Utility Fog

Sunday, 29th of January, 2012

Yo. Quite a trip tonight, from minimal and not-so-minimal d'n'b through idm to drone and then on to psych folk and prog rock.
You should really LISTEN AGAIN hey! Link at bottom, podcast to subscribe to, On Demand streaming if you're online!

Started tonight with some drum'n'bass. It used to be my One True Genre. Gimme chopped-up beats at 170+ bpm and I'd be happy. These days the party anthem style of the mainstream of d'n'b isn't very interesting, and we're so post-drill'n'bass that there's hardly anyone even making breakcore anymore. No matter — the d'n'b scene has been getting more interesting itself again over the last couple of years, with a nice and technical minimalist sound creeping in. dBridge's Exit Records is one source of great contemporary d'n'b, and at the very end of last year New Zealand artist Consequence released a very interesting and deep album — albeit only about half what I'd call drum'n'bass. There's a number of ambient tracks, and some halfstep things which aren't exactly (post-)dubstep but...

Meanwhile, we also had some decidedly upbeat and just adorable tracks from Luke Vibert's Plug, resurrected apparently from DAT tapes from the mid-'90s and released to our great pleasure by the mighty Ninja Tune this month. Everything we need is here — the classic breaks chopped up, punchy basslines, hilarious and effective vocal samples. Pure genius.

Next up we have a date with Balkan Vinyl. Full credit here, John McCaffrey aka Part Timer prodded me to go listen to the brilliant AGT Rave Cru track, and its "is it hardcore circa '92 or halfstep circa yesterday?" sound had me hooked. The label, run by idm/electro duo Posthuman, focuses at least as much on acid house, electro and techno, but has some very fine idm and breaks stuff at its disposal too. I've heard idm from Point B before, but in his remix of Kansas City Prophets we get very fine Bass music. The exclusive Plaid is so perfect Plaid it hurts, and LJ Kruzer takes the label bosses themselves into lovely glitchy ambient beats territory.
All this from 2010's colour-based EPs. More please!

Quick detour to Sydney as I realised I needed to commemorate the very sad end of Ghoul. One can only hope the members will go on to bigger and better things - one of Sydney's most talented and inventive ensembles.

The aforementioned Part Timer pops up next with a UFog exclusive (for now) — a remix of UK's Northerner to appear on a remix disc from Home Assembly Music in the near future. It's subtle and quiet, with some loping rhythms that surprisingly morph into something clicky and 4/4 and then fade off again. And from his scissors and sellotape alter-ego, some tasty and tasteful piano loops and delays.

Seth Chrisman's Aetherdrift, Do You Copy is the latest release from Sydney's Flaming Pines label, and the most field recording-heavy yet. I've never really been sold on field recordings as such, but particularly on "LR", the mournful guitar chords lend deeper meaning to the disembodied sounds (for me).

From the archives, this week I also found a 2010 release from A Setting Sun, who I discovered last year as Sun Hammer, making heavy, crunchy Bass music without (predominantly) the beats. This EP features a brilliant lineup of remixers, and we heard spangled majesty from Italy's Giueseppe Ielasi and then heavy doom duo Nadja apparently admitting they (sometimes) make post-rock :)

Last year we heard two amazing and huge free download compilations from Futuresequence. This year they branch into single-artist releases with a mini-album from Radere, with well-produced drone. Snarly noises are always welcome here. I'm delving into his back catalogue now.

If you've exhausted your UFog listening sometime this week and want some mind-expanding sounds, please allow Kevin Purdy to offer your KOSMIC DAZE, a krautrock/psych folk mix, impeccably programmed. In it I heard Matching Mole and knew I had to play some Robert Wyatt tonight. He's one of my favourite singers, has with his wift Alfreda Benge an amazing ear for incisive lyrics, and has created some of the most beautiful, bizarre and inspiring music of the last 4 decades.

Alexander Tucker has been a name to watch in psychedelic multi-instrumental songwriting over the last 7 years or so. His duo Imbogodom takes things into considerably weirder territory with tape experiments and esoteric sounds, but keeps a songwriting component on each release.

And just to go into full folk freak-out mode, we ended tonight with over half an hour of ex-Cerberus Shoal/Fire on Fire family band Big Blood. It's Americana through a very warped looking glass, with the post-punk-prog experimentalism of Cerberus Shoal and the high-pitched wail of Colleen Kinsella aka Asian Mae. It's really a duo with Caleb Mulkerin, but often credited as a kind of virtual quartet with their alter egos. And nobody could cover Can in such a perfect yet totally unexpected fashion.

All Big Blood releases are available for free download through Free Music Archive, so check their stuff out there, but you should go and support them at their Etsy store.

Consequence - Magda Trench [Exit Records]
Consequence - Soul Sees Spirit [Exit Records]
Plug - Come On My Skeleton [Ninja Tune]
Plug - Mind Bending [Ninja Tune]
Consequence - Untitled Dream [Exit Records]
Plug - Back On Time [Ninja Tune]
AGT Rave Cru - You Shop We Drop [Balkan Vinyl]
Kansas City Prophets - Navigator (Point B remix) [Balkan Vinyl]
Plaid - Fum [Balkan Vinyl]
Posthuman - The Ottawa Object (LJ Kruzer remix) [Balkan Vinyl]
Ghoul - 3 Mark [Speak n Spell]
Northerner - To Where? (Part Timer Remix) [Home Assembly Music] {forthcoming}
scissors and sellotape - Personal trainers [Facture]
Seth Chrisman - LR [Flaming Pines]
Giueseppe Ielasi vs A Setting Sun - Flower Garden of Doom [Moodgadget Records]
Nadja vs A Setting Sun - Solaris Ocean (Skipping Post Rock Mix) [Moodgadget Records]
Radere - I'll Make You Quiet [Futuresequence]
Matching Mole - Gloria Gloom / God Song [CBS] {to be re-released shortly through Esoteric}
Robert Wyatt - Sea Song [Virgin, re-released Domino]
Imbogodom - Rubbings [Thrill Jockey]
Imbogodom - Slate Grey Light [Thrill Jockey]
Big Blood - Creepin' Crazy Time [Don't Trust The Ruin]
Big Blood - Vitamin C [Don't Trust The Ruin]
Big Blood - Got Wings? [Don't Trust The Ruin]
Big Blood - The Sound And The Sea [Don't Trust The Ruin]
Big Blood - Run [Phase!]

Listen again — ~ 160MB

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