Utility Fog

Ah, people keep putting great music out. What’s the world coming to?
Particular highlights this week are James Brewster and Machinedrum, but there’s so much more — check it out…
And LISTEN AGAIN as per usual – link at the bottom, podcast also available.

downliners sekt’s “negative green” is richly deserving of a second spin to start the show. More from them later.
The lovely Crab Smasher played in Sydney on Friday night, and I went digging back to find something awesome to play from them. This one certainly passed the test — finest improvnoisedrone.

Next up, a new digital release from Czech band Gurun Gurun, via Japan (where Home Normal are based these days). Two Aussies remix the same track — pimmon and Part Timer. Nicely contrasting versions of a lovely bit of tinkly indietronica.

From Melbourne we heard Biddy Connor’s Sailor Days, with a beautiful viola-led song that reminded me of Linda Perhacs.
And from London, the wonderful Geese (two members of the Elysian Quartet) have released their debut EP after a number of brilliant remixes. They’re remixed themselves by a few people including Adem, who turns their quite experimental stringtronica into an engaging folktronic song. I played the original as well, with rhythmic string strumming and layering.

Introducing our Machinedrum special we had his alter-ego tstewart doing lovely folktronic stuff with strings.
Travis Stewart’s been making music for a good 10 years now, and as a regular on the Merck label, was a fairly major name in the IDM scene. It’s interesting hearing his new album, unsurprisingly on Planet µ, taking its cue from Chicago juke, hardcore and early jungle as well as pop and r’n’b/hip-hop. It’s one of the beats albums of the year, and it’s also great hearing his own vocals in there along with some vocal samples.
We also heard some remixes from his Half The Battle album from 2002, including Finland’s Brothomstates and Adelaide’s own Tim Koch. Now this is IDM.

A lot of the post-dubstep/wonky scene is really the successor to IDM, for all that a lot of it’s sincerely dancefloor-oriented. The Friends of Friends label from west coast USA is pushing a certain vein of this, and their second Pop Massacre compilation (a free Bandcamp download) follows on from the mashups of SKAM, Tigerbeat6 and indeed Planet µ from 10 years ago or so… DZA contributes a subtly hilarious take on the Smiths, and later Antonionian aka Jordan Dalrymple from Subtle does Rihanna.

But now it’s time for special #2 for tonight, also mentioned above: James Brewster started making music as Mole Harness in around 2004, and I played his stuff quite a bit in the early days. It’s awesome to hear his new album, released on Make Mine Music of epic45 fame. The folktronic sounds of his earlier days are found in less droney pieces here, but while there are plenty of songs, there’s anything but conventional song structures involved. The album is a single work as a whole, and it was hard not to just press play and play you the whole thing.

Andrew Coleman aka Animals on Wheels continues his 8 EPs in 8 weeks, and this week’s is more along the lines of his “Andrew Coleman” material, acoustic instruments and digital edits. It’s very lovely.

This week also brings a new Machinefabriek release, Sol Sketches. These mainly brief processed piano pieces were recorded as preparation for a soundtrack to a documentary about Sol LeWitt, and show how creative this project was. It’s always nice to hear Rutger taking a new approach, and although his subtle droney work can be heard in here, he’s focusing on detail of sound and even small melodic motifs.
Alexander Rishaug’s new album Shadow of Events is certainly droney, and based partially around piano sounds. It’s music that creeps up on you – if you just glance at it, it could seem overly ambient, but there’s actually a lot going on in the sound.

Pan Sonic’s Mika Vainio has a new album on Editions Mego, a very suitable home for what is actually a rather harsh and noisy beast. I played the most rhythmic track, one which could almost fit on the latest emptyset album. Oh, and by the way, we heard an older track from Vainio’s Ø alias – more rhythm, a dubby pulse and quite noisy too.

Some more takes from downliners sekt show how as far back as 2005 they were making their own brand of dubstep. Their latest sound has been incorporating r’n’b samples in the up-to-the-minute post-dubstep vibe, and you get the feeling they could go anywhere next. Awesome.

And Cex continues to release new tunes, and on his Soundcloud he’s tagging them all as IDM – cute! It’s not the IDM of the ’90s when he started making music, but it’s smart electronic music to move to, so sure.

On Thursday I filled in for the honourable Mr Stu Buchanan on New Weird Australia, and got to interview Melbourne duo Peon, who also performed an improv piece in the studio. Their new EP is also improvised, although they have the luxury of choosing which bits go on the record! They’re both percussionists, and work with electronics from laptops to guitar pedals, as well as various other exotic instruments.
We also heard an excellent electronic piece from one half of Peon, Sam Price, from a couple of years back.

Anonymeye’s new album Anontendre has really grown on me, and I liked it from the start. Just delightful listening, melding his guitar picking and electronic sound production & processing better than ever.

And finally, Sydney’s lessons in time (Blake from Telafonica) has a new EP out of his ramshackle DIY indiepop, always a pleasure.

downliners sekt – negative green [free download from d-sekt.com]
crab smasher – digging a hole in a dried up lake [Monstera Deliciosa]
Gurun Gurun – ano uta (pimmon remix) [Home Normal] {Buy from Bandcamp to support Japan Earthquake Animal Rescue and Support}
Gurun Gurun – ano uta (part timer remix) [Home Normal] {Buy from Bandcamp to support Japan Earthquake Animal Rescue and Support}
Sailor Days – Liar Liar [self-released]
Geese – Tundra Bean (Adem remix) [self-released, see Geese Bandcamp]
Geese – Tundra Bean [self-released, see Geese Bandcamp]
tstewart – i waited til morning and everything was fine [Merck]
Machinedrum – Sacred Frequency [Planet µ]
Machinedrum – Machine Drum (Riveurs Enjienrd By Brothomstates) [Merck]
Brothomstates – Jak Got Stuck In Canada And This Sounds Like [Warp]
Machinedrum – Machine Drum (Tim Koch’s Thousand Times Over Mix) [Merck]
Machinedrum – Come1 [Planet µ]
DZA – Girl Afraid [Friends of Friends] {Smiths mashup from Pop Massacre 2 (free download}}
James Brewster – Vraikan Sundan [Make Mine Music]
Mole Harness – Daydream of Dying [Silent Age Recordings]
Mole Harness – as language carves the world [Stray Dog Army]
James Brewster – Landfall / Crumbling Spires [Make Mine Music]
Animals on Wheels – Less Isn’t More [free download from Animals on Wheels]
Machinefabriek – Sol Sketch 20 [Machinefabriek]
Alexander Rishaug – Things That Disappear [Dekorder]
Machinefabriek – Sol Sketch 4 [Machinefabriek]
Ø – Ikuinen (Version) [Sähkö Recordings]
mika vainio – mining [Editions Mego]
downliners sekt – benz [free download from d-sekt.com]
downliners sekt – Incerta Glòria [free download from d-sekt.com]
Antonionian – Rude Boy [Friends of Friends] {Rihanna mashup from Pop Massacre 2 (free download}}
Cex – Grifter hostel [Cex Soundcloud]
Peon – intercourse suite part I [available soon from their Bandcamp]
Sam Price – Do not go gentle [available from Bandcamp]
Anonymeye – Demarchy [Someone Good]
lessons in time – Wet And Burnt [available from Bandcamp]

Listen again — ~ 162MB