Everything from jazz to electro-pop to power ambient tonight…

LISTEN AGAIN because there’s a quiz later. FBi always has the stream on demand, or podcast here.

Alister Spence Trio – As true [self-released]
Alister Spence Trio – caught in light [Rufus Records]
Alister Spence Trio – neon and rain [Rufus Records]
Alister Spence Trio – Seventh Song [Rufus Records]
Alister Spence Trio – Room 13 [Rufus Records]
This program often leans towards jazz-like genres, but it’s always nice to have something that’s pretty fairly situated within the jazz genre yet suits Utility Fog to a tee. I’ve always felt Alister Spence‘s music with his trio fits that bill perfectly – there’s drifty electronic sound processing, perfect breakbeat drums from Toby Hall, and expressive double bass from The Necks‘ Lloyd Swanton. The new album is called Not everything but enough, a sweet sentiment, and it’s one disc of composed jazz and one disc of guided improvisations. It’s being launched at the Sound Lounge at Seymour Centre this Saturday the 5th of August. We also heard two shimmering tracks from the 2009 album fit, and a pretty one from 2012’s Far Flung.

Ben Frost – The Beat Don’t Die In Bingo Town [Mute]
Ben Frost – All That You Love Will Be Eviscerated (Lotic Remix) [Mute]
Although he’s been based in Iceland and Europe for over a decade now, Ben Frost is an Aussie and you can still hear it in his accent. Not that he sings or speaks in his work. For some time now much of his musical output has centred around soundtrack work – or his very own opera – so it’s nice hearing something that’s purely studio music. This time he’s worked with Steve Albini, although I’m not sure how to tell from what we’re hearing. The remix by Berlin wunderkind Lotic appropriately eviscerates its beats over Frost-like bass surges.

Thet Liturgiske Owäsendet – Mineral Point [Forwind]
Thet Liturgiske Owäsendet – Iron Ridge [Forwind]
The new release from Swedish duo Thet Liturgiske Owäsendet sees them travelling to Wisconsin Mining State, with some beautiful desolate drones and some heavy industrial machine-beats on one track. It’s very descriptive music despite being quite abstract, RIYL folks like Ben Frost above, or Tim Hecker.

Isnaj Dui – Loop Two [Courier Sound]
English artist Katie English can be found with her group Littlebow producing flute-led folk and postrock-like music, but as Isnaj Dui things get even stranger. Her flute and cello are harnessed into loping, looped forms which can often sound like the more freaky tracks on Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works Volume II. This minimalist new EP comes from sessions from a new album, so expect more soon.

fieldhead – how much i love the sea [Home Assembly Music]
fieldhead – this train is a rainbow [Home Assembly Music]
Winter North Atlantic – The Maid (Fieldhead Remix) [Boltfish]
fieldhead – a correction [Gizeh]
fieldhead – accents [Home Assembly Music]
fieldhead – ton [Home Assembly Music]
I first discovered Paul Elam’s music as fieldhead when a preview EP was bundled with an album from the Hood-related band The Declining Winter, who he was also a member of over in Leeds, UK. I loved the glitchy sounds of Paul’s solo music and played it on this show, and it garnered a strong reaction, enough that one or two listeners ordered his music from halfway across the world, much to his surprise and pleasure. That album was they shook hands for hours, from which our second selection comes tonight, drones sidechained against a 2-step beat, and it was released on the Home Assembly Music label, to which he’s returned in 2017 for a lovely new album mixing droney postrock and minimal house beats. On previous releases, Brave Timbers‘ Sarah Kemp features on violin, a position taken by Elaine Reynolds on the new album.

Ametsub – Mbr / Ajisai [nothings66]
Japanese producer Ametsub has long surfed the edges between ambient and dance music, with glitchy piano processing, melodic synths and idm beats. His new EP is on the whole one of his more ambient releases, focused on his love of the mbira, the African thumb piano.

Qeei ft. Catnap – O Secos [SISTER]
Mx World – We’ve Helped Each Other Grow [SISTER]
Anna VR – R O M E [SISTER]
A few selections now from the debut comp from the SISTER collective, promoting music by women and non-gender conforming artists from all around the world producing electronic music of all genres. It’s an absolutely fantastic compilation to debut with, a hugely diverse lineup of mostly unknown artists, although Melbourne’s waterhouse appears, as does footwork name of the moment Jana Rush. Tonight we heard from Argentinian producer Tatiana Heuman aka Qeei, London-based Mx World, both with unusual beats and vocals, plus Berlin-based producer Anna VR with piano and heavy electronics.

