Utility Fog

Sunday, 8th of February, 2015

Here we are... A number of brilliant women take up more than half of the show tonight - indie noise folk, and electronics, leading into a couple of other awesome electronic musicians.

LISTEN AGAIN to these arcane and alluring sounds... podcast here, stereo stream over there.

Starting with a focus on the musical work of Geneviève Castrée, French-Canadian cartoonist (graphic novelist?) and musician. She once made music as Woelv, and had an album released on Chapter Music in Australia; 5 or 6 years ago she switched to Ô Paon and while her singing style didn't change, there seems to be a greater emphasis on electric guitars and barrages of sound. Oh and also she's married to Phil Elverum - which does come through in some of the arrangements, although her sound is very much her own! Emotionally cracked melodic vocals, chants, acoustic and electric guitars, occasional surprising grooves, drones, and in one collaboration some lovely piano accompanying her singing... and a marvellous collaboration with fellow Canadian Aidan Baker from his Already Drowning album, and even moreso than on the title track, you can feel the drowning in this track (it's actually quite spooky - the title means "Just under the surface, I watch").

Following Geneviève Castrée we have an equally idiosyncratic and talented artist, from the USA - Clare Hubbard aka Caethua. I discovered her when Sydney's own Preservation released an incredible double CD album (or pair of albums) in 2009, although there are a plethora of cassette and vinyl releases around - many not available digitally at all. Luckily this new one, Red Moon, is available digitally as well as on vinyl, so we get to hear a few cuts tonight. She has a distinct, langorous but somehow urgent vocal style, and her music, though frequently electric, owes a lot to folk as well as rock and experimentalism. Strange lo-fi loops sometimes form rhythmic beds, along with field recordings, but often it's just vocals and guitar or piano. Very very worthwhile tracking down the Preservation album as well as the new one, and whatever else you can find...

A track by Karen Gwyer appeared last week in our Opal Tapes special, but I hadn't properly looked into her EP from 2013. It's only three tracks, but they're all long and multipart, and as good an example of synth and drum machine sequenced stuff as you'll find at the moment.

These analogue electronics lead nicely into Boston-based Brazilian percussionist and electronic musician Ricardo Donoso. He's had a few released on underground(ish) noise labels, and then a few fantastic 12"s on Brad Rose's Digitalis Recordings, warm and dark sequenced synthesiser compositions. He's now found a home at the all-consuming Denovali label, and there he's taking things into new climes, adding big percussion and some digital processing/glitching (well, it sounds it to me at least). The new album Saravá Exu is his best work yet, although the Digital releases are total class too.

And via a remix of Donoso, we find our way back to Yves De Mey. Back, because I featured this Belgian sound designer / techno producer last week also in my Opal Tapes special and wanted to feature him a bit more tonight. It's impeccably-produced techno, as interested in sonic exploration as it is in the dancefloor - as is his duo with Peter Van Hoesen as Sendai. It's also a nice melding of the analogue sensibilities of peeps like Donoso with precise digital clicks & cuts & processing.

Ô Paon - Boue / Fleuve ii [TAUS/Ô Paon Bandcamp]
Ô Paon - Transcanadienne [TAUS/Ô Paon Bandcamp]
Woelv - Chanson, Cachee [L'Oie de Cravan]
The Watery Graves of Portland and/et Geneviève - Inquiétude [Marriage Records]
Woelv - "La Petite Cane Danse le Nappe de Pétrole" [K Records/Chapter Music]
Ô Paon - La Cible [TAUS/Ô Paon Bandcamp]
Ô Paon - Sainte Patronne De Rien Pantoute [TAUS/Ô Paon Bandcamp]
Aidan Baker - Tout Juste Sous la Surface, Je Guette (feat. Geneviève Castrée) [Gizeh Records]
Ô Paon - Fleuve iii [TAUS/Ô Paon Bandcamp]
Caethua - Red Moon [Bathetic Records]
Caethua - Day Break [Preservation]
Caethua - Waning Moon [Bathetic Records]
Caethua - Chariot [Bathetic Records]
Karen Gwyer - Free Food / One Men Striper [Opal Tapes]
Ricardo Donoso - Galliciniuim [Denovali]
Ricardo Donoso - The Redeemer [Digitalis Recordings]
Ricardo Donoso - Matutinium [Denovali]
Ricardo Donoso - The Sphinx (Yves De Mey remix) [Digitalis Recordings]
Sendai - Further Vexations [Time To Express]
Yves De Mey - Box Caisson [Opal Tapes]
Sendai - Anti-Jupiter [Archives Intérieurs]
Yves De Mey - Slew Modified [Semantica Records]

Listen again — ~106MB

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