Utility Fog

Sunday, 3rd of March, 2013

Tonight we ranged from indietronica through ambient and beats to cello looping, noise and drone, with a side order of postrock. Just the usual, then.

If you missed out, do not fret: you can LISTEN AGAIN (for the first time!) - link at bottom, podcast to subscribe, or stream on demand at FBi for the full stereo experience.

Here at Utility Fog Towers we've been following the work of Spartak since the beginning - if not before, as Shoeb Ahmad's hellosQuare Recordings (which is now co-run by his other Spartak half, Evan Dorrian) have been with us since we were only a couple of years old.
Spartak started as a pretty experimental venture crossing postpunk, postrock, processed drones and elastic drumming. Their newest release sees them reingesting material that had been slated for release under the Savages moniker - they've decided that it's all Spartak after all, so now we have an incredibly beguiling piece of indietronic pop, catchy and musically challenging all at once, and accompanied by some first-rate remixes. Icarus, Inch-time and newcomer Deaf Cat all feature with excellent interpretations, but it's Reuben Ingall who wins this round, extending his incredible work from last year with a piece that refits the song with stark guitar strums and glitchy textures before gradually mutating back into its pulsing electronic origins.

Kate Carr's new album featured quite late in last week's show, so we have another beautiful cut up nice and eaerly, with subtle guitar textures and field recordings.

From Perth, we have two tracks from an EP by Katie Campbell aka Catlips, who I discovered collaborating with y0t0 recently. A very varied release, with r'n'b-inspired vocals on some tracks, as well as idm beats. Great work.

Russia's Oceania put out one of my favourite EPs last year, and they're now back with the follow-up, again featuring the mysterious N on additional vocals on some tracks. It's techno/post-dubstep/post-r'n'b that could be the lovechild of early James Blake and Various Production... if you want a really awkward way of describing it. Great beats and genuinely evocative songwriting.

And Objekt has put out some of the most compelling beats also in the techno/post-dubstep crossover area, and his latest side from a split 12" on Bleep's new Green Series imprint keeps up the quality.

Now London-based Israeli musician Guy Gelem takes us from the electronic beats to cello looping and other more experimental sounds, with two tracks from his new Eighteen Minutes EP on the excellent Edinburgh label mini50. It seems to me like his best work yet, following on from some excellent compilation tracks last year.

Oliver Barrett released one of UFog's albums of the year in 2008 under his Bleeding Heart Narrative moniker. Bleeding Heart Narrative then became a full-blown band, complete with songs and lyrics, and then sadly split up last year; but meanwhile, Oli had moved his solo work over to Petrels, continuing the drones, tribal percussion, noise elements and occasional singing. So it's great to have a new mostly-solo album from Oli!

Next up another stone-cold awesome track from Matthew Collings' album wot I ravend about (a little) last week. With some nice clarinet textures in there along with indie songwriting mojo and drone & post-rock influenced arrangements.
Speaking of drone & post-rock, I also came across a fantastic EP from Collings in collaboration with the wonderful Talvihorros, shimmering drone-informed shoegaze.
From Talvihorros we heard an amazing track which I missed last year, from his split album (not a collaboration) with Damien Valles on Textura, plus a gorgeous piece from Audio Gourmet's second Hidden Landscapes fundraiser compilation.

And finally, utterly sweet and musically compelling, Heather Woods Broderick decided to do a cover of one of the excellent tracks her bro Peter Broderick put out last year, and we're all the winners.

Spartak - Catch/Control [hellosQuare Recordings]
Spartak - Catch/Control (Reuben Ingall remix) [hellosQuare Recordings]
Kate Carr - Untitled (dreams of Hawaii) [Flaming Pines]
Catlips - Dumpling [Catlips Bandcamp]
Catlips - Ethnicity [Catlips Bandcamp]
Oceania feat. N - Black [7even Recordings]
Oceania - Mantra [7even Recordings]
Oceania - Strange People [7even Recordings]
Objekt - Shuttered [Bleep Green]
Guy Gelem - Search, Find, Keep [mini50records]
Guy Gelem - Upper [mini50records]
Petrels - Trim Tab pts 1 & 2 [Denovali]
Petrels - Trim Tab pts 1 & 2 [Denovali]
Bleeding Heart Narrative - bhn [Tartaruga]
Petrels - Time Buries The Door [Denovali]
Matthew Collings - Pneumonia [Fluid Radio/Matthew Collings Bandcamp]
Talvihorros/Matthew Collings - ten drops [Hibernate]
Talvihorros - From Within A Hollow Body (Part 1) [Textura]
Talvihorros - Etude VIII [Audio Gourmet]
Heather Woods Broderick - Outside In Here [Peter Broderick website]

Listen again — ~ 105MB

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