Utility Fog

Sunday, 29th of April, 2012

Big night of artist specials and genre-exploration.
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I went to the big Steve Reich extravaganza at the Opera House tonight! I had to leave before the end of Music For 18 Musicians, so I thought it apposite to start with the Coldcut remix (from...13 years ago argh) and then a fair chunk of his amazing Sextet from a few decades back!

We had a slew of tunes from the new album and first album from Bersarin Quartett, aka Thomas Bücker, whose beautiful classical samples a la Jacaszek rub shoulders with crunchy idm beats and the occasional droney crescendo to distortion. It's absolutely beguiling stuff - both albums are compulsory listening.

Great to have some more prime Sydney tunes for you. Via Telafonica's 4-4-2 Music, St Jambience gives us guitar loops and riffs, crackly noises and a surprising pop sensibility. Check him out along with Telafonica and my new trio Haunts with two of the Underlapper boys at Dirty Shirlow's this Saturday!
Speaking of whom, we had a couple of ace Telafonica remixes, one from Underlapper they-selves.

And then into another all-consuming special, this time on the Oxford band Jonquil, whose earlier efforts were a fascinatingly hard-to-pin-down take on freak folk. They've smartened themselves up for the latest album, a rather more easily digested form of indiepop — I don't begrudge them this, but it has lost some of its mystery. While the earlier stuff may be more my cup of tea, there's certainly some top songs on the new album.

From there we dive right into AU. Hailing from Portland OR, they have their own take on freak folk and indiepop, and their new album (first on Leaf) may be taking them further in terms of popularity, it's still pretty uncompromising and uncategorizable. I love the "epic" Colin Stetson-driven b-side "Under/Epic", which takes Stetson's muscular sax ostinati from the new album's opening track and stretches them out to longer than the original track, with nothing but some other horns overdubbed on top. From their back catalogue we took a few very catchy, oddly-structured tracks, with banjo, piano, percussion, multitudes of effects and vocals all contributing.

To lead us to the finish line, two remixes from everybody's favourite indietronicists epic45, who have been floating into ever gentler climes of late. Pastoral. The Gentleman Losers drop some beats and glitches into the mix, while beloved veterans of this sort of thing The Remote Viewer show us what indietronica's meant to be. Very fine.

It's hard for me to express just how excited I am about the forthcoming album from our favourite Canberran, Shoeb Ahmad, coming soon on Inch-time's Mystery Plays Records. It's perfect indietronica a la Hood, with orchestral samples, drum machines, guitars and glitches — and you'll be hearing much more of it here. Available in mid-June.

Valance Drakes aka MusSck has been making complex glitch-hop for a few years, and features frequently on this show. He let me know recently that he's bunkered down, working on stretching his sound into new places, with longer tracks and perhaps a broader, deeper sonic focus. On this unreleased track we hear warm bass, that post-dubstep slow pulse, and heaps of processing. Bodes well!

Steve Reich - Music For 18 Musicians (Coldcut remix) [Nonesuch]
Steve Reich - Sextet [Nonesuch]
Bersarin Quartett - Niemals zurück [Denovali]
Bersarin Quartett - Oktober [Lidar]
Bersarin Quartett - Alles ist ein Wunder [Denovali]
Bersarin Quartett - St. Petersburg [Lidar]
Bersarin Quartett - Perlen, Honig oder Untergang [Denovali]
st jambience - spacechimp parts i & ii [4-4-2 Music]
Telafonica - There's Something About Your Face (Genlevel version) [4-4-2 Music]
Telafonica - To Me (Underlapper version) [4-4-2 Music]
st jambience - spokes [4-4-2 Music]
Jonquil - Point Of Go (Parts 1 & 2) [Blessing Force]
Jonquil - Sudden Sun [Try Harder]
Jonquil - Square Rigger [Try Harder]
Jonquil - Subtle Strains [Try Harder]
Jonquil - This Innocent [Blessing Force]
AU - Under/Epic (feat. Colin Stetson) [Leaf]
AU - Epic [Leaf]
AU - sum [Aagoo]
AU - Ida Walked Away [Aagoo]
AU - rr vs. d [Aagoo]
AU - Today/Tonight [Leaf]
AU - boute [Aagoo]
AU - The Veil [Leaf]
epic45 - Washed Up (reworked by The Gentleman Losers) [Wayside & Woodland]
epic45 - The Village is Asleep (reworked by The Remote Viewer) [Wayside & Woodland]
Shoeb Ahmad - Falling Fast [Mystery Plays Records]
Valance Drakes - unreleased new choon [unreleased]

Listen again — ~ 155MB

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