Constant Light – Young Trucks [Constant Light Bandcamp]
Constant Light – Lie Of The Lands [Constant Light Bandcamp]
As Constant Light, Sasha Margolis and James Dean tread a thin line between the more experimental reaches of krautrock and their more indiepop leanings, nicely expressed on the lovely second song I played tonight. This is actually a filler album before a proper new release coming soon, but it’s all quality, and surprisingly wide-ranging.

Listen again — ~195MB

I had the privilege of filling in for the awesome Brooke Olsen and Scarlett di Maio on Ears Have Ears tonight. Not podcast, but you can stream it on demand here.

T. Morimoto – Ascent [SoundCloud]
Sydney producer Tom Smith has been releasing bent hip-hop and other sample-based music for over a decade as Cleptoclectics, Thomas William and now T.Morimoto. Broken club forms and ambient loops.

Enderie – Stopped Memory [Room40]
Enderie is Brisbane native, now based in Sydney, Andrew McLellan. He’s played in Cured Pink and various other bands, and this solo moniker is using primitive loops and techno cut-ups as a way of exploring the industrial reality of city living. Hi-tech meets lo-tech, taking us into the uncanny…

Fabulous Diamonds – John Song [Chapter Music]
Jarrod Zlatic and Nisa Venerosa made up Melbourne duo Fabulous Diamonds, who made a number of well-regarded experimental pop albums before breaking up. Nisa went on to form Bushwalking with Sydney’s Ela Stiles and Karl Scullin of Kes Band.

Anton Kubikov – Mintnight [Kompakt]
This is the first solo album from Russian producer Anton Kubikov, released on the venerable Kompakt label. He’s best known as one half of SCSI-9, and has an expert ear for ambience.

waterhouse – echoes [SISTER]
Melbourne’s jade foster is no stranger to this show, having contributed a soundtrack to Ears Have Ears in the past. Her track here is from a compilation debuting the SISTER collective. Made of up women and gender non-conforming producers, both professional and enthusiast, it aims to make the music industry a more equal place.

Wolf Eyes – Undertow [Lower Floor Music]
Literally the 100th release from the long-lived noise act Wolf Eyes, now describing their music as “trip metal”. Primitive electronic pulsations and spoken word.

Saira Raza – Ama [SISTER]
Atlanta, Georgia-based artist Saira Raza uses many instruments including vibraphone, guitar, bass dilruba, found sounds, synths and cello in her beautiful ambient music.
This is the second cut tonight from the SISTER Volume One compilation.

Anna Caragnano & Donato Dozzy – Parola [Spectrum Spools]
The album Sintetizzatrice sees the vocals of Rome-based singer Anna Caragnano layered and processed by venerable Italian techno producer Donato Dozzy.

Lifewater Oasis – Facts [Healthy Tapes]
Debut album released on Healthy Tapes from Melbourne duo Faith Bolton and Simon Gardam, making ambient electronic sounds. Look forward to a soundtrack from Lifewater Oasis on Ears Have Ears next week!

phile – Deadzone [Deep Seeded Records]
First track available from the new self-titled album from Sydney duo of Hannah Lockwood and Gareth Psaltis. Available now when you pre-order the album from Bandcamp. Industrial ambient and techno sounds, beautifully constructed.

Siavash Amini – The Dust We Breathe [Hallow Ground]
Epic album on Hallow Ground from Iranian composer Siavash Amini, combining his classical composition chops with drone and experimental electronics. Features two other Persian experimental musicians, Nima Aghiani on violin (to be heard on our next track in his duo 9T Antiope) and Pouya Pour-Amin on electric double bass.

9T Antiope – Prophase [Eilean Records]
Iranian duo 9T Antiope are made up of Nima Aghiani on violin & electronics, and Sara Bigdeli Shamloo on vocals. The experimental nature of the drones, field recordings and electronic noises are juxtaposed with melodic and emotive vocals.

