So much great music for you tonight! Also interview later with William Ryan Fritch aka Vieo Abiungo.
As usual, LISTEN AGAIN via the link at bottom of playlist, or subscribe to the podcast — you can also stream it on demand (best option if you’ll be listening while online). The interview starts about an hour in…
I only got to play one track from the new collaboration between alt.hip-hop heroes Busdriver & Nocando as Flash Bang Grenada — more next week, but rather nice to hear Busdriver doing a great production himself on this number…
Later this evening, an in-depth interview with William Ryan Fritch. Here I played an interesting track featuring his vocals and a chopped beat that’s almost James Blake-like.
The new Beirut album is out — and it sounds like Beirut! The familiar impassioned vocals and trumpet of Zach Condon, with his winds and brass. It sags a bit in the middle, I find, with some slower piano-based numbers, but along with the first few, the last track is another classic.
It reminded me a little of the beautiful b-side to the Elephant Gun 7″ from 2007, “Transatlantique” – probably my favourite Beirut tune.
Ryan Lott’s Son Lux seemed a weird fit for the Anticon label when his first album came out, but perhaps because Anticon’s such a wide umbrella now, now it just seems like a thing. Fair enough. This new album was recorded over the course of one month — a process that can be tracked on NPR’s blog (here’s the last post, with links to the others). It’s a pretty fantastic mix of his orchestral arrangements, electronic production, and pure singing — pretty much what made his first album so striking as well! In between the two albums was a digital-only EP of remixes and new versions of the track “Weapons”, and I played the remix by composer Nico Muhly.
Sydney’s Oliver Tank has been making some pretty impressive sounds this year, and I’ve finally twigged to his sound. We heard some strings in there with the post-___ beats and singing. Check out his SoundCloud for more!
And then a long conversation with the lovely William Ryan Fritch: film composer, sound designer, recording world/folk as Vieo Abiungo, and also a member of underground hip-hop band Sole & the SkyRider Band. We talked about all aspects of his music, and underneath the interview I played an unlistable number of his tracks. Afterwards, the most beautiful melodic track from his latest album, which happens to be the title track, “and the world is still yawning”, followed by his selection from the new Sole & the SkyRider Band album.
We followed with some more cello! So many people doing great things with my chosen instrument at the moment. The Haxan Cloak is Bobby Krlic, playing cello, percussion, electronics and various home-made instruments. His album has wonderful layers of doom-laden close-mic’d cello, along with percussion, or long drone pieces, and occasionally some rhythms approaching beats. Thus it was very strange when his recent 12″ appeared and it was like some Druidic techno rave… I only just got the album and it’s pretty damn great.
Equally great is the new album from Stockholm, Sweden’s Roll The Dice, out on Leaf shortly. I discovered them last year via the wonderful Digitalis label. The new disc continues in very much the same vein, krautrocky analogue synthesiser patterns rubbing up (on some tracks) against the percussive (acoustic) piano. It works thrillingly well, as we heard tonight in particular with the closing track of their new disc, “See You Monday”. Sweet.
Now let’s really get into classical/electronic crossover, courtesy of Sydney’s Mannheim Rocket, who is named for a particular technique of rising arpeggiated patterns in classical music. His choice of samples comes from a bit further down the track, though, in the early 20th century, with the great Dmitri Shostakovich. Snippets of orchestral and vocal music are chopped and looped over industrial-sounding bass music — it’s effective, and should be a sign of great things to come.
From Melbourne we heard a couple of tracks from Paul Heslin, who’s channeling Matmos with a track entirely based on samples from his shower… plus an excellent cut from an EP from last year you can find on his Bandcamp.
Another Melbourne artist who’s just joined the Bandcamp generation is part timer. As well as a couple of hard-to-find EPs, he’s got a collection of bits and pieces, from which we heard the beautifully low-key “five pillars”.
And yes, one track from the 5th in Animals on Wheels’s series of 8 EPs in 8 Weeks. The beats are more of a downtempo nature on this one, and it’s nice hearing the piano in there on this track…
Finally, Melbourne’s I’lls’ make another appearance from their excellent debut — electronic production, shoegazey songwriting, very lovely.
Flash Bang Grenada (Busdriver & Nocando) – Bernie [Hellfyre Club]
Autechre – 6852 [free with ATP event ticket]
vieo abiungo – suffocating skin [Lost Tribe Sound] {via the Lost Tribe Sound mailing list…}
Beirut – Port Of Call [Pompeii]
Beirut – Transatlantique [4AD]
Son Lux – Leave The Riches [Anticon]
Tank – Last night I heard everything in slow motion [download from Triple J Unearthed]
Son Lux – Weapons IV (Nico Muhly remix) [Anticon]
Son Lux – Raise [Anticon]
Son Lux – Claws [Anticon]
vieo abiungo – drowsy salted morning [Lost Tribe Sound]
…interview with William Ryan Fritch…
vieo abiungo – and the world is still yawning [Lost Tribe Sound]
Sole & the SkyRider Band – Bad Captain Swag (feat. Lil B & Pictureplane) [Fake Four/Equinox Records]
The Haxan Cloak – Raven’s Lament [Aurora Borealis]
The Haxan Cloak – Hounfour [Aurora Borealis]
Roll The Dice – Idle Hands [Leaf]
Roll The Dice – Into The Ground [Digitalis]
Roll The Dice – See You Monday [Leaf]
Mannheim Rocket – De Profundis [3BS Records]
Paul Heslin – Shower [available from SoundCloud]
Mannheim Rocket – Lorelei [3BS Records]
part timer – five pillars [download from part timer Bandcamp]
Paul Heslin – television is a poor subtitute for a lover [available from SoundCloud]
Animals on Wheels – Double [free download from Animals on Wheels website]
I’lls’ – When I Know [available from Bandcamp]
Listen again — ~ 157MB
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