Utility Fog

Sunday, 3rd of April, 2011

Tonight was dominated by two excellent big compilations, but we also had a variety of sounds, from insane solo saxophone to heavy dubstep.
LISTEN AGAIN via the link at the bottom kidz!

We started with the genius Colin Stetson (see last week), whose solo saxophone never fails to get comments. His new album Judges is out now and is like nothing else in the music world — absolutely essential.

From the Second Language label comes an amazing hour-long compilation of 60 one-minute tracks entitled Minute Papillon. The tracklisting demonstrates how impeccably compiled this is, and many of the artists turn in really unusual and ingenious tracks, a number of which we heard tonight.
First off the bat is Heather Woods Broderick, with a lovely vignette with all her talents on display - vocals, strings, piano...

Also on the strings tip is Nat Baldwin, who's unusual in playing the bowed double bass. His vocal style has always echoed his mate Dave Longstreth (Dirty Projectors) but the double-bass indie songwriting is all his own.
This is the first track of the night from the Benefit for the Recovery in Japan compilation which I also featured quite a bit tonight. With 64 tracks, this download comp is great value at USD$15, and in any case it's a good cause for sure. The immense tracklisting encompasses an astonishing array of Utility Fog heroes, many of whom turn in really great tracks. Some are just okay, but that's fine; they're also all exclusive, to the best of my knowledge. Net effect: you need this.

Another online compilation with a bit of a string connection is Cloud 11 on Rena Jones’ new Cartesian Binary Recordings. I found out via the brilliant Dutch IDM brothers Funckarma, whose deep electronic sound is augmented by Jones' cello here — a welcome new twist to the Funcken sound!
Also on the cello is Danny Norbury with his one-minute contribution.

Continuing the string theme, The Bronx's Wires Under Tension give us a track from their new album Light Science. Keyboards and percussion join with violin for a joyful post/mathrock number. See the excellent video here.

Back to the Japan compilation, a track from Brookyln-based harpist Shelley Burgon, a member of long lost UFog faves Stars Like Fleas. Ultra-pretty.

Also oh-so-pretty are the violin flourishes on Wintercoats’s "Overture". He's from Melbourne and has a bunch of tracks up for free at Bandcamp.

Last week I played a track from DJ Hidden’s new Semiomime project, and I thought we should feature it a bit more this week, along with some of his dark and heavy drum'n'bass tracks as DJ Hidden. The Semiomime alias sees him exploring quasi-classical soundtrack sounds, albeit still with a hefty slice of d'n'b-style programming, a bit more along the IDM lines. The arrangements, which are excellent, suffer a bit from being rendered in electronic form — if he'd had access to a mini-orchestra it could've been something amazing, but as it is I'm very fond of this album indeed.

And ex-Hood member Gareth S Brown’s one-minute track is a crazy post-baroque bit of controlled chaos.

Next little "special" focuses on Tokyo Bloodworm’s Lost Tribe Sound label, and remix albums of theirs (forthcoming) and Vieo Abiungo’s, a digital release available now from the label.
Manyfingers contributes brilliant remixes of both artists, and I'm pleased to hear that he's got new material on the way as well. He has two albums of folktronic goodness, and also a long history working with Matt Elliott's Third Eye Foundation. These mixes, particular the Vieo Abiungo, lean heavily towards the 3ef sound, which is a fabulous thing.
Always in on the remixing is Melbourne friend-of-'Fog Part Timer, who last year sent me a number of remixes of both artists, some of which remain unreleased. I love his "Upbeat" remix of Vieo Abiungo, and discovering the Vieo remix of Part Timer on hard drive was a nice surprise. I must have missed it the first time round!

After a subtle track from the Tokyo Bloodworm album proper, we had a one-minute piece of pianotronica from d_rradio, very pleasing to me as I hadn't really taken to their more recent ambient leanings.

Back to the Japan comp, pianist Sylvain Chauveau sounds an awful lot like an almost namesake, David Sylvian, on his glitchy piano and vox number. An absolute beauty.
We extended the beauty another 60 seconds with Fieldhead’s one minute of glitchy bliss.

Zelienople have carved out a space for slowed-down Talk Talk influenced drone-country. Or something. It's a distinctive sound and I'm happy to listen to it for hours. A worthy addition to the Japan comp, one of the highlights.

More delightful one-minute sounds come from Ark of Noise, whose website does not exist, but it's the best I can do. It's Jérôme Tcherneyan, a member of Piano Magic, whose Glenn Johnson runs the Second Language label. A simple glitched-up female vocal line, it's the sort of thing that Curd Duca was doing over a decade ago, but it's still a great idea for a one-minute vignette.

A less disembodied female vocal comes from Finland's Lau Nau, who fits right in with the amazing Finnish experimental scene. An artist to look out for. This is (one of the reasons) why I love compilations!