Ekin Fil – Like A Child [The Helen Scarsdale Agency]
Turkish singer & drone-pop expert Ekin Üzeltüzenci has releases on various respected labels like Root Strata, Students Of Decay, and has now released a second album on The Helen Scarsdale Agency. Muted piano, bubbling electronic keyboards, soft vocals and a sense of something under the surface…

Motion Sickness of Time Travel – Let-down [Adversary Electronics/MSOTT Bandcamp]
Georgia, US-based musician Rachel Evans has been releasing cassettes and other limited editions in vast quantities since 2009. Most of it is available from her Bandcamp – arcane New Age-influenced synth explorations and weird-folk, sometimes with vocals. Highly atmospheric and patient stuff. She’s also one half of Quiet Evenings with her husband Grant Evans.

Stellfox – Hatiku Hitam [Tandem Tapes]
20th release for the Indonesian-based cassette label Tandem Tapes run by ex-pat Aussie Morgan McKellar, a 50 track digital compilation full of many gems, raising money for the Australian youth mental health organisation Headspace.
Stellfox is an American musician based in Jogjakarta, Indonesia. You can hear the influence of Javanese gamelan along with the droney industrial electronics.

Adderall Canyonly – Sinner Get Thee Ready [Tandem Tapes]
Mysterious internet noise/electronic artist with a few releases out on cassette labels and the like. This one’s from a split cassette on Tandem Tapes.

Shoeb Ahmad – “unwoven – mp version” [Shoeb Ahmad Bandcamp]
First single from Canberran musician Shoeb Ahmad’s album quiver, set for release early next year, sees them exploring questions of gender and identity. The single also features remixes of album tracks we haven’t heard yet, including the electronically harmonised vocals, drones and drum machines of MP, aka Mino Peric of Melbourne band No Sister.

Dedekind Cut – The Expanding Domain [Dedekind Cut Bandcamp/Hallow Ground]
Having started his career producing for Joey Bada$$ and producing various hip-hop mixtapes as Lee Bannon, Fred Welton Warmsley III then explored his love of drum’n’bass and experimental electronica as well as ambient, and has now settled on Dedekind Cut as the moniker for all his music. He’s been gravitating towards the noisier end of the spectrum, and both Prurient and Zach Hill contribute percussion to this track (Elysia Crampton appears elsewhere on the EP).

Just played the second of two gigs at City Recital Hall in Sydney tonight, and dashed over to play some awesome tunes on the radio. So excited about this new trove of mostly-old Aphex Twin music!

LISTEN AGAIN because you missed that cool thing last time, you know the bit… FBi gives you the good stream on demand, or you can podcast here.

So yeah, Aphex Twin likes to do this – as happened a couple of years ago when he semi-anonymously, without any warning started uploading unreleased tracks by the bucketload to SoundCloud… But this time it’s all officiall, on a dedicated online store at aphextwin.warp.net. Almost every album in his back catalogue has had bonus tracks tacked on, some of which are essentially “more of the same” – tracks from the same period that are presumably out-takes from the albums. So we have another track from the Hangable Auto Bulb sessions, complete with samples of a child talking from the classic 7 Up TV series – awesome of course… but then we have some pretty special stuff like some unfiltered prepared piano from the drukqssessions! There are so many gems from all the way back in the rave days, plenty of acid techno, and for me a number of awesome drill’n’bass tracks from the middle period. So great.

Next up, a bloke who’s been around not quite as long as Mr Richard D James above, but since the ’90s at least, and was pretty central to Sydney’s electronic music scene right up through the mid-’00s. Luke Killen used to be known as Disjunction Reunion and ran a much-loved label and distributor of electronica in Oz called Couchblip. He’s now making fantastic sounds with modular synths, the usual head-nodding beats and lovely melodies and basslines. His new album, after a long break, is released via the DataDoor cassette label, run out of Adelaide by none other than Tim Koch, another Oz electronic music mainstay & hero since the mid-1990s.

We heard James McGauran recently on this show with his industrial postrock group The Black Hundred, but he’s just released a spectacular mini-album of ambient glitchscapes and occasional beats on his Bandcamp under the name S O L I L O Q U A. He’s a Melbourne musician recently relocated to Sweden, and he’s killing it right now. If you like the ‘Fog, definitely be checking this one out.

