Utility Fog

Sunday, 6th of November, 2011

Evening. Technical difficulties, love 'em!
LISTEN AGAIN via the link at the bottom or podcast feed, or stream On Demand...

Technical difficulties meant I changed the start of the show, and we heard two beautiful tracks from Jace Clayton aka DJ /rupture's resurrected band project Nettle, bizarrely creating a soundtrack to an imagined reworking of Stanley Kubrick's The Shining in an abandoned hotel in Dubai. Vocals and strings meld with electronic noises, and it's very evocative.

Then we get to my intended opening track, from Sole, who's just released a pay-what-you-like (potentially free) download comp of tracks about economic issues called Dispatches From the American Fall. He's been quite involved with #OccupyDenver, and is definitely worth following on Twitter.

His track was based on Salem's witch house tune King Night from last year, one of the opening salvos for the Tri-Angle label. We followed that with something amazingly insane from Water Borders, the latest Tri-Angle release, which is like '80s post-punk and new romantic through a contemporary Bass filter. Only odder than that.

Nice to have a new album from Oneohtrix Point Never. He continues the path set by last year's Returnal, away from pure nostalgic analogue synth workouts, into cut-up samples (recalling Boards of Canada and of course early hip-hop), sensitive piano, and some glitchy production. It's awesome.

Tokyo's NEON CLOUD are here at the start of tonight's dubstep mini-set, but really they're also representing a version of "witch house", as their polygonal song titles will attest. Their EP is available FREE from flau's Bandcamp, and it's very lovely; female vocals, post-dubstep beats.

On the remix album for Kevin Martin (aka The Bug)'s King Midas Sound project, the amazing Japanese vocalist/artist Kiki Hitomi lends her voice to one track, and then later on the legendary Green Gartside graces "Come And Behold" with his vocal cords - stunning.

And next up, two cuts from the first compilation of dubstep reworkings from the Greensleeves label's extensive dancehall back catalogue. Many of the ragga jungle anthems from back in the day came from Greensleeves, so it's only appropriate to hear these dubstep remixes. Some of the more familiar, more melodic tunes don't fare too well, but here we have a couple of pretty tough numbers that work a treat. In particular Yellowman's crazy "Zungguzungguguzungguzeng" gets a garage bounce and heavy bottom end from Horsepower Productions, and then The Bug enlists frequent collaborator Flow Dan to add some verses over Ding Dong's "Badman Forward Badman Pull Up".

And in a different dubstep direction altogether, the very heavy industrial sound of UK's Cloaks has now been remixed by a slew of sympathetic artists. From Latvia, Oyaarss brings a lot more melody to the fore, as we can see from a reminder of their original 2009 album... Meanwhile, Justin K Broadrick, who we haven't heard enough of this year, appears here as JK Flesh, adding pounding heavy riffs with a dubstep anchor - amazing.

A few years ago I was floored by an album from Melbourne noise/drone/postrock artist Mirrored Silver Sea. Now based in Toronto, Tim Condon has formed a new band, and the first outing from Fresh Snow is an epic krautrock jam. Let's hope there's more just around the corner!

Another welcome return is from Chris Adams, he of Bracken and Hood fame, one of my favourite musicians ever, let it be said. He's teamed up with another ex-Hood member, Andrew Johnson. On leaving Hood, Andrew and Craig Tattersal formed indietronica duo The Famous Boyfriend, and then morphed into incredible (mostly instrumental) electronica as The Remote Viewer. For many years they ran the moteer label, putting out perfect Utility Fog music.
Chris and Andrew are putting out a series of three 7"s as On Fell, which I hope will be collected on CD or something. The four tracks so far available traverse indie songwriting, crunchy electronica, and pitch-bending shoegaze. WANT MORE.

Telafonica keep the indietronica flag flying here in Sydney, and on their latest remix single they've enlisted Joe Hardy, impressario behind The Gate, who are dedicated to bringing fantastic live gigs to Sydney's north-west. His take on the song is a slow-burning crescendo, absolutely lovely.

And another deep and dark number from Luke Killen, of Sydney's sadly-defunct Couchblip!.

