Utility Fog

Sunday, 27th of April, 2014

Another great week of music, but finished off with a tragedy - the death of Chicago footwork legend DJ Rashad way before his time.
Drum'n'bass up-and-comer Alix Perez is joined by the late DJ Rashad & his frequent collaborator DJ Spinn on his excellent new EP. Then we have mysterious act Hardware on Various Production's label, sounding a lot like Various but with plenty of heft, a good combo of Bass, drum'n'bass and footwork.

From the Blue mountains, Comatone has often dealt in idm & breakcore stylings, but his new mini-album is a little mini-soundtrack in style. Very nice ambient and bass-heavy sounds.
And just to change the pace a little, Jamie Hutchings of Bluebottle Kiss has turned his regular backing band into a real collaborative band called Infinity Broke, and there are a couple of excellent long rock jams on their debut album, including a radically-adapted BBK track I played, featuring his sister Sophie on vocals and piano.
And Sydney's Fabels have a piece of angsty trilingual shoegaze-punk as an intro to hopefully a good lot of new material again this year.

And now a serious lot of William Ryan Fritch, who's having a really big year at Lost Tribe Sound, with a big subscription series of albums coming with bonus EPs & download soundtrack albums and other stuff. I played a range of tracks from the first EP and album, along with something from a recent soundtrack and some other stuff. He's a highly accomplished artist, under his own name coming out from behind the mainly-instrumental Vieo Abiungo moniker, having done some stints playing with SkyRider alongside political hip-hopper Sole , with whom he still works too. He has a trademark sound of world-influenced beats & percussion, guitars, cello and now often vocals, full of emotion and drama.

I finished up with an epic tribute to (international) Barcelona duo Downliners Sekt. Their new album finds them on Infiné Music after some long stints of self-released EPs and albums, and takes them into a post-dubstep world of techno beats & heaps of atmosphere. They started off in idm territory, and released some pitch-perfect early takes on dubstep without (apparently) having even heard the sounds coming out of East London; then they did an incredible melding of postrock/instrumental rock with electronica, followed by a series of EPs that took them from the slower, heavy dubstep sound into more of an r'n'b-techno hybrid, still with the sub-bass movements holding down the bottom end. In particular "negative green" was some kind of obsession for me for months when I first discovered it... A really important band slowly becoming less obscure.

LISTEN AGAIN to this essential cultural resource. Stream at FBi Radio (perfect for mobile, great for all), or podcast right here! (Link at bottom)

Alix Perez, DJ Rashad and DJ Spinn - Make It Worth [Exit Records]
Hardware - Checking One [Various]
Hardware - Your Move [Various]
Comatone - End Titles [Feral Media]
Comatone - Anodised Autumn Failures feat. Donna Amini [Feral Media]
Infinity Broke - Termites [Infinity Broke Bandcamp]
Fabels - Against It [Fabels Bandcamp]
William Ryan Fritch - in a tame world [Lost Tribe Sound]
William Ryan Fritch - late blooms [Lost Tribe Sound]
William Ryan Fritch - Left To Wander [Lost Tribe Sound]
William Ryan Fritch - sun on cold skin [Lost Tribe Sound]
Downliners Sekt - Soul Débris [Infiné Music]
Downliners Sekt - benz [self-released]
Downliners Sekt - Scope Creep [self-released]
Downliners Sekt - negative green [self-released]
Downliners Sekt - Incerta Glòria [self-released]
Downliners Sekt - hockey nights in canada [self-released]
Downliners Sekt - Silent Ascent [Infiné Music]

Listen again — ~105MB

Sunday, 20th of April, 2014

Tape experiments from Wouter van Veldhoven, postrock/drone soundtrack from fellow Dutchmen Leo Fabriek, Gareth Davis & Rutger Zuydervelt, post-classical prepared piano & electronics from Hauschka, loop-based Americana from Aaron Martin and Americana with not so much black metal as usual from Horseback... Stunning drones from Canberra's Gatherer, and finally a big tribute to Melbourne's wonderful Ned Collette + Wirewalker and his/their previous band City City City.

Which all makes it well worthwhile to LISTEN AGAIN via the usual avenues, including podcast here or FBi's mobile-friendly streaming on demand.