From a different compilation comes Italy's Obsil, and I'm very keen to hear more of his electronic/folktronic sounds too. This is from the latest Wire Tapper comp from Wire Magazine, whose regular bonus discs (sometimes subscriber-only, sometimes download editions) make subscribing a no brainer every year.

Also turning in a welcomely unusual one-minute offering is Machinefabriek, who can't exactly produce a sustained crescendoing drone piece.
For the Japan comp, Prefuse 73 contributes an out-take from the forthcoming The Only She Chapters, a Prefuse album I'm actually really looking forward to, with assorted female guest vocals, and an enveloping production approach.

And next up, Denmark's Opiate, who after a long absence in his solo guise contributes a cute (probably old) one-minute track to Minute Papillon. While in Japan last month I picked up his first album from 1999, so we heard a piece of classic IDM from that one, and then one from one of my favourite Morr Music releases, his EP from 2003.
Opiate is Thomas Knak, who is a member of the pan-dub trio System, who've made all sorts of variants of digi-dub, and effortlessly incorporated dubstep into the works for their album on Rump Recordings last year.

One of the most exciting new Ninja Tune artists is Emika, whose album must surely be on the way — but meanwhile we've had a succession of excellent dubstep pop singles, with dusty English vocals and various dubstep (and other) masters on the remix duties.
The latest features a not-so-radical reworking from Kryptic Minds, whose latest album is just out now too, and it carries on from their first in a similar max-minimal dark dubstep style. Highly recommended.

A bit more dubstep to round out the show: Pacheko’s always a winner, and this acid dubstep party tune from the Murder Channel compilation is no exception. Courtesy of last month's Japan trip, of course.
And Mick Harris has been plumbling the most minimal and heavy dub furrows for more than a decade now as Scorn. He's apparently somewhat scornful of dubstep, but nevertheless has managed to incorporate the sound into this aesthetic over the last couple of albums, and further with this new EP. Heavy as it gets.

Colin Stetson - The Stars In His Head (Dark Lights Remix) [Constellation]
Heather Woods Broderick - Gold, Limited [Second Language]
Nat Baldwin - In the Hollows [fina] {from the highly worthy Benefit for the Recovery in Japan compilation}
Funckarma ft Rena Jones - The Magnetic Flip (8D) [Cartesian Binary Recordings]
Danny Norbury - Untitled [Second Language]
Wires Under Tension - Electricity Turns Them On [Western Vinyl]
Shelley Burgon - Let It Be New [fina] {from the highly worthy Benefit for the Recovery in Japan compilation}
Wintercoats - Overture [via their Bandcamp]
Semiomime - Parade [Ad Noiseam]
Dj Hidden - The Ignorance [Ad Noiseam]
Dj Hidden - The Traveller [Ad Noiseam]
Semiomime - The Exquisites [Ad Noiseam]
Gareth S Brown - Spectral Fist [Second Language]
Tokyo Bloodworm - Blind Daughters of Gaza (Manyfingers remix) [Moteer]
Vieo Abiungo - Fugue (Manyfingers remix) [Lost Tribe Sound]
Vieo Abiungo - Furious (Part Timer’s Upbeat mix) [unreleased]
Part Timer - Where We Used To Go (Vieo Abiungo remix) [unreleased]
Tokyo Bloodworm - Mergers and Occupations (Part Timer remix) [Moteer]
Tokyo Bloodworm - People Do It To Each Other [Moteer]
d_rradio - Descend In One Minute [Second Language]
Sylvain Chauveau - Colours in Darkness [fina] {from the highly worthy Benefit for the Recovery in Japan compilation}
Fieldhead - Keefer [Second Language]
Zelienople - Stone Faced About It [fina] {from the highly worthy Benefit for the Recovery in Japan compilation}
Ark of Noise - Autre Language [Second Language]
Lau Nau - Oi Kuolema [fina] {from the highly worthy Benefit for the Recovery in Japan compilation}
Obsil - Snow Days In March [Psychonavigation, courtesy Wire Mag]
Machinefabriek - Gehakketak [Second Language]
Prefuse 73 - The Only Climactic Dissonant Hums [fina] {from the highly worthy Benefit for the Recovery in Japan compilation}
Opiate - Some Birds Are Bigger Than Others [Second Language]
Opiate - PK 50 [April Records]
Opiate - amstel [Morr Music]
System - Well Blank [Rump Recordings]
Emika - Count Backwards (Kryptic Minds remix) [Ninja Tune]
Kryptic Minds - Just After Sunset [Black Box]
Kryptic Minds - Organic [Black Box]
Pacheko - 9:30 Dub [Murder Channel]
Scorn - Piper [Ohm Resistance]

Listen again — ~ 184MB

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