We heard one track off the new EP from Roel Funcken of Funckarma, in unusually pensive mode. Love the rhythmic edits and bass.

Every few years it's time for a new Gescom EP, and this time they seem to be launching a hip-hop subsiduary of SKAM called Skull Snap. I could be reading this wrong though. It can't be a coincdence that the much-sampled funk group Skull Snaps have just had their EP/album re-released...
As usual, Gescom (which is usually at least part Autechre) are somewhat inscrutable, but the beats are far more dancefloor-friendly — for certain definitions of dancefloor.

And once again we have an outburst from Sydney maverick Simo Soo, here aided and abetted by Hinterlandt, with guitar riffs amplifying the Beastie Boys effect...

For the latest My Brightest Diamond album, Shara Worden is joined by contemporary music ensemble yMusic, who lend classical and jazz aspects to Worden's complex and beautiful songs. She's an accomplished writer, and the new album has more than its fair share of genuinely moving moments, among its delightful quirks.
I wanted an opportunity to revisit Son Lux's album of earlier this year, and took us there via his brilliant remix of MBD's "Inside a Boy" from last year...

Final special of the night is from Nils Frahm, who mutes his piano (hence Felt) on his new album, closely recording it to capture every breath, finger tap and hammer hit. The piano's mechanisms add a percussive element, and the half-stopped sound of the piano strings is magical, but it would all be gimmick without his gorgeous compositions. Nils is a master, and you need this to float away to on rainy afternoons (or sunny mornings, or late at night). He's not averse to studio effects either, drifting here and there into his friend Machinefabriek's sonic territory.

The art of umin, on the other hand, is based almost entirely around studio trickery. His ukulele is chopped up and pitch-shifted, so that his compositions turn into complex jittery waves of sound. Reminiscent of mid-'00s Four Tet and The Books, albeit with the limited palette of the ukulele, this is fascinating listening. More next week!

Nettle - El Resplendador [Sub Rosa]
Nettle - Radio Flower [Sub Rosa]
Sole - Fuck Wells Fargo (feat. B. Dolan & Mac Lethal) [available from Bandcamp] {pay what you want}
Salem - King Night [Tri-Angle]
Water Borders - Feasting on Mongeese [Tri-Angle]
Oneohtrix Point Never - Nassau [Software Label]
Oneohtrix Point Never - Replica [Software Label]
NEON CLOUD - ▴ [flau] {free from Bandcamp!}
King Midas Sound - Tears (Kiki Hitomi Revoice) [Hyperdub]
King Midas Sound - Come And Behold (Green Gartside Revoice) [Hyperdub]
NEON CLOUD - ▫ [flau] {free from Bandcamp!}
Yellowman - Zungguzungguguzungguzeng (Horsepower Remix) [Greensleeves]
Ding Dong - Badman Forward Badman Pull Up (The Bug feat Flow Dan Remix) [Greensleeves]
Cloaks - Sixmenace Two (Oyaarss remix) [3by3]
Cloaks - Against [3by3]
Cloaks - Rush On Metal (JK Flesh remix) [3by3]
Fresh Snow - Saturation Complete [available from SoundCloud]
on fell - untitled a, from 2nd 7" [moteer]
on fell - untitled b, from 1st 7" [moteer]
Telafonica - Heartbeatings For Those With Heartbeats (Joe Hardy Version) [available from Bandcamp]
Luke Killen - Scamper Ashore [available from SoundCloud]
Roel Funcken - Eason DAvy [Funckarma shop]
Gescom - Seventh Ace Deuce [Skull Snap]
Simo Soo - Breakfast (Hinterlandt remix) [free download from Mediafire]
My Brightest Diamond - We Added It Up [Asthmatic Kitty]
My Brightest Diamond - Inside A Boy (Son Lux remix) [Asthmatic Kitty]
Son Lux - Leave The Riches [anticon.]
My Brightest Diamond - In The Beginning [Asthmatic Kitty]
Nils Frahm - Familiar [Erased Tapes]
Nils Frahm - More [Erased Tapes]
umin - hmn [Abandom Building Records]
Nils Frahm - Keep [Erased Tapes]

Listen again — ~ 163MB

Comments are closed.