Utility Fog

Sunday, 11th of September, 2016

Holy cow, that clipping. album is da shiz. But we've also got some amazing psych-kraut-electro-acoustic-improv, drone, idm & other beats comin' atcha tonight... It's a biggie!

LISTEN AGAIN and then buy all the music hey? Podcast here, stream on demand there.

What can I say about clipping. that I haven't raved about before? The most exciting hip-hop group to appear in the last few years, they have a true heartthrob of a frontman in Daveed Diggs (recently starring in the unlikely hit musical Hamilton), and true noise cred with producers William Hutson (aka Rale, Tattered Syntax etc) and Jonathan Snipes (of Captain Ahab). The production is intricate and visceral, the lyrics and delivery are intense, complex and rapidfire. And frequently, kind of hilariously & terrifyingly given how many teenage girls must be obsessed with Diggs after his Hamilton tenure, there are extremely adult themes - from "body and blood" to the Whitehouse-sampling recent Wriggle EP. The new album is a tour de force of a concept album, an Afrofuturist space opera that follows the survivor of a slave uprising whose ship's computer falls in love with him, shows him music from the past (including some stunning male gospel choir performances) and helps him find freedom in his travels through space. It's had bafflingly middling reviews, but I'm of the opinion that it's brilliant - despite leaning less on the noise than before, and pushing in different directions lyrically. There are references to many science fiction works, mostly literary, including authors like the recently-Hugo-Award-winning N.K. Jemisin, Octavia Butler, Ursula K Le Guin and M John Harrison.
I'm ecstatic that Stephen Goodhew has made this album of the week at FBi.

UK trio Leverton Fox surf the boundaries between jazz improv and experimental electronica, featuring Isambard Khroustaliov aka Sam Britton of Icarus on electronics, jazz trumpeter Alex Bonney on electronics and occasionally brass, and jazz drummer Tim Giles on drums and, yes, electronics. Although there's a lot of "free jazz" (or free improv) and noise in there, it's actually pretty accessible stuff if you enjoy your experimental electronics - it can be pretty melodic, and it's got lots of lovely jazzy & dancey drums and a psychedelic sheen. The last 3 albums are all available from Not Applicable's Bandcamp.

Speaking of psychedelic, our next drummer Tomas Järmyr plays in the genre-straddling Italian psychedelic noise rock band ZU (despite being Swedish). Here he's teamed up with Nadja guitarist and inveterate collaborator Aidan Baker for an album of psych rock jams called Werl. Out soon on Belgian label Consouling Sounds, it'll keep your brain cells dancing.

Next up in the psychedelic electronic noise + drums field is a trio from Italy featuring Antonio Bertoni on electroncis, Alberto Boccardi on double bass and Paolo Mongardi on drums. In a varied four track LP from the excellent Italian label Boring Machines they explore propulsive beats, ambience, krautrock and almost-jazz to great effect.

The Adult Swim Singles Project (or Club? or whatever) continue to have their finger on the pulse and not care one whit for genre constraints, here commissioning a lovely new surging ambient track from ambient darling Tim Hecker. Great to have another new track from him after a stellar album earlier this year.

Melbourne artist Purr aka Peter Stone has released a few EPs over the last few years. It's a guitar-based project, but there are swathes of grainy noise around the guitar drones, and although it's quite ambient there's a shoegazey sheen to it all as well as a slow melodic development which make for very immersive listening. The new release is appropriately titled Intimate and available with all the hiss you want on cassette as well as digital & even CD-R :)

Sydney artist Joel Pearson has been DJing drum'n'bass, footwork, dubstep and other styles for a few years now as well as presenting shows on various community radio stations including now FBi, but while he's a trained producer and indeed a cellist, he's been biding his time and honing his skills, only really releasing his first works this year. An excellent downtempo EP appeared on his own Milk Thistle Records earlier this year, and now ETCH _ MUSIC have released a second EP, this one entirely remixing the somewhat mysterious Australian artist modus op (well, I say released album ETCH don't seem to want you to be able to buy their music?). All those genre influences are in there along with idm, classic hip-hop and computer game music. Hopefully we'll be hearing lots more from him now!

clipping. - Wake Up [Deathbomb Arc/Sub Pop]
clipping. - Long Way Home [Deathbomb Arc/Sub Pop]
clipping. - Interlude 02 (numbers) [Deathbomb Arc/Sub Pop]
clipping. - True Believer [Deathbomb Arc/Sub Pop]
clipping. - Air 'Em Out [Deathbomb Arc/Sub Pop]
clipping. - Interlude 03 (freestyle) [Deathbomb Arc/Sub Pop]
clipping. - Break The Glass [Deathbomb Arc/Sub Pop]
clipping. - Face [clipping. Bandcamp]
clipping. - bout.dat (feat. baseck) [clipping. Bandcamp]
clipping. - inside out [Sub Pop]
clipping. - Hot Fuck No Love (feat. Cakes da Killa & Maxi Wild) [Sub Pop]
clipping. - A Better Place [Deathbomb Arc/Sub Pop]
Leverton Fox - Salon Selecta [Not Applicable]
Leverton Fox - Le Tombeau de Monsieur Whippy [Not Applicable]
Leverton Fox - Strix Undercroft [Not Applicable]
Leverton Fox - Onglet [Not Applicable]
Aidan Baker & Tomas Järmyr - Werl VII [Consouling Sounds]
Bertoni Boccardi Mongardi - Vento Solare [Boring Machines]
Tim Hecker - veil scans [Adult Swim Singles Project]
Purr - InEx [Purr Bandcamp]
modus op - Fleeting (Scatterbrain Remix) [ETCH _ MUSIC]
Scatterbrain - The Great Northern [Milk Thistle Records]
modus op - Final Boss (Scatterbrain Remix) [ETCH _ MUSIC]

Listen again — ~195MB

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