Moving now to Norway, Espen Sommer Eide has made some of the most important music for this show over the last couple of decades. He’s one half of the groundbreaking folktronic/sound-art/experimental electronic duo Alog, and has also released a bunch of solo stuff under the name Phonophani. He’s also collaborated in the last few years with the wonderful Norwegian singer Mari Kvien Brunvoll as Kvien & Sommer, but it’s been a while since his last solo album. Most of his previous stuff & Alog’s came out on the massively influential label Rune Grammofon, but the new one appears on the slightly younger, supercool fellow Norwegian label Hubro. As usual it’s based around electronic manipulation of organic sounds & field recordings. Somewhat dark, totally absorbing.

Island People is a new American quartet of producers & sound engineers and a guitarist whose new album appears on Olaf Bender‘s newly re-minted Raster, separated again from NOTON. The group make absolutely gorgeous ambient music, sometimes with delicate beats and guitar reminding of the early freeform days of postrock.

New Zealand producer Fis started on the outer reaches of the drum’n’bass dancefloor, and after a few releases in which the beats got weirder & more buried, he’s ended up in that interesting world of bass-heavy sound-art inhabited by various dubstep & drum’n’bass exiles. His latest album on Bristol’s Subtext is a collaboration with Maori artist Rob Thorne, whose various traditional percussion and wind instruments are swathed in cavernous, sympathetic electronic amplification & treatment by Fis. It’s bafflingly exquisite stuff.

Keeping with blown instruments, we move to that surprisingly melodic and sweet jazz instrument the trumpet. Here it’s played by Cologne musician Pablo GIW, who mixes his accomplished jazz trumpet playing with electronics, sometimes moody, sometimes quite extreme, along with beat-influenced poetry and singing. Quite a special album that might have slipped under a whole lot of people’s radars…

And finally, we have the trumpet, bewitching vocals and electronics of Norwegian master Arve Henriksen. Among his collaborations is the legendary improvisatory band Supersilent, who can move effortlessly between other-worldly ambient jazz, arcane electronics and noise metal. Henriksen’s solo work has tended to stick in the fourth world ambient and jazz spectrum, and his new album is no exception – except that it’s some of his best work in a while. Podcast listeners get to hear the entirety of the glorious Supersilent track I finished up with, cut for our segue into the lovely sounds of After Hour on-air.

Aphex Twin – clissold 101[dat28 otari] [aphextwin.warp.net]
Aphex Twin – no cares [aphextwin.warp.net]
Aphex Twin – get a baby [aphextwin.warp.net]
Aphex Twin – forgotten life path [aphextwin.warp.net]
Aphex Twin – dRuQks Prepared uN 1 [aphextwin.warp.net]
The Tuss – oslo 2 + 6.1 [aphextwin.warp.net]
Aphex Twin – End E2 [aphextwin.warp.net]
Luke Killen – 11-08-15 [DataDoor]
Luke Killen – DataDoor-14 [DataDoor]
Luke Killen – DataDoor-12 [DataDoor]
S O L I L O Q U A – The White Noise of Fuckery [The Black Hundred Bandcamp]
S O L I L O Q U A – A Collection of Archetypal Champagne Socialists [The Black Hundred Bandcamp]
Phonophani – A dark, sharp, heartless [Hubro]
Phonophani – Sirma, 1997 [Hubro]
Island People – Ember [Raster]
Island People – Distance 7 [Raster]
Fis & Rob Thorne – Wooden Lung [Subtext]
GIW – Morning Machine [ti-Records]
GIW – The Golden Calf [ti-Records]
arve henriksen – towards language [Rune Grammofon]
arve henriksen – groundswell [Rune Grammofon]
Supersilent – 6.2 (excerpt) [Rune Grammofon]

Listen again — ~195MB

Quintessential Utility Fog journey tonight. Hopefully it all makes sense!

LISTEN AGAIN for the nuances you didn’t pick up last time. Podcast here, stream on demand from FBi.

Trained as an opera singer, Jessica O’Donoghue has enjoyed working outside the classical idiom for a while with the likes of CODA, and has recently released an EP of electronic pop explorations. I think I played the original of this particular song a while ago, but here it gets an awesome skittery dub-techno reworking by fellow Sydneysider Deepchild (although Rick is relocating to London any minute I believe).

