Utility Fog

An electronic Utility Fog for you this week…

LISTEN AGAIN for all the details you missed! Stream on demand from FBi, podcast here.

Autechre – column thirteen [Warp/AE_STORE]
And so with April almost over, Autechre‘s NTS Radio comes to a close with the last 2 hours of new music, and I honestly think NTS Session 4 