Utility Fog

Sunday, 12th of August, 2012

Second two-hour Utility Fog ever! I'm still getting the hang of this! But I like the early Sunday nights!
Some great psychfolkrock tonight, widescreen electronica, folktronica, and post-/non-classical. Rock it.
LISTEN AGAIN via FBi's streaming on demand, the podcast or the link at the bottom of the playlist!

I first came across the collaboration between French poet/artist Anne-James Chaton and guitarist/producer Andy Moor via DJ /rupture, and so it's nice to hear him contributing the English version of the vocal for their new Olympics-themed track "Break The Record". Minimal pulsating beats and politically-charged spoken word are the order of the day, as with the older track I played.

I'm not sure how I missed Grumbling Fur when their first album came out last year, but Southern's Latitudes imprint I discovered it's the duo of Alexander Tucker and Daniel O'Sullivan of Guapo, Ulver and Mothlite. To my ears this is miles better than the recent Mothlite album (the first was so good, such a shame) and even the Alexander Tucker's latest. Multi-instrumental and multi-genre, with psych-folk and psych-rock rubbing up against krautrock and electronic tendencies. Epic and awesome.

Also epic in sound is Borealis (no relation to Aurora Borealis label). Jesse Somfay's been making techno and ambient for a while, but this is the first album for his Borealis moniker. Shoegazey in scope, it features big reverb, glittering synths, fractured female vocal samples, and lovely big beats that sometimes sound like real drums, and sometimes that clattering, shuffling post-r'n'b thing everyone's doing these days. You can grab the album for whatever you want to pay, so go support good music.
Borealis also contributes a remix to the latest EP from Melbourne glitchtronica duo Mindbuffer on Enig'matik Sounds, an EP also featuring Valance Drakes and Sydney's own Broken Chip, on his gorgeous ambient trip rather than rather than doing the glitch-hop as Option Command.

Meanwhile, after Borealis, another artist to watch is Memotone, who's at home with the post-r'n'b/dubstep beats (one track reminds me a lot of recent Downliners Sekt) but also with almost post-classical acoustic sounds on his latest EP. It'll be very interesting to see where he goes next.

On the same label as Memotone's latest, we have With Joyful Lips, an art/music project which reminds me glancingly of earlyish Tunng, with a slightly post-r'n'b twist. Their paean to sleeplessness and melatonin has a nice lilting beat and general air of pleasantness to it.

Tune in next week for a bit of a special on Dubliner Dunk Murphy and his Sunken Foal project, including some tracks from his legendary duo Ambulance. His debut album on Planet µ floored me with its combination of piano and tweaked electronics. The new one has a bigger spread of acoustic instruments, including ukulele and mandolin, along with some very funky (literally) beats of various varieties. It's awesome and a free download.

London-based composer Gabriel Prokofiev has been running his Nonclassical label and putting on events for a few years now. His latest album is a collaboration with the virtuoso Peter Gregson, with extended techniques of all sorts on the cello, plus (as usual with Nonclassical releases) some sensitive remixes of the already rhythmic (and sometimes melodic) sounds. Tim Exile adds whumping bass, beats and nicely twisted effects on his highlight remix.

Another free Bandcamp release comes from Perth's Kučka via the excellent Wood & Wire. Laura Jane Lowther createst catchy songs from her voice, keyboards, percussion and piano along with 2012-style beats and punchy basslines. Plenty of artists come to mind, but comparisons are odious with artist with such a strong vision. She should go far.

NZ-by-way-of-Sydney duo Kompost continue to release new tracks on their Bandcamp, in their krautrocktronic vein, and they've just told me that they will be collecting some of these into a real album soon — great news!

And finally, Petrels, the side-project/solo project of Oliver Barrett now that Bleeding Heart Narrative is a full band, have released a couple of recent tracks on their Bandcamp, with more to come. One of the most exciting new artists from the last few years, with a big range from emotion-wracked post-classical through noise, songwriting, and krautrocky beats... Yes, yes, yes.

Anne-James Chaton + Andy Moor - Break The Record (English vocal by DJ /rupture) [Unsounds]
Anne-James Chaton + Andy Moor - Princess in a Mercedes Class S 280 [Unsounds]
Grumbling Fur - Huthering Whites [Latitudes]
Grumbling Fur - Curing Hides [Aurora Borealis]
Grumbling Fur - Sommaren Är Här [Aurora Borealis]
Grumbling Fur - Orb Of The Woods [Aurora Borealis]
Mindbuffer - PanFM (Borealis 'Sleeping Hanging Crescent' Remix) [Enig'matik Sounds]
Mindbuffer - PanFM (Broken Chip Remix) [Enig'matik Sounds]
Borealis - Eye Green [Origami Sound]]
Borealis - Orphan Fire [Origami Sound]]
Borealis - Skyhall [Futuresequence]
Borealis - Not Of This Reality [Origami Sound]]
Memotone - Dark Under The Eyes [free from Souncloud]
Memotone - Many Things [A Future Without]
Memotone - Sad Sack [Memotone website]
Memotone - Don't Come Looking [A Future Without]
With Joyful Lips - Melatonin [A Future Without]
Sunken Foal - Cool Arms of Love [Countersunk]
Sunken Foal - Slim Pickens [Countersunk]
Gabriel Prokofiev + Peter Gregson - Float Dance (Tim Exile remix) [Nonclassical]
Gabriel Prokofiev + Peter Gregson - Float Dance [Nonclassical]
Kučka - the operation [Wood & Wire]
Kompost - Keep Your Vice On Ice [Kompost Bandcamp]
Petrels - Talus Dice [Petrels Bandcamp]

Listen again — ~ 106MB

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