Utility Fog

Sunday, 30th of March, 2014

Pretty great few weeks in new music here - so much that I can't possibly fit it all into tonight's show!
We start with a bit of an anomaly from 65daysofstatic - a genuine drone piece, written from what seems like a minor epiphany - drones are terrible, drone is good! And they do a fantastic job of it.

Two young Sydney artists have a split vinyl release just out, and we heard one track each from Scissor Lock and Cassius Select. Both are strangely of a piece - not featuring either artist's vocals, but with lovely hazey textures and kind-of hazey beats too.
And across the other end of the country, Perth's Kane Ikin also brings some housey beats to bear on his ambient sounds, to very fine effect. I'd love to play the 10-minute title track "Warehouses" from this EP, but maybe another night.

Next up, a bit of a special on the pretty amazing sounds of Scottish duo Dalhous, who emerged a couple of years ago from the more post-industrial/gothic noise of their previous incarnation Young Hunting. With Dalhous they adapt their gothic, postpunk sound to the now-sound of techno & bass, with all its nods to '90s idm. It's pretty special to hear these melodic and rhythmic worlds colliding. Much recommended.

A couple of years ago Sufjan Stevens, Son Lux and Serengeti teamed up as "s / s / s" in a weird but weirdly successful melding of their seemingly disparate styles, bringing a few collaborators along for the ride. This year they've reincarnated as Sisyphus for an album that I was initially somewhat suspicious of, but which has totally won me over. As I ranted on the social medias earlier in the week, one track is a slight reworking of a gorgeous piece of electronica Sufjan put up on his tumblr last(?) year, and in general there's a nice mix of Sufjan and Ryan "Son Lux" Lott's talents in folk/indie/classical composition and David "Serengeti" Cohn's growling, down-to-earth raps. If you were suspicious, give it a go.

And then we have a big special (although not nearly as big as I wanted either) on Miles Whittaker of Demdike Stare & Pendle Coven & Andy Stott of, you know, Andy Stott, who teamed up a few years ago for an incredible series of jungle/breakbeat throwback 12"s as Millie & Andrea, and who now release an album under the same name. Their individual projects have tended more towards techno, dub and minimalism, but with Millie & Andrea (and Miles' initially-anonymous HATE project), they bring their love of ramshackle, harsh and chopped-up programming to the fore, for which we are eternally grateful.

LISTEN AGAIN and all that stuff though, gotta keep up haven't you!

65daysofstatic - Drone Not Drones [Superball]
Scissor Lock - Awatef [The Finer Things]
Cassius Select - Each Step [The Finer Things]
Kane Ikin - April [This Thing]
Dalhous - Active Discovering [Blackest Ever Black]
Young Hunting - Embers from the Pyre [Blackest Ever Black]
Dalhous - Success is Her Sensuality [Blackest Ever Black]
Dalhous - He Was Human And Belonged With Humans [Blackest Ever Black]
Dalhous - Sight Of Hirta [Blackest Ever Black]
Sufjan Stevens - Take Me (excerpt) [stream on SoundCloud]
Sisyphus - Take Me / Booty Call [Asthmatic Kitty/Joyful Noise]
s / s / s - If This Is Real (feat. My Brightest Diamond) [anticon.]
Sisyphus - Alcohol [Asthmatic Kitty/Joyful Noise]
Millie & Andrea - Corrosive [Modern Love]
Pendle Coven - dogger bank (excerpt) [The Boats/Pendle Coven self-released]
Hate / Unknown Artist - Pretty Boy (GFTUA Mix) [Hate]
Millie & Andrea - Black Hammer [Daphne]
Andy Stott - Up the box [Modern Love]
Miles - Lebensform [Modern Love]
Millie & Andrea - Drop The Vowels [Modern Love]

Listen again — ~109MB

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