Utility Fog

Sunday, 12th of March, 2017

Mostly dark, ambient, weird sounds for you tonight…

LISTEN AGAIN for that unique flavour, by podcasting here or streaming on demand at FBi.

Members of Brisbane’s madcap improv collective Feet Teeth and Brisbane postrockers Ghost Notes make up the, er, “grit hop” / weirdpop band Spirit Bunny. Using circuit-bent old synths and samples, they’re creating some pretty oddball and fun songwriting!

Morgan McKellar, originally of Canberra, was part of Sydney postrock band Underlapper for many years, and made excellent experimental music as Morning Stalker and Gatherer. Now based in Jakarta, he runs the label Tandem Tapes which we’ve heard a lot on this show, and I’m pleased to find that he’s making music again – glitchy laptop music as Bright Sea.

Late of the mysterious instrumental duo Barn Owl, whose records became more focused around their kosmische synth constructions in later years, Evan Caminiti has been making droney ambient sounds for a while, but with his latest couple of albums he’s accumulated a gritty sense of dread (and, it should be said, warmth) that makes for extremely compelling listening. The new album declares itself the opposite of any pastoral connotations from his barn owl past, reflecting its title Toxic City Music with a set owing as much to Burial’s muted dancefloor references as it does to industrial ambient or krautrock signifiers. Much of this was evident already in 2015’s Meridian. Both are highly recommended.

Brian Pyle’s solo project Ensemble Economique has been plugging away at moody, sardonic psych noise and electronics for almost a decade now. Previously he was known for freewheeling noise & psychedelic stuff with the Starving Weirdos. Of late his sounds have become somewhat more focused, and the latest album brings a collection of moody electronic poems with big sub-bass pulses…

Equally moody is the recently re-released Bad White Corpuscle album from industrial mainstay Danny Hyde as Electric Sewer Age. Hyde worked closely with Coil, especially on their many Nine Inch Nails remixes and collaborations. This stuff is dark and only slightly menacing, and very reminiscent of the late Coil.

Simon Fisher Turner‘s a guy with a long history of weirdness in various disciplines, as an actor, songwriter, composer and producer. His latest album, Giraffe, is a major work incorporating sound art, spoken word, field recordings, electronic processing, occasional skittering beats, piano and string quartet. The sounds are sumptuously recorded and incredibly varied across short and long tracks, and serve as an impressive document of Turner’s talents. A few guests feature, including the wonderful Elysian Quartet (RIP) on the rapturous “colour fullness”, and the quartet’s Emma Smith contributes elliptical spoken vocals to “slight smile”.

Rutger Zuydervelt aka Machinefabriek‘s latest album on Zoharum is a collection of recent music, most of which even rabid fans like me don’t have. There’s beautiful prepared piano processing on the first track I played, there are short drone works, electronics mashed with field recordings, grumbling sub-bass, chopped vocals and more – and it ranges from contemplative to raging, spectral quiet to saturated noise. It’s an excellent introduction to a consistently excellent artist.

Machinefabriek’s compatriot and frequent collaborator Michel Banabila has just put out a self-collection himself, in this case two continuous mixes of recent music on the Sound Years 12? vinyl LP. There’s a new track in there too though, with warped string samples and a weathered vocal beautifully exemplifying Banabila’s sensitive, experimental approach to electronic world music.

Computer music academic and electronic/folktronic trickster Erik Schoster aka He Can Jog recently moved from Bandcamp to Archive.org, presumably because it’s easier to release music for free that way. His latest release is entitled Computer Music With Voices: He Can Jog Plays the Music of Eric & Magill and sees him sampling and rearranging and processing the sounds of that indiefolk band from their album All Those I Know into two beautiful epic sides, enlisting various guests along the way. It’s a dreamy exercise in pop abstraction and some of his best work in a while.

Spirit Bunny – Amen Skew [Spirit Bunny Bandcamp]
Bright Sea – Floating Purple Head [Illuminated Paths Bandcamp]
Evan Caminiti – Possession [Thrill Jockey]
Evan Caminiti – Signal [Thrill Jockey]
Evan Caminiti – NYC Ego [Thrill Jockey]
Evan Caminiti – Toxic Tape (Love Canal) [Thrill Jockey]
Ensemble Economique – Gonna Get Right With God, Right After This Next Cigarette [Denovali]
Ensemble Economique – I Can See The Light, The Edge Of Forever [Denovali]
Electric Sewer Age – Bad White Corpuscle [Old Europa Cafe/Hallow Ground]
Electric Sewer Age – Black Corpuscle [Old Europa Cafe/Hallow Ground]
Simon Fisher Turner – clean page [Editions Mego]
Simon Fisher Turner – trail mix [Editions Mego]
Simon Fisher Turner – stem jars [Editions Mego]
Simon Fisher Turner – slight smile [Editions Mego]
Simon Fisher Turner – colour fullness [Editions Mego]
Machinefabriek – Ivory Ghosts [Zoharum]
Machinefabriek – Meltdown [Zoharum]
Machinefabriek – News Variations [Zoharum]
Michel Banabila – Close To The Moon [Banabila Bandcamp]
He Can Jog & Eric & Magill – Computer Music With Voices Side B [Archive.org free download]

Listen again — ~189MB

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