Utility Fog

Sunday, 29th of December, 2013

What a year. I'm serious, it's been a doozy. I've got a good two shows lined up full of best tunes, and probably there'll be overflow afterwards :) There always is.
Tonight, among the faves, I played about an hour of what I saw as the jungle resurgence in 2013 - from Justin K Broadrick's industrial/noise with amen breaks through to Four Tet dropping the amen breaks in his tribute to London pirate radio in the early '90s. We heard some true early jungle nostalgia, and a whole stack of amazing footwork/juke-meets-drum'n'bass stuff, with a nod to the "slow/fast" subgenre that's come about this year.
But there was also some electronic-tinged doom folk, shoegaze-metal, and indie-folk meets electronic experimentalism from a couple of different directions!

LISTEN AGAIN and again and again and again and again and a... (this is a MIA quote, sortof, but she'll have to wait till next week!) Link at bottom, stream in stereo from FBi.

Boduf Songs - Fiery The Angels Fall [Southern Records]
Jesu - comforter [Avalanche Recordings/Daymare]
Pale Sketcher - Just Won't Sing [Pale Sketcher Bandcamp]
JK Flesh - JK Flesh Merges Prurient 1 [Hydra Head/Daymare]
Violetshaped - cX310 (JK Flesh Reshape) (excerpt) [Violet Poison]
Demdike Stare - Collision [Modern Love]
Miles - Lebensform (excerpt) [Modern Love]
Special Request - Deranged [Houndstooth]
Lana Del Rey - Ride (Special Request Remix) (exerpt) [Houndstooth]
Mark Pritchard - Soundboy Fuck Off [Warp]
Fis - Mildew Swoosh [Tri Angle]
Om Unit - Sleepwalkers [Metalheadz]
Fracture & Neptune - Clissold (Machinedrum VIP) [Astrophonica]
Machinedrum - Gunshotta [Ninja Tune]
Ital Tek - Fireflies [Planet µ]
Addison Groove & Sam Binga - Rzor [50 Weapons]
Sam Binga - AYO feat. Redders [Critical Presents: Modulations]
Four Tet - Kool FM [TEXT]
Four Tet - druid 3 [Sendspace via Twitter!]
Wouter van Veldhoven - Ons dorp [morc tapes]
Aidan Baker - Already Drowning feat. Clara Engel [Gizeh Records]
Lucrecia Dalt - Soliloquios [Human Ear Music]
Lucrecia Dalt - Glosolalia [Human Ear Music]
Faint Wild Light - Speak, Memory [Digitalis]
emptyset - fragment (excerpt) [raster-noton]
Faint Wild Light - Halfsleep [Digitalis]
Faint Wild Light - Darker (Roly Porter Remix) [Digitalis] {available from SoundCloud}

Listen again — ~110MB

Sunday, 22nd of December, 2013

Second-last UFog of the year, and still playing new musics! Next two will be best of 2013 though.

LISTEN AGAIN if you value your life. Link at bottom, stream in stereo from FBi.

You may be surprised but I've started with two Beyoncé tracks tonight, mixed up with a couple from the new M.I.A. album as well - but perhaps Maya would be less surprising given the usual chopped-up genre-bounding production she works with. The Beyoncé really is very fine though, especially the two tracks I played, mixing in trap and other bass-heavy music along with the r'n'b, and in the latter, some very minimal production that can't help reminding me of Andy Stott a little bit.

Then we heard into Machinedrum's latest free EP courtesy of his email list, all ambient but very much in keeping with the cyberpunk atmos of his wonderful Vapor City album. Then the revenge of the machines continues with Machinefabriek's ambient soundtrack to a beautiful movie of slow-moving landscapes which I can't wait to watch.

In Australia, a couple of releases on the Wood And Wire label, from post-jazz/improv/electronics Pollen Trio (now resident in Sydney and with the one and only Marcus Whale on electronics and voice) and Poland/Canberra duo Piotr-Heslin doing cut-up abstract vocals and electronics.
And collaborations in the form of remixes from Feral Media/Lofly's brilliant Strain of Origin III remix compilation.