Young Sydney artist HC Clifford popped up on this show earlier this year with a lovely bit of indietronica. His new track, an instrumental ode to his recently-passed-away dog Bill, finds him in ambient electronic mode, and is equally lovely…

Canadian “ambient doom”/doomgaze duo Nadja are known for their crushingly heavy sound, but are no strangers to the softer tones. Nevertheless, it’s really lovely to hear some of their older tunes reworked by them on Stripped, one of a number of new releases from Nadja and Aidan Baker-related projects to just come out digitally.

Braveyoung‘s relationship to “metal” is something we hear in the second track to feature them tonight – from a 2011 collaboration with everyone’s favourite noise-metal romantics The Body. But their new album, on frequently-metal-affiliated label The Flenser, is pure, suspended ambient classical beauty, all strings & piano and drones. This stuff wouldn’t go amiss on a Stars of the Lid album, and just because I almost missed out on it, you definitely should not (miss it, that is).

Tasmanian outfit Omahara have just released their second album, and it’s through estimable Sydney label Art As Catharsis. Majestic, primal, ritualistic, and sometimes wild & harsh, it’s patient music that rewards lying on your back with your eyes closed – until you have to get up and headbang for a bit. There’s something weirdly Tasmanian and Tasmanianly weird about this stuff. Dig it.

Japanese sludge/doom metal veterans Boris have released something approaching 50 albums now, not to mention EPs and live albums and other miscellanea – and they’ve been at it for 25 years now. They’re experts at many different styles of metal and further afield, and no album is ever a straightforward affair. This one has its fair share of noise, its fair share of incredibly slow riffs, and also moments of more acoustic prettiness (usually interrupted by heavy riffs though). It’s pure Boris, and thus excellent.

Japanese composer & producer KASHIWA Daisuke has embodied the remix aesthetic throughout his career, creating incredibly dense & complex cut-ups and manically programmed drums, whether in connection with his classical compositions, previous postrock band or even J-Pop stylings. It’s a mix which is familiar to fans of Japanese electronica, especially World’s End Girlfriend, on whose label Virgin Babylon he’s released a number of albums now. His new album is the second to focus on his remixes, and they’re very often full-blown reworkings, reorchestrations with his signature mad beats, switches of direction etc. We heard from 三回転とひとひねり (Sankai Hineri), whose original layered chatter is recontextualised into a heavy beat-laden odyssey, into which halfway through some glorious jazzy piano chords are inserted. At the other end, the operatic vocals and piano of Ferri are dropped over (or under) some scrabbling junglist breakbeats. In between, we heard one of his more classical-tinged electronic pieces (not counting a whole album of Satie-esque solo piano), and one of his most J-Pop, a collaboration with Piana entitled 9 Songs released on her own guns N’ girls Records.

Düsseldorf-based composer/producer Orson Hentschel is not nearly as manic as Kashiwa Daisuke, but shares something of the cut-up aesthetic and the melding of classical influences with contemporary digital electronica. A background in film music infused his debut album on Denovali in 2016, Feed The Tape, with short, flickering sound samples mimicking pieces of film flapping on a spinning projector. His avowed influence here was classical minimalism, but while there’s a clear thread between these two albums, Hentschel points to trip-hop and electronic pop as the influences on Electric Stutter, his new album. To me there’s still a strong soundtrack feel along with the, yes, electric stutter – and that’s no bad thing. Both great albums worth your time.

Jessica O’Donoghue – Flow (Deepchild Reduction) [self-released]
HC Clifford – Dragon [SoundCloud]
Nadja – I Make From Your Eyes The Sun [Nadja Bandcamp]
Braveyoung – The Good King Will Punish You [The Flenser]
The Body & Braveyoung – Nothing Passes [At A Loss Recordings]
Omahara – III [Omahara self-released]
Omahara – (track 4) [Art As Catharsis]
Boris – Memento Mori [Sargent House/Daymare]
Boris – Kagero [Sargent House/Daymare]
三回転とひとひねり – 仮設5号機 (EVA remix by KASHIWA Daisuke) [Virgin Babylon]
KASHIWA Daisuke – About Moonlight [MIDI Creative/Noble]
KASHIWA Daisuke with Piana – The spider’s thread (remix ver.) [guns N’ girls Records]
Ferri – Subliminal Affirmation (arranged by KASHIWA Daisuke) [Virgin Babylon]
Orson Hentschel – Electric Stutter [Denovali]
Orson Hentschel – 16 mm [Denovali]
Orson Hentschel – Montage of Bugs [Denovali]

Listen again — ~208MB