Wouter van Veldhoven - Sketch / First Failure AE 10-2008 [Umor Rex]
Wouter van Veldhoven - kaspar [Wouter van Veldhoven Bandcamp]
Wouter van Veldhoven - Ons dorp [Morc Tapes]
Wouter van Veldhoven - Sketch, 02-2008 [Umor Rex]
Leo Fabriek, Gareth Davis & Rutger Zuydervelt - Bij Wat Ook Moog' Gebeuren 1 [Machinefabriek Bandcamp]
Leo Fabriek, Gareth Davis & Rutger Zuydervelt - Bij Wat Ook Moog' Gebeuren 3 [Machinefabriek Bandcamp]
Leo Fabriek, Gareth Davis & Rutger Zuydervelt - Bij Wat Ook Moog' Gebeuren 8 [Machinefabriek Bandcamp]
Hauschka - Elizabeth Bay [City Slang/Temporary Residence]
Hauschka - Until It's Dawn [City Slang]
Hauschka - Thames Town [City Slang/Temporary Residence]
Aaron Martin - Karl Rove (live) [Sonic Meditations]
Aaron Martin - Orchard (live) [Sonic Meditations]
Horseback - Passing Through [Three Lobed Recordings]
Gatherer - Heat [Gatherer Bandcamp]
Ned Collette + Wirewalker - Echoes Toes [Dot Dash/Remote Control / Ned Collette Bandcamp]
City City City - empty [Sensory Projects / City City City Bandcamp]
City City City - good thanks [Holding Pattern/Remote Control / City City City Bandcamp]
Ned Collette + Wirewalker - Polly Angel [Dot Dash/Remote Control / Ned Collette Bandcamp]
Ned Collette + Wirewalker - Long You Lie [Dot Dash/Remote Control / https://nedcollette.bandcamp.com/album/over-the-stones-under-the-stars-2009">Ned Collette Bandcamp]
Ned Collette + Wirewalker - A Lawyer Or A Gimmick / Meltemi [Dot Dash/Remote Control / Ned Collette Bandcamp]

Listen again — ~106MB

Sunday, 13th of April, 2014

Continuing the saga of "too much good shit", tonight we have highlights from Canberra's indietronic heroes Spartak, indiefolk as well as contemporary classical from John Matthias and the incredible career of Carla Bozulich... plus iTAL tEK's latest take on jungle-meets-footwork-meets-dubstep, Alix Perez's melding of footwork with his celebrated minimal d'n'b productions, and some fascinating 1-minute documents of short snare drum loops from Canberra's Austin Buckett accompanied by some free remixes including one from some footwork heavyweights...

LISTEN AGAIN because life's too short for bad music, or missing Utility Fog.

iTAL tEK - Swamp Beat [Civil Music]
iTAL tEK - Jupiter Ascent [Planet µ]
Alix Perez - U [Exit Records]
Austin Buckett - Remix by DJ Earl ft. Heavee [Room40] {free download!}
Austin Buckett - Grain Loops 10, 12, 23, 30 [Room40]
Austin Buckett - Remix by Scissor Lock [Room40] {free download!}
Austin Benjamin Trio - Xenosphere (Andrew Pekler remix) [hellosQuare Recordings]
John Matthias - Pre-loved/Vintage [Village Green]
Coldcut - Man In A Garage (feat. John Matthias) [Ninja Tune]
John Matthias - I Will Disappear [Counter Records]
John Matthias & Nick Ryan - Cortical Songs 1st Movement [Nonclassical]
John Matthias - Climbing Walls [Village Green]
John Matthias - Jackie Bouvier [Village Green]
Spartak - Nightshift [Feral Media]
Spartak - Sunstrokes [hellosQuare Recordings]
Spartak - Second-Half Clouded feat. Lucrecia Perez [Low Point]
Spartak - On Conditions [Feral Media]
Carla Bozulich - One Hard Man [Constellation]
Ethyl Meatplow - Queenie [Dali Records]
Carla Bozulich - Pissing [Constellation]
Evangelista - Truth Is Dark Like Outer Space [Constellation]
Evangelista - Crack Teeth [Constellation]
Evangelista - Artificial Lamb [Constellation]
Carla Bozulich - Deeper Than The Well [Constellation]

Listen again — ~106MB

Sunday, 6th of April, 2014

More than 3/4 Australian music this week! Pretty amazing week for new Aussie experimental music, and an epic month or so in general - I'll be catching up over the next few weeks to keep bringing you the best of the best!