Oh yeah, and in surprise "releases" of the week, Four Tet reached 100,000 followers on Twitter(!) and decided to stick a whole lot of tracks up on Sendspace. The links are all still there, although Sendspace will only let you download one track at a time if you don't have a subscription. Lots of great stuff, from quite early glitchy, jazzy UK garage-influenced hip-hop numbers to recent UK garage-influenced house, etc - and a really nice Atoms For Peace remix which was previously only streamable on SoundCloud.

Leverton Fox is a trio of electronics and drums from the UK, whose last two ablums feature Sam Britton from Icarus, release on their own Not Applicable label. Nice mix of the noisy and the beautiful.

And finally a bit of a special on the music of Ben Chatwin aka Talvihorros - one of the best post-drone(?) producers around, mixing drone and noise elements with acoustic and electric guitar, drums and electronics. Also a quite shoegazey/postrocky collaboration from 2011 with Matthew Collings, who put out another of my fave albums of this year (tune in next week folks!)

Beyoncé - Yoncé / Partition [Columbia]
M.I.A. - Karmageddon [N.E.E.T./Interscope]
M.I.A. - Only 1 U [N.E.E.T./Interscope]
Beyoncé - Ghost / Haunted [Columbia]
Machinedrum - Vizion [Ninja Tune]
Machinedrum - Vaulted [Ninja Tune]
Rutger Zuydervelt - Stillness #1 [Machinefabriek Bandcamp]
Pollen Trio - Bowie [Wood And Wire]
Pollen Trio - Moon [Wood And Wire]
Piotr-Heslin - klaiceps [Wood And Wire]
Piotr-Heslin - soursop [Wood And Wire]
¹fm¹ - Maise (Vacant Lake remix) [Feral Media/Lofly]
Reuben Ingall - Brick (0point1 remix) [Feral Media/Lofly]
Four Tet - Pyramid (Atoms For Peace rmx 1) [Free Sendspace download via Four Tet Twitter]
Four Tet - 101112 [Free Sendspace download via Four Tet Twitter]
Leverton Fox - Spindle [Not Applicable]
Leverton Fox - Prang [Gravid Hands]
Leverton Fox - Le Tombeau de Monsieur Whippy [Not Applicable]
Leverton Fox - Strix Undercroft [Not Applicable]
Talvihorros - Today I Am Reborn [Facture]
Talvihorros/Matthew Collings - ten drops [Hibernate/Matthew Collings Bandcamp]
Talvihorros - Etude VIII [Audio Gourmet]
Talvihorros - The Two Great Lights [Denovali]
Talvihorros - Etude V [Dronarivm]
Talvihorros - In the Belly of the Beast [Facture]

Listen again — ~105MB

Sunday, 15th of December, 2013

So many new releases at this time of year, what do people think they're doing.
Admittedly some of this is hanging over from my November trip overseas.

LISTEN AGAIN and all that jazz, go on. Link at bottom, stream in stereo from FBi.

Anyway, we do have a totally new release from Machinefabriek, one of his best for the year, soundtracking a dance work. And forthcoming John Chantler courtesy of The Wire's latest subscriber download comp. Then two tracks from the awesome forthcoming 15 Shades of White comp, out on Moscow label Dronarivm on the 24th of December and also featuring myself with Sophie Hutchings!

We heard two tracks from Lisa Dowling, originally from Australia but now based in New York, as kills to kisses. These are demos, as she is currently in the midst of an Indiegogo campaign for her debut album, but this is a very accomplished artist, marrying double bass with looping and quite experimental electronics, but formed into wonderful pop(-ish) songs.

Keeping it stringy, we follow with my album of the week, and one of the albums of the year, from three amazing artists: violinist/noise artist C. Spencer Yeh (aka Burning Star Core), cellist Okkyung Lee and noise artist Lasse Marhaug. We had a bit of a focus on Okkyung Lee, from her formative years in the Downtown New York scene and albums on Tzadik to her latest solo album of extreme extended techniques produced by Marhaug, demonstrating that you can make noise music with just one acoustic instrument.
Can't praise the new collaboration enough, with beautiful cello phrases and glitchy ambience, lots of mad jump-cuts and extreme noise, cello & violin screeches, vocal mangling etc.

