Utility Fog

Sunday, 4th of September, 2011

Evening! Jam-packed show tonight as usual, and an interview with the lovely Jochen of Hinterlandt.
LISTEN AGAIN via the usual methods (link at bottom of playlist; podcast feed; FBi on Demand streaming).

Started with two tracks from Roll The Dice, whose new album is coming out soon on the Leaf label, and is a perfect continuation from their debut on Digitalis — analogue synth explorations and (acoustic) piano, krautrock updated for today's ears.

After a stint in Australia earlier last decade, German musician Hinterlandt is back in Sydney in a more permanent manner. Last time round he convened an experimental collective for improv performances under the name Hinterlandt Arkestra; for now, his new incarnation is Jochen solo, playing a multitude of instruments and effects pedals to create an incredibly varied, genre-hopping one-man show. After performing and evolving this set over the last year or so, he's put it down on disc as migration motion movement. We chatted about his travels & his musical modus operandi, and heard a wonderful ambient rendering of part of the set.
Hinterlandt is launching this album this Friday the 9th of September and Midian, 19 Sydney St, Marrickville.

Next up, I just had to feature some of the music of Kashiwa Diasuke, who's associated with one of my favourite artists ever, World's End Girlfriend (his latest album is released on WEG's label Virgin Babylon), but who I managed to remain ignorant of until very recently. He's fond of glitchy cut-ups, insane changes of mood, post-classical piano and crazed drill'n'bass beats, much like WEG — pretty much my ideal music. We heard a decent range of his music from the last 6 years, although sadly the program music I album had to be left out as its tracks are 36 and 26 minutes long (eek!)

Like two of Kashiwa Daisuke's abums, yarn:moor are released on the fabulous Noble label. I discovered them through my usual habit of trying to add more to my shopping cart when order from Noble, and they seemed pretty good. It turns out that's an understatement — this is quality folktronica, with detailed programming, fun effects, cute Japanese vocals and, you know, all that. You should check them out.

Sticking with Japan, a beautiful release from Preco Records from a new supergroup of sorts, Kinder Scout. The central players are cellist Danny Norbury, Home Normal's Ian Hawgood and Jason Corder of offthesky and Color Cassette. Strings, drones, folky guitars, dreamy backgrounded vocals, it's all here.

Speaking of all that, how about a gorgeous exclusive new track from Peter Broderick from moss, a compilation on new Japanese label cote labo.

Broken Chip hails from the Blue Mountains and has released some very pretty electronica on Feral Media and elsewhere. Under this name he's creating some beautiful more droney stuff, such as the track from Flaming Pines' burning palms compilation, put together by Sydney artist Kate Carr.
He's now created the Option Command alias for his more contemporary beat-driven stuff, in keeping with Sydney's ONEOFOUR Collective, or the LA sound — including the tendency towards really short tracks! Short & sweet, this is a very fine EP.

Also recently discovered is duo Kritical Audio, whose latest EP is on Detroit Underground, with a highly technical take on idm, frenetic drum'n'bass breaks over a half-speed, in the style of some of the best US idm artists of 10 or so years ago (e.g. Unit). There'll always be a place in my heart for this sort of stuff.

On one of Rjyan Kidwell's first Cex albums there's a remix of Washington, DC indiepunk band Dismemberment Plan. It seems a few years later when they were breaking up, Kidwell made another remix, but it was never released. You can now download it from his Cexman SoundCloud, dedicated to remixes. It's got more guitars than the other one :) Classic Cex feel.

Back in the '90s, beatsystem had some releases on the well-loved ambient electronic label em:t. It's a bit of a surprise to get a new album from him now, with some pretty special packaging (really - check it out at the bottom of this page). Here he takes on a digitally processed trip around the Indian subcontinent, starting with an alien robot performing the tabla bol (a vocal rendering of the tabla sounds, familiar to anyone who's studied complex & beautiful music of India).

Of course, another Animals on Wheels track this week, from the 6th in his series of 8 EPs. I think this was the only track with beats. When all 8 EPs are done (two more weeks!) I'll do an overview of all the EPs. It's been fun!

Melbourne's doomy indie HTRK trio have managed to move on from the tragic death of their bassist Sean Stewart last year, and their new album continues with minimalist, hard-hitting, nostalgic yet cutting edge sounds. They've never been as noisy as their first, originally self-released EP, but they're no less uncompromising for it.

Finally, ex-New Zealand, ex-Sydney harp/songwriter Heidi Elva is releasing an album of Lo-Fi Musings, a collection of songs written mainly while in Sydney, technology-based, yet lo-fi in sound. Delays and loops abound, vocals sung through pickups, field recordings washing in and out. Beautiful stuff from an always experimental song-writer.

Roll The Dice - Way Out [Leaf]
Roll The Dice - Axee [Digitalis]
Hinterlandt - motion [Tenzenmen/Bird's Robe Collective] {also available along with more of his back catalogue from the Hinterlandt Bandcamp}
...interview with Hinterlandt and live performance of section of "migration"...
Kashiwa Diasuke - airdrop [onpa)))))]
Kashiwa Diasuke - Good-bye [Virgin Babylon]
Kashiwa Diasuke - rabbit's_quartet [onpa)))))]
Kashiwa Diasuke - april.#09 (Jean-Michel remix) [onpa)))))]
Kashiwa Diasuke - Requiem [Noble]
yarn:moor - it's blooming [Noble]
yarn:moor - 1014 [Noble]
Kinder Scout - first half [Preco Records]
Peter Broderick - Missing People [cote labo]
Broken Chip - Path to the sea [Flaming Pines]
Option Command - Ellie Can Dance [King Deluxe]
Option Command - Hidden Valleys [King Deluxe]
Kritical Audio - Katacomb [Detroit Underground]
Cex - Sunken city (remix of Dismemberment Plan) [available from SoundCloud]
beatsystem - bangalore [entropy records]
Animals on Wheels - Stair Nose [free download from Animals on Wheels blog]
HTRK - Bending [BLAST First (petite)/Ghostly/Mistletone]
HTRK - Hate Rock Trio [Fire Records]
Heidi Elva - Simple Pleasures [forthcoming through her Bandcamp]

Listen again — ~ 159MB

4 Responses to “Playlist 04.09.11”

1. Mark Smith Says:
   September 5th, 2011 at 12:36 am

   Don't pronounce the 'u' in Daisuke, or the 'i' in Kashiwa. Instead, it's like Kashwa Daiske.

2. Peter Says:
   September 5th, 2011 at 12:39 am

   Awesome, instantly sounds much more Japanese! Thanks, will do next time :)

3. » New Album in September 2011 HINTERLANDT Says:
   September 5th, 2011 at 1:17 pm

   [...] 2RRR Thematics interview and live set Sun 04/09/2011 (RADIO) FBI Utility Fog interview and live set PODCAST NOW ONLINE Fri 09/09/2011 (LIVE) Midian 19 Syndey St Marrickville w/ A Lonely Crowd, Nobody Knew They Were [...]

4. Beatsystem Says:
   October 4th, 2011 at 10:32 am

   Thanks for playing my music,glad you enjoy it.