We started with a mystery artist from Melbourne called Molten Wing. Their debut release (under this name at least!) is an incredibly accomplished mini-album of ambient electronics, cold soundscapes and crunchy beats. Highly recommended.

Sydney composer, viola player and producer Nick Wales has sent me a batch of unreleased music for dance, theatre and other projects, some with collaborators like Sarah Blasko and percussionist extraordinaire Bree van Reyk. It'd be crimilar if this remained unreleased, but for now here's where you get to hear it!

Speaking of collaborations, ex-Faux Pas man Tim Shiel follows his beautiful soundtrack to the highly successful iOS game Duet with a series of, well, duets loosely based on that music. We heard Melbourne pianist and composer Luke Howard, who also appeared on the original soundtrack, and Melbourne beatsmith Aoi.

Morgan McKellar first came to our attention as a member of Sydney postrock/indie genre-hoppers Underlapper. Now resident in Canberra, he plays in experimental duo Cold House, and after a stint as Morning Stalker, makes solo music as Gatherer. Skittery synth pattern madness rubs shoulders with drone and noise elements, lovely stuff.

Further south now, to Melbourne, with the contemporary jazz group Motion, who sadly broke up a year or two ago, but bring us an amazing posthumous album on Wood & Wire. I couldn't help but go back in time with them a little too, with a brilliant remix from Shoeb Ahmad (whose duo Spartak are due out with a new EP any minute now!)

And then finally we make it overseas for the last half hour or so!
We haven't heard much from US artist yyu aka Ben Straus, representing a genre called vaporware... apparently. Shifting easily between lo-fi indie (just a guitar and voice), folktronica of a sort, and juke-influenced lo-fi electronica, this music seems to be the perfect underground music for whatever generation we're up to now. It's smart and unassuming, and somehow mind-boggling even for those used to smeared genre boundaries. He's got a new 12" out on RAMP (Records Are My Pillow - yes!) and I'm hoping we hear much more from him this year.

And finally, some gorgeous dream-pop from Cloud Ensemble, which is a new internet-based collaboration between, well, a host of artists and I recommend you click the link there. Centred around Dutch producer Michel Banabila, featuring Rutger Zuydervelt aka Machinefabriek somewhere in there, along with vocalists, violin and other instruments, it's a bit shoegaze, a bit drone-influenced, and totally recommended. Available on 10" vinyl as well as digital.

LISTEN AGAIN IF YOU WANT TO LIVE! Stream at FBi, download link below.

Molten Wing - no unwinding this [Molten Wing Bandcamp]
Molten Wing - come to the surface this year [Molten Wing Bandcamp]
Nick Wales & Bree van Reyk - spaaace [unreleased]
Nick Wales - fling_epic_! [unreleased]
Nick Wales - Wren_Journey [unreleased]
Tim Shiel - Exchange (feat. Luke Howard) [Tim Shiel Bandcamp]
Tim Shiel and Luke Howard - Greater [Tim Shiel Bandcamp]
Tim Shiel and Aoi - Creator [Tim Shiel Bandcamp]
Gatherer - Speed Thievery [Wood & Wire]
Morning Stalker - When all is said and done we will forgive each other under the sun [hellosQuare Recordings]
Gatherer - Talkie Hole [Gatherer Bandcamp]
Gatherer - Bass Nebula [Gatherer Bandcamp]
Motion - Two [Wood & Wire]
Motion - Pendulum (Slow Rails Mix, reworked by Shoeb Ahmad) [Listen/Hear Collective]
Motion - liberty stole my shoes [Listen/Hear Collective]
Motion - One [Wood & Wire]
yyu - Kiss As We Walk [RAMP]
yyu - car keys [yyu Bandcamp]
yyu - SHOVELKITENOW [yyu Bandcamp]
yyu - u [yyu Bandcamp]
yyu - when you said that [Beer On The Rug]
yyu - When We're Young [RAMP]
Cloud Ensemble - Hide and Seek [Michel Banabila Bandcamp]

Listen again — ~104MB