And hey, let's stick with cellists. Next up English cellist Oliver Coates, who sticks closer to cellistic tradition but only slightly. He came to my attention with a gorgeous Boards of Canada cover on one of Warp's 20th anniversary compilations, and more recently has worked with Leo Abrahams on some more experimental cello & electronics, while his new album features contemporary compositions beautifully played, along with a couple of judiciously chosen covers.

Finally, young Sydney musician Scatterbrain, a cellist but working in electronic music as both DJ and producer, with an amen-infused not-quite jungle tune.

Machinefabriek - Slapping Dance [Machinefabriek Bandcamp]
Machinefabriek - Sasha's Solo [Machinefabriek Bandcamp]
John Chantler - November Pt1 [Wire Magazine, forthcoming Room40]
Talvihorros - Etude V [Dronarivm]
Kaboom Karavan - GeMoet Klaar Zien [Dronarivm]
kills to kisses - Who's your lover; a connection in half-truths [unreleased demo - Indiegogo campaign here!]
kills to kisses - Grey (lullaby Apocalypse) [unreleased demo - Indiegogo campaign here!]
C. Spencer Yeh / Okkyung Lee / Lasse Marhaug - Tonight We Sleep Like Empty Hard Drives [Software]
Okkyung Lee - Anything You Say, Anything You (Don't) Say [Tzadik]
Okkyung Lee - One Hundred Years Old Rain (The Same River Twice) [Tzadik]
Okkyung Lee - Cheol-Kkot [Ideologic Organ]
Okkyung Lee - Hollow Water [Ideologic Organ]
Burning Star Core - Blood Lightning Pt. 13 [Dronedisco]
Burning Star Core - Oversleep, Gloria, and You Will Miss The Wave [Dronedisco]
C. Spencer Yeh / Okkyung Lee / Lasse Marhaug - Magic Seagull Lamp / Mission: Lazy / Mission: Nothing / Throw Down The Fishcake [Software]
C. Spencer Yeh / Okkyung Lee / Lasse Marhaug - Ophelia Gimme Shelter [Software]
Oliver Coates - The Clouds Flew Round With The Clouds (composed by Larry Goves) [Prah]
Oliver Coates - Raimondas Rumsas (composed by Laurence Crane) [Prah]
Oliver Coates & Leo Abrahams - Crystals Are Always Forming: V [Slip Discs]
Mira Calix with Oliver Coates - In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country [Warp]
Scatterbrain - Taxidermy (Jungle refix) [Scatterbrain SoundCloud]

Listen again — ~108MB

Sunday, 8th of December, 2013

Second show back and I'm making some inroads into the many, many CDs I picked up in North America - as well as some more download releases along the way. We've got not nearly enough from the wonderful Argentinian singer/loop/electronics queen Juana Molina, a decent coverage of composer/singer/electronic producer Ryan Lott aka Son Lux, some perfect post-dubstep techno-pop from Moscow's Oceania, amazing sounds from Heidi Elva recorded on an iPhone, a magnificent (FREE) new EP from Sydney's Telafonica, remixes from Feral Media/Lofly Recordings' latest free Strain of Origin remix comp, and a not-big-enough special on the genius Dunk Murphy aka Sunken Foal.

And then I had an unexpected extension due to my follow-up's difficulty getting in, so we heard one of David Lynch's amazing eldritch trip-hop songs remixed by, of all people, Venetian Snares, more Telafonica, brilliant sounds from Tim Hecker's latest and by far greatest album (with large slabs of help, it has to be said, from Ben Frost, who we also heard remixed by Icelandic duo Gluteus Maximus), one of my favourite tracks from one of my very favourite post-metal bands ISIS, a collaboration between Canada's Nadja & Japan's Vampillia (taken from the Japanese version of an album now released in different form in the US by Important Records), and finally some excellent experimental indie/postrock from Brisbane's Naked Maja.

LISTEN AGAIN via the link at the bottom, or stream on demand from FBi!

