Here we are… technical difficulties plaguing the start of the show but so be it. Bit of a feature on UK-based sound artist Autistici tonight.
I’ve got a gig on next Sunday so Heli Newton is stepping in to fill in on the ‘Fog.
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Sydney wunderkind Marcus Whale has been played on Utility Fog for many years – in fact the first music he sent me was when he was about 15 years old. I played his duo Collarbones before they’d released anything and I’m a big fan of his club/r’n’b/trap trio Black Vanilla too… and he made all kinds of experimental music as Scissor Lock. But only recently has he decided to present his music under his own name. It’s certainly a very personal vision, combining complex classical orchestration with a heavyweight metal-influenced (and complex) double drumming onslaught, and plenty of electronics along with his distinctive vocals. The forthcoming album’s pretty amazing, and it’s exciting to be able to play the first single on the radio.
The artist behind Piña is a Colombian percussionist who relocated to study in Sydney recently. I was sent his music by a local composer friend who thought I’d be interested, as indeed I am. This EP was made when Piña first arrived in Sydney, and is created entirely from recordings made on a portable sound recorder in his then-local surrounds of the Northern Beaches of Sydney – although the sounds are processed quite heavily. It’s got a sunny feeling to it, with some audible field recordings and some lovely glitchy electronica, and an undercurrent of Colombian rhythms.
Inventing Masks is a new pseudonym for Italian experimental musician Giuseppe Ielasi, under which he has released an EP of minimalist rhythmic sampling experiments. It’s similar to a lot of his other minimalist rhythmic music before it, but where they were based around clunking home-made motorised machinery, crackling records or other more abstract sound sources, here the sounds are more conventional beats. His love of dub and even hip-hop is audible, but it’s still rather off-kilter stuff. I find his music endlessly fascinating, and I’m clearly not the only one, as his various solo releases, collaborations and projects such as the duo Bellows receive a lot of attention from the likes of Boomkat.
Next up, a couple more remixes from Machinefabriek‘s new collection Wendingen. Collecting remixes that the Dutch artist has made over the last 10 years, there’s everything from abstract sound-art to Amon Tobin’s heavy beats and then stuff like the Dutch brass band Mensenkinderen, and the gorgeous duduk of Djivan Gasparyan, melting into Rutger Zuydervelt’s granular ocean.
The big feature tonight is on the music of Sheffield’s David Newman aka Autistici, longtime curator of the Audiobulb label, and maker of beautiful, detailed electro-acoustic music released on labels like 12k, Home Normal, Hibernate and Dronarivm. I’ve often, in my head, lumped him in with various minimalist “drone” artists and the like, but while he’s been released on those kinds of labels, his music is often a little more upbeat and changeable than that might lead you to expect. There can be beats made from sampled acoustic sounds; in general there’s a lot of processing of acoustic sounds, which puts his music firmly in the Utility Fog realm. So it’s no surprise that I’ve chosen to feature an idiosyncratic selection of his music on tonight’s show. Hopefully you’re inspired to explore further.
His latest release is a collaborative album with musique concretète-influenced artist Justin Varis, and it comes with a second disc of remixes by like-minded producers, many of which are equally wonderful. We heard a reworking from composer Monty Adkins and, later on, a remix from UFog fave offthesky. And on the flipside, we heard a remix by Autistici of Portuguese electronic pop artist :papercutz, released on Newman’s own Audiobulb label.
Brisbane’s Nonsemble are one of the many projects of composer/producer Chris Perren, featuring classical instrumentation along with drum kit, combining Perren’s interest in math rock and postrock with his classical composing background. They’ve been releasing music on English classical-crossover label Bigo & Twigetti for some time, but their forthcoming EP is a bit of a change, adding vocalists on all tracks for a rather impressive stab at the indiepop limelight.
Marcus Whale – My Captain [Good Manners]
Piña – I. Custom [Cocora Records]
Piña – II. 92 Pasos [Cocora Records]
Piña – III. The Dance of the Valley Pt1 [Cocora Records]
Piña – IV. The Dance of the Valley Pt2 [Cocora Records]
Inventing Masks – 3’34” [Error Broadcast]
Inventing Masks – 3’34” [Error Broadcast]
Mensenkinderen – Een Blauwe Maandag (Machinefabriek Remix) [Zoharum/Machinefabriek Bandcamp]
Djivan Gasparyan – Moon Shines at Night (Machinefabriek Remix) [Zoharum/Machinefabriek Bandcamp]
autistici & justin varis – grey orange red [Eilean Records]
autistici & justin varis – grey orange red (monty adkins – auva remix) [Eilean Records]
autistici – colonic people [Audiobulb]
Autistici – Annualized Light (2.2) [Kesh]
:papercutz – A secret search (Another location Autistici remix) [Audiobulb]
Autistici – Religion of Water and Air [Home Normal]
Calika & Autistici – Blue stem sister [Audiobulb]
Autistici – Opened Up Too Quickly [Dronarivm]
autistici & justin varis – yellow [Eilean Records]
autistici & justin varis – orange red grey (offthesky remix) [Eilean Records]
Nonsemble – Bricks (feat. Shem Allen) [Bigo & Twigetti]
Nonsemble – Somnambulists (feat. Mel Tickle and Shem Allen) [Bigo & Twigetti]
Listen again — ~196MB
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