Utility Fog

Tonight on the ‘Fog a discussion with the estimable Mr Chris Abrahams, who is playing with this beloved band The Necks around the east coast in the next couple of months… Also some great local & international music including a couple of huge compilations for the start of the year…

LISTEN AGAIN to some illuminating words from Chris and some top-notch postrock, electronics and evolved noise… FBi’s got the stream on demand covered. Podcast here.

Nils Frahm – Fundamental Values [Erased Tapes]
Nils Frahm – My Friend the Forest [Erased Tapes]
It’s been a while between proper solo studio albums for Nils Frahm. I’ve heard a lot of good stuff about this, but to be honest I found the tracks with a choir a little over the top on first listen, and the Juno stuff a bit uninspired. Nevertheless, there’s heaps to be delighted by, and in particular some really quiet, restrained piano stuff that’s just gorgeous – including some prepared piano and subtle orchestration. Good on you Nils old chap.

Chris Abrahams – Beach of Black Stones [Vegetable Records]
Interview with Chris Abrahams…
The Necks – Rise {under interview} [Ideologic Organ/Bandcamp]
Chris Abrahams – One-Liter Cold Laptop [Room40]
I can’t believe this is the first time I’ve talked to Chris Abrahams on the show, despite having not only been a fan of The Necks for decades, but having known Chris for some time too. All three of these people are very thoughtful musicians, and even though The Necks live are dedicated to the wordless communication and communion of spontaneous creation, they have a lot to say about the creative process. We discussed their expansion (both Chris as a solo artist and The Necks together) from “time-based” creation to the freedom afforded by using a DAW like ProTools, allowing for enormous numbers of audio tracks to be moved around the eventual timeline. Live, The Necks create mesmerising longform works, very much about the principle that “one thing comes after another”, as Chris said. The three musicians interact with each other, the space they’re in and indeed the audience themselves, to create patient music that can grow into incredible locked grooves or massive walls of sound, or not at all. I’m looking forward to their show at 3pm next Sunday (Feb 4th) at Parramatta Riverside Theatres, but you can see all the dates here.

Original Past Life – Infinity [Original Past Life Bandcamp]
On this new single, Perth postrock/experimental outfit Original Past Life have used Australian artist Alan Lamb‘s Infinite Music Machine to create the otherworldly drones than underpin the postrocky drums & guitars. Bodes well for a freer, more experimental second album from these guys.

Warm Stranger – Neu [Esc.rec]
Warm Stranger – Apron & Valium [Human Mistake Records]
Warm Stranger – Burning Ghost Dream [Esc.rec]
The second EP from Melbourne musician James Annesley under his Warm Stranger alias finds him in a similarly dark place to his first. Mysterious, arcane field recordings and voices at the edge of hearing hover around processed recordings of shellac discs and disintegrating cassettes, with some industrial-derived beats accompanying them. Highly recommended, both of these EPs.

Vapur – Dirtyland [self-released]
Vapur – Magnavox [self-released]
Orchestral & film composer Joseph Nizeti debuts his new project Vapur for idm/electronic-influenced sounds. There are some great beats here, but also very accomplished sound design – the title track of the Magnavox EP being a case in point, with bright shiny synths contradicted by some weirdly warped electronic messiness floating through the middle of the mix. On this release Nizeti was interested in taking electronic sounds and re-amping them through speakers in various environments, so the sounds have a pleasing three-dimensionality to them.

Helm – Blue Scene (Laurel Halo Remix) [ALTER]
Helm – Blue Scene (Parris Remix) [ALTER]
Luke Younger’s Helm makes its final move on to the dancefloor, from his noise beginnings, on this EP – not to say that the previous remix outings and the original EP here haven’t already found him in this space. The World In Action EP is well-placed to provide the material for the remixers, and the two rather different versions of “Blue Scene” here take us into two different worlds of electronic beats – Laurel Halo going down her mini-epic techno route, and Parris playing with tension in his weightless-style bass beats, eventually dropping some righteous jungle amens over the groove.

Sophia Loizou – Shadows of Futurity [Houndstooth]
Lanark Artefax – Styx [Houndstooth]
The new compilation In Death’s Dream Kingdom from the Houndstooth label sees them venturing into new territory with a huge digital-only compilation for which the artists have been instructed to base their track around the album’s title or the whole of TS Elliott’s bleak poem “The Hollow Men” from which it’s taken. The result features a lot more abstract and ambient sounds than the label is usually known for, and a great range of contemporary artists. There’s a plethora of tracks that I could have chosen, and we may hear more in the next week or so, but tonight we had a fantastic piece from Sophia Loizou doing her usual mixture of contemporary composition with rave/jungle memories, and tipped newcomer Lanark Artefax (whose music already draws on themes of spirituality and ancientness) giving us a slab of jungle-tinged techno.

Oli XL – Power Over Death [Posh Isolation]
Ydegirl – LOA _ An Indie Libretto [Posh Isolation]
Puce Mary – I Pray For Deliverance, The Size of My Desires [Posh Isolation]
This week’s other big compilation (and there’s a third, which I’ll feature next week on the show) is I Could Go Anywhere But Again I Go With You – Danish label Posh Isolation‘s first digital-only compilation, showcasing a lot of amazing Danish musicians in various electronic & experimental guises. There’s not a lot of information on many of these people (while others are rather well-known). Oli XL is a Swedish electronic musician. The beautiful electronic pop of Ydegirl is the work of singer Andrea Novel, and Puce Mary is the well-known experimental artist Frederikke Hoffmeier.

My promise of another track from In Death’s Dream Kingdom didn’t arise as I misjudged the time, so we’ll hear more from both these compilations next week, along with some selections from Touched Music‘s Found Sound 2CD (and digital) set that ALSO dropped this week!
Listen again — ~191MB