Utility Fog

Sunday, 25th of November, 2012

The new music keeps on truckin' in even at this latter end of the year, so let's get into it!
LISTEN AGAIN as usual, via the link at the bottom, the podcast, the FBi on-demand streaming...

Sydney's Feral Media are celebrating their 10th birthday with a compilation released on Bandcamp digitally and as a pretty awesome-looking "Playbutton" (basically a tiny mp3 player in a badge, or as the Americans call it, a "button"). It features, it has to be admitted, my solo incarnation Raven and my trio Haunts, but also a plethora of other excellent Sydney and Australian acts.
So tonight we heard from Blue Mountains visionary 0.1, traversing indie, postrock and electronica as if there were no genres, Sydney's pimmon going all "Oh? Beats, yeah I do them! What?", and later Comatone (from the Blue Mountains again, and who also mastered the album) with some of the technical beats and lush textures he does so very well.

Next up we have laptop and vocal musical theorist Holly Herndon with some ultra-processed vocals and ultra-compelling 4/4 techno beats. She's part-academic, part-danceloor, and probably works more for the cerebral listener, but perhaps that's why I like her!

Sticking with the house/techno beats, we join Andy Stott with his deeply submerged beats and bass, with mid-to-high frequencies squalling upwards from murk now and then, including the vocals of his childhood piano teacher Alison Skidmore. It's pretty stunning stuff.

Changing gears with a crunch of metal, we land with France's Ruby My Dear, coming on all Venetian Snares with 7/8 (and other) time signatures, along with jazz samples, electronic textures and the occasional ragga sample. It's some of the best drill'n'bass/breakcore I've heard in ages, particularly on the new album from Ad Noiseam, but the various older releases on his Bandcamp are worth checking out as well.

I first came across Gabor Schablitzki as one half of German idm due Beefcake, who I was obsessed with in the late '90s and early 2000s. They effectively ceased existing in 2004, and initially I refused to follow Schablitzki in Robag Wruhme guise and in duo with the "Wighnomy Brothers" as it was essentially dancefloor-based house. I'm still not much of a fan of the four-on-the-floor, but especially the recent Robag Wruhme is an example (as with Andy Stott) of how to do it right, to my ears. There's a beauty to it and a looseness which is lovely. That said, what I played tonight (from his exemplary mix CD of his own remixes) is pure idm, from back in 1996, and could easily have been on one of the early Beefcake releases. It's clearly him aping Aphex Twin circa On, and nothing wrong with that!

Fresh from his Room 40 release, Bee Mask returns with more analogue synths and psychedelic sounds for Spectrum Spools, the less cerebral branch of Editions Mego. Possibly one of his best releases yet.

Futuresequence have released SEQUENCE5, 5th in their series of free download compilations, and there's more cello to be found. Here we hear an involving piece from London-based cellist and guitarist Guy Gelem, with a lovely ambient piece with bassline and rhythms held by the cello.

And we finish with some of the brilliant work of Melbourne's Ned Collette + Wirewalker, who originally played together as part of the legendary postrock(?) band City City City. Ned's songwriting leans towards the dark folk/roots of a Tom Waits or Nick Cave, perhaps less doom-laden, with Joe Talia (recently heard as a central player on Oren Ambarchi's brilliant 2012 albums) supporting on drums and backing vocals. Truly fantastic.

0.1 - Softism [Feral Media]
pimmon - Found a Feather [Feral Media]
Holly Herndon - Terminal [RVNG]
Holly Herndon - Fade [RVNG]
Andy Stott - Numb [Modern Love]
Andy Stott - North To South [Modern Love]
Andy Stott - Up the box [Modern Love]
Ruby My Dear - dinah [Ad Noiseam]
Ruby My Dear - Fix II [Illphabetik] {also available from Ruby My Dear Bandcamp}
Ruby My Dear - hawa [Ad Noiseam]
Comatone - Lamplit Screenprint [Feral Media]
Robag Wruhme - Kuttenrolch [Nachtdigital]
Bee Mask - Frozen Falls [Spectrum Spools]
Bee Mask - Moon Shadow Move [Spectrum Spools]
Guy Gelem - Remain [Futuresequence]
Ned Collette + Wirewalker - The Hedonist [Dot Dash]
City City City - prat [Sensory Projects]
City City City - the perimeter motor show [Sensory Projects]
Ned Collette + Wirewalker - One Evening, In The Middle Of The Road... [Dot Dash]

Listen again — ~ 104MB

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