances I had from them. A couple of songs exhibit their ear for perfect pop as well as their love of analogue synths and live drums that somehow sound simultaneously very contemporary and very retro.

Also perhaps retro are Belgian indie-postrockers Bed. Their second album, Spacebox, was a masterpiece of post-Talk Talk songwriting. I had heard the follow-up was a lot more upbeat, but thought I'd give it a go anyway. The songs are just as great, fortunately, and the ony I chose tonight was as close to the earlier sound as it gets.
I was reminded of the sound of the latest ensemble album, one of my favourite releases of the year so far, which carries Olivier Alary from his early incarnation as glitchy electronic artist (accompanied by female vocals) to European indie/postrock songwriter. The skittery aus track I followed with harkens back a little to the early days of ensemble.
Then we have something almost drill'n'bassy from Lang, and the famous remix by Bracken.

It turns out that Chris Adams of Bracken has been writing some new material under yet another alias, this time a collaboration with Andrew Jonson, who played with Chris in Hood for some time, and went on to form The Remote Viewer, who run the excellent moteer label. On Fell are set to release a series of three untitled 7"s on Moteer, and the first dropped with no warning just before I left for Japan. It was waiting for me, courtesy of Norman Records, when I arrived home. It's definitely a blend of Bracken and The Remote Viewer, and I hope I'll be able to hear it in a better format than flimsy (albeit pretty) vinyl eventually.

Japan is famous for its exclusive releases, made available because (I believe) the Japanese tax on CDs makes it frequently cheaper to import releases than buy them locally. Thus bonus tracks and discs to make the local releases more attractive. On my very first day in Kyoto, at the aforementioned Art Rock #1, I found a Japanese version of the second album by vitaminsforyou, with an entire bonus disc of material I'd never heard. Exquisite indie/folktronica — shame his last album was woeful techno-pop.

Finally we pop back to Sydney for an important event that's happening on this Wednesday (March 16th) at the Red Rattler in Marrickville. Edwin Montgomery will be performing a live re-scoring of Werner Herzog's classic experimental movie Fata Morgana. He kindly sent me the recording already, and it's as cinematic as ever — multi-tracked strings, lonely guitar, possibly field recordings. Should be a beautiful night.
In between, something equally epic from the new Kronos Quartet album, in collaboration with two insane Fins: Kimmo Pohjonen and Samuli Kosminen. Accordion and electronics rub up against dramatic strings; it's typical Kronos and works a treat.

Second-last segment features Ukrainian ambient/experimental artist Andrey Kiritchenko on Japan's spekk label, with the self-effacingly touching album Mysterrious. Eschewing most of his computer processing in favour of bare piano, guitar, field recordings and other instruments, along with two very fine guest drummers on some tracks, Kiritchenko creates a sound-world evocative of naïveté but without being precious or folksy. It's quite lovely and is worth frequently returning to.
In between, Colleen's entry into the Mort Aux Vaches series has her playig live in between her music box sampling stage and her live performance (with loop pedals) stage. Raw and beautiful.

And just quickly, the one disc from Boredoms that I'd been looking for for some years; EY∃'s remixes of Vision Creation Newsun. FOUND in Shimokitazawa, and I'll probably play another track next week. This one has no beats, just scintillating sped-up guitars (pretty much).

Finally, I didn't get a chance tonight to get through all the great Japanese dubstep and breakcore I picked up, so two tracks from the 2CD compilation Mosaic - Volume One on dBridge's Exit Records. It's an unusual drum'n'bass compilation, fusing dubstep and minimal techno aesthetics with d'n'b tempos and production techniques, with some big-name dubstep artists in the mix. It makes for the most progressive-sounding drum'n'bass I've heard since Critical Music's compilations of the previous years, although Rockwell, Sabre and the like don't appear.

Dan HabarNam's track keeps it downtempo, hinting at drum'n'bass fury but never quite letting up the tension. Abstract Elements do let loose, and live up to their name. This is a pretty exciting time for dancefloor music as well as experimental music, so check it out.

Kanazu Tomoyuki - April [flau] {track title via the flau site, where English names are available, as opposed to the artwork itself (fair enough!)}
aus - Beyond The Curve [Preco]
cuushe - Simple complication [flau]
el fog - Broken [flau]
el fog - Flip and Dub [flau]
SJQ (Samurai Jazz Quintet) - qi [Headz]
kangding ray - automne fold [raster-noton]
kangding ray - downshifters [raster-noton]
kangding ray - the distance [raster-noton]
Prefuse 73 - The Only Hand To Hold (feat. Shara Worden) [Warp] {via Stereogum}
Broadcast - Come On Let's Go [Warp]
Broadcast - Message From Home [Warp]
Bed - memories of you [Ici D'Ailleurs]
ensemble - Envies d'Avalanches [FatCat]
aus - IHI w/ Takafumi Tsuchiya feat. cokiyu [flau]
aus - Headphone Girl [Preco]
aus - Moraine (Bracken remix) [Preco]
On Fell - Untitled A [Moteer]
vitaminsforyou feat. snailhouse - Luxury and Hope [intr_version/Moor Works]
vitaminsforyou - Nothing Never Is (In Two Parts) [intr_version/Moor Works]
Edwin Montgomery - Aeroplanes Landing [self-released]
Kronos Quartet/Kimmo Pohjonen/Samuli Kosminen - Plasma [ondine]
Edwin Montgomery - Waterfalls/Flying [self-released]
Andrey Kiritchenko - sparkling early mornings [spekk]
colleen - the cello song [staalplaat]
Andrey Kiritchenko - unexpected raylets [spekk]
Boredoms (Vision Recreation by EY∃) - 77 [Warner Music Japan]
Dan HabarNam - Nu Este Roz [Exit Records]
Abstract Elements - Essence of Time [Exit Records]

Listen again — ~ 174MB

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