Juana Molina - Bicho Auto [Crammed]
Juana Molina - ¡Uh! [Domino]
Juana Molina - Las Edades [Crammed]
Son Lux - Ransom [Joyful Noise Recordings]
Son Lux - Wither [Anticon]
Son Lux - Speak [Asthmatic Kitty]
My Brightest Diamond - Inside A Boy (Son Lux remix) [Asthmatic Kitty]
Son Lux - Leave The Riches [Joyful Noise Recordings]
yMusic - Beautiful Mechanical (composed by Ryan Lott) (excerpt) [New Amsterdam Records]
Son Lux - Easy [Joyful Noise Recordings]
Oceania - No You Wrong [Oceania Bandcamp]
Oceania - Mantra [7even Recordings]
Oceania feat. N - Streets [7even Recordings]
Oceania - Wires [Oceania Bandcamp]
Heidi Elva - Mourning [Heidi Elva Bandcamp]
Telafonica - Sister You Have [Telafonica Bandcamp]
0point1 - Worm/Child sing-a-long (Children of the Wave remix) [Feral Media/Lofly Recordings]
Sadglint - Sadglint (Spartak's Love Like Fire reduxxx) [Feral Media/Lofly Recordings]
Sunken Foal - Your First On Both Sides [Countersunk]
Sunken Foal - Cutty's Advice [Countersunk]
Sunken Foal - Dutch Elm [Planet µ]
Sunken Foal - Chizzlers (feat. Carol Keogh) [Countersunk]
R.S.A.G. - You Want More (Sunken Foal mix) [A Rare Production]
Sunken Foal - Felt Up [Countersunk]
---bonus tracks after 11pm---
David Lynch - The Big Dream (Venetian Snares remix) [Sacred Bones Records]
Telafonica - Ask Me [Telafonica Bandcamp]
Tim Hecker - Prism [kranky]
Tim Hecker - Virginal I [kranky]
ISIS - carry [Ipecac]
Ben Frost - Peter Venkman Pt. 1 (Gluteus Maximus Remix) [Bedroom Community]
Nadja + Vampillia - Anaesthetic Depth [Iscollage Collective]
Naked Maja - Intro / Take [Naked Maja Bandcamp]

Listen again — ~149MB

Sunday, 1st of December, 2013

Back in the hot seat after a month travelling North America! Such record store. So baggage. Wow.

Anyway, I did pick up the wonderful new Nils Frahm record Spaces while I was away, and I narrowly missed seeing him in New York - damn! It includes an epic track which features some piano and delay pedal work that I've seen in a couple of videos, so I couldn't resist playing the whole 16+ minutes.
But after that, most of tonight's playlist is made up of download releases (or vinyl/download) that came out while I was away - easily compilable into a playlist for tonight, as I only got in this morning. We've got some great examples of the cross-pollination of juke/footwork with jungle/drum'n'bass, and other exciting recent drum'n'bass trends like "slow/fast", plus later, a remix of Seattle shoegazey indietronic duo Cock & Swan - by the one and only Cex, and a gorgeous beat from JK Broadrick's Pale Sketcher incarnation to round things out.

LISTEN AGAIN via the link at the bottom, or stream on demand from FBi!

Nils Frahm - An Aborted Beginning [Erased Tapes]
Nils Frahm - ambre [Sonic Pieces]
Nils Frahm - Keep [Erased Tapes]
Nils Frahm - For - Peter - Toilet Brushes - More [Erased Tapes]
Machinedrum - Ghost Ride Da Bus [Machinedrum email list]
Machinedrum - Don't 1 2 Lose U (Moresounds remix) [Machinedrum email list]
Om Unit - Sleepwalkers [Metalheadz]
Sam Binga - Freezy [Critical Presents: Modulations]
Addison Groove & Sam Binga - Rzor [50 Weapons]
Fis - Mildew Swoosh [Tri Angle]
Ital Tek - Jupiter Ascent [Planet µ]
Ital Tek - Dry Spell [Acidsamovar Records]
Ital Tek - White Mark [Planet µ]
Icarus - Selfautoparent (Ital Tek">Ital Tek remix) [Rump]
Ital Tek - Hyper Real [Civil Music]
Ital Tek - Challenger Deep [Planet µ]
Objekt - Agnes Demise [Objekt]
Quest - Dubfoot [Deep Medi]
Cock & Swan - Melt Down (Cex Remix) [Hush Hush]
Pale Sketcher - Just Won't Sing [Pale Sketcher Bandcamp]

Listen again — ~111MB