Utility Fog

Sunday, 9th of October, 2011

Epic interview with my friends Sub Bass Snarl, who taught me a lot about electronic music in the mid-'90s, and are playing their "final ever show" on Friday the 21st of October (tickets here), as well as a not-so-secret afternoon picnic event next Saturday, the 15th of October at Sydney Park.
LISTEN AGAIN as usual. Link at bottom, podcast, FBi On Demand.

Tribute to the late Bert Jansch to start tonight... Was very sad to hear he'd passed away from cancer earlier this week. I played a fantastic song from Pentangle from 1969, with his stellar guitar playing and interplay between his vocals and Jacqui McShee's.

Then on to another new song released by Nick Zammuto, still sounding like his Books work, but extended in a particular direction. The shimmery vocals on this track have a spine-chilling moment about halfway through. Best track yet from his new project!

Julianna Barwick is an interesting choice for a remix EP, but a few of the tracks on her beautiful layered-vocal album did have a head-nodding pulse of bass or other such elements. Diplo & Lunice here are toned down, but still sound about what you'd expect - which is great! I didn't get to play my other favourite remix from this EP, so hopefully next week hey!

After the insane breakcore ending to "Crystalline", I've approached the new Björk album expecting nothing less than disappointment, so it's great to discover a number of other tracks let loose the hardcore beats and crazy shit. There's a fair bit of aimless noodling, but also some genuinely great songs with great production, like the volcanic eruptions from (I presume) 16bit on this one.

...And then the studio was taken over by the lovely Seb & Luke, who reminisced about the last *gasp* 20 years, and played two mega DJ mixes of hardcore and drum'n'bass sounds, old and not so old.

Himuro Yoshiteru is still pumping out the great tunes, and this week we have a couple of hip-hoppy numbers for us. I don't know Handbook, but his original tune is very nice bassy hip-hop, and Himuro makes it even wonkier & glitchier. Then we heard a more downtempo number from him on the Mizukage label, which I was glad to discover.
Also from Mizukage we then heard Go-Qualia, with some extravagant ambient-meets-drill'n'bass... and then the lovely Ian Hawgood doing beats under his Koen Park moniker, from 2009.

Hilarious concept of the week: Paul Heslin and Reuben Ingall have gotten together with an album created from processed samples of a christian rock video cassette — and they're releasing it in a limited edition on VHS cassette! But fear not, it's also available from Bandcamp, and with everything from glitched-up rock guitars to amen breaks, it's highly recommended.

Having seen the wonderful Spartak in Japan at a couple of the gigs from which their new album Nippon is sourced, I'm very excited that New Weird Australia have releasd it finally. Mournful indie guitars, crazily-glitching vocal samples, hyperactive stumbling drum patterns — it's Spartak at their best.

illkinski are new to me, a duo one of whom is now based in Australia. I enjoyed the glitchy female vocals on this track, and they led rather nicely into

Sydney's actual russian brides, whose album came out a little while ago, but I didn't give it enough of a spin at the time, and now they have a residency at Low302 in Darlinghurst for the next 5 Thursdays. They themselves are a mix of arch performance and deep electronica.

Aria Rostami is a Persian-American artist I discovered through Ollie Bown, who remixes a track in fine Icarus style. Rostami's music is abstract electronica, and most excellent indeed.

Continuing her excellent curation of fascinating compilations on her Flaming Pines label, Sydney's Kate Carr has just release five 3"s from a new series (of ten) called Rivers Home. Each artist explores a river dear to their hearts, and tonight we heard one ambient track and one much harder track from Billy Gomberg from his release, "Gowanus Canal".

Finally for tonight, the lovely violin-looping indie of Melbourne's Wintercoats, who has graduated from Bandcamp to Mistletone, and just released a 12"/digital EP. His older stuff is still available from his Bandcamp too.

Pentangle - Train Song [Shanachie]
Zammuto - Harlequin (working version) [already gone from his SoundCloud]
Julianna Barwick - Vow (Diplo & Lunice remix) [Asthmatic Kitty]
Björk - Mutual Core [One Little Indian]
...interview with Seb & Luke Sub Bass Snarl about their long history, including one hardcore DJ set and one drum'n'bass DJ set!...
Handbook - Amnesia (Himuro Yoshiteru remix) [Urban Waves Records]
Himuro Yoshiteru - Bird's Eye View [Mizukage Records]
Go-Qualia - Pannotia [Mizukage Records]
Koen Park - Mountains Capped in Headphones [Mizukage Records]
Paul Heslin - Le Meme Monde [available from Bandcamp]
Reuben Ingall - Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! [available from Bandcamp]
Paul Heslin - Abstinence Makes The Heart Grow Fonder [available from Bandcamp]
Spartak - Rail Star Mode [New Weird Australia]
Spartak - Snowflake Reception (Open) [New Weird Australia]
illkinski - food [self-released]
actual russian brides - puppet [Brigade Music]
actual russian brides - oscillating [Brigade Music]
Aria Rostami - Tokyo [Audiomoves]
Aria Rostami - Cleare (Ollie Bown Remix) [Audiomoves]
billy gomberg - gowanus canal: site / call [flaming pines]
Wintercoats - Unbearable Thinking [Wintercoats Bandcamp]
Wintercoats - Working on a Dream [Mistletone]

Listen again — ~ 161MB

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