Utility Fog

Sunday, 4th of March, 2012

A few special selections from a few legendary artists tonight, as well as new and forthcoming tunes...
You can LISTEN AGAIN as per usual via FBi's On Demand streaming or link at bottom or podcast.

Started with something new from the legendary Charles Hayward. Ever since his seminal post-punk(?)/prog/improv/experimental band This Heat recorded their Peel Sessions and created their bizarre noises in their Cold Storage studios, his music has had a huge impact. His live drum'n'bass drumming (long before there was such a thing as drum'n'bass), restless invention and the cheeky, surreal political edge haven't dampened over the years at all — good to see. Got a pretty great reaction from these tracks, including the incredibly out-of-its-time "24 Track Loop" — they were doing this in 1979?!

In between we heard a pretty amazing track from Swiss improv noise trio dQtç. I was contacted by them as they're hoping to tour Australia later in the year, which should be unmissable! Stay locked to the 'Fog and I'll let you know. Their music incorporates healthy swathes of electronics, with almost-beats, glitched vocals and heavy bass. A very welcome sound!

Steinvord, the latest signing to Aphex & co's Rephlex Records, takes us via his monophonic, lo-fi idm (or "braindance" as Rephlex like to have it) into a bit of special on Mr Twin, who played a stunning set on Friday night at the Enmore Theatre. With a brilliant light show and video, he took us on a tour of many familiar Aphex genres, albeit with only tiny hints of actual familiar songs. So I thought we might as well hear a few familiar, well-loved Aphex tracks tonight. Missed anything from the Selected Ambient Works albums, but we covered a number of my top faves.

Then we dived straight into another special, on the very fine Benn Jordan aka The Flashbulb. Given we finished with a gorgeous solo piano number from Aphex Twin, it was worth highlighting Jordan's talents on the ivories (although often an electric piano of some sorts), as well as his work with strings and other acoustic instruments. He can go from charming impressionist piano compositions to impressive drill'n'bass workouts within one track, digital processing to the fore and then gypsy violin with acoustic guitar. "Hometown UFO" is pure melodic electronica, with breakneck beats and an absolutely gorgeous melody.

Keeping the beats frenetic (and pretty) for one more track comes Yppah, on the Ninja Tune label, with female vocals and folktronic prettiness battling with chunky beats. Very nice.

The beats are surprisingly agile and central to the music of Cock and Swan, too. Hailing from the Pacific Northwest, my favourite part of the US, they make very organic-sounding electronic music, or quite electronic-influenced postrock, but whatever it is, it's like a clattering, down-home version of Broadcast, and their forthcoming album on Lost Tribe Sound is full of wonderful and catchy melodies and rhythms. You'll be needing to pick this up when it comes out.

Our most familiar artist on Lost Tribe Sound is perhaps Vieo Abiungo, aka William Ryan Fritch. His forthcoming album will feature a DVD of the music with video works by Pete Monro, and was partially funded by a Kickstarter campaign. It contains many of the familiar mournful world-musicky strings and percussion of his earlier works, but shows him moving in some other interesting directions — for want of a better word, some more focused pieces, with more lively and varied melodies and sometimes more foregrounded rhythms. The two tracks I played tonight are particular gems.
We also heard an unreleased Part Timer remix of the first single from the album, and Cock and Swan remixing him from last year, creating the perfect amalgam of the two artists — a remarkably unusual result from a remix.

Remixes and collaborations are the order of the day, in fact. Adelaide's Jason Sweeney has covered some incredible ground in the last couple of decades, from jangly indie guitars to perfect crunchy cassette-warped idm to glitchy indietronica to shoegaze to indiepop to ambient drone. And with his latest solo project Panoptique Electrical, previously home of drone and post-classical soundtracks, he's now joined by Richard Adams from my favourite genre-destroyers Hood, the samples from which, so far, are superb. It should be shoegazey processed indie heaven.
Back in 2004 he released an EP as Other People's Children (was it a duo for this release?) on the legendary 555 Records, whose Bandcamp is now housing digital re-releases of some of the rare vinyl, and this one's a doozy. Go grab it for some eloquent and affecting Aussie indietronica.

This week also sees the release of the latest in Telafonica’s remix EPs. This time it's "There's Something About Your Face", and the first remix was contributed by yours truly, replacing everything except some vocals with layered cello. Hinterlandt contributes an excellent re-imagining in a different time signature, while Clan Analogue stalwart Genlevel grabs a lovely portion of the backing vocals and crafts a deep techno track from them. Free from Bandcamp!

Earlier, we heard the lovely Leah Kardos with an exclusive remix for the latest epic compilation from Futuresequence, as usual a free download from Bandcamp. It's a little more ambient than the earlier installations, it seems to me, and at least while trying to get some work done on the weekend (o woe!), I found the earlier part of it a bit harder to focus on. But there are also the usual absolute revelations, of which UK duo Sonnamble are the top scorers, with violin and detailed glitchy processing improvised live.

And finally, some unreleased (I think) pieces from two artists performing at Dirty Shirlows on Friday: the psychedelic experimental almost-pop of Domeyko/Gonzalez, and the post-industrial beats of one of Sydney's longest-lived bands, Scattered Order.

Charles Hayward - Fifth of November [CONTINUITY... Records/ReR Megacorp]
dQtç - dçtQd [Get A Life Records]
This Heat - 24 Track Loop [ReR Megacorp">ReR Megacorp]
Charles Hayward - Inconclu [CONTINUITY... Records/ReR Megacorp]
Steinvord - Cyg X-1 [Rephlex]
Steinvord - Backyard [Rephlex]
Aphex Twin - Alberto Balsalm [Warp]
Aphex Twin - Milk Man [Warp]
Aphex Twin - IZ-US [Warp]
Aphex Twin - avril 14th [Warp]
The Flashbulb - The Trees in Juarez [Alphabasic]
The Flashbulb - Wake Up Gladiator [Alphabasic]
The Flashbulb - Love As A Dark Hallway [Alphabasic]
The Flashbulb - kirlian isles iii [Sublight Records]
The Flashbulb - your new human [Accelmuzhik]
The Flashbulb - air nad adrian [Accelmuzhik]
The Flashbulb - passage d [Sublight Records]
The Flashbulb - Hometown UFO [Sublight Records]
The Flashbulb - Precisely Wrong [Alphabasic]
Yppah - Film Burn feat. Anomie Belle [Ninja Tune]
Cock and Swan - Sneak Close [Lost Tribe Sound]
Leah Kardos - DFACE Alt Mix [Futuresequence]
Cock and Swan - Stash [Lost Tribe Sound]
vieo abiungo - while the others sleep (cock and swan - etherise remix) [Lost Tribe Sound]
vieo abiungo - rejoice the blind coincidence [Lost Tribe Sound]
Cock and Swan - Unrecognized [Lost Tribe Sound]
Vieo Abiungo - Why Dogs Mimic Sirens (Part Timer remix) [unreleased]
Panoptique Electrical - Put hope in future days (feat. Richard Adams of Hood) [Panoptique Electrical SoundCloud]
Other People's Children - Summer leaves autumn [555 Records]
Telafonica - There's Something About Your Face (Genlevel remix) [4-4-2 Music/available from Bandcamp]
Sonnamble - Vespers [Futuresequence]
Domeyko/Gonzalez - Sunshower [unreleased?]
Scattered Order - Full Metal Rubic [unreleased]

Listen again — ~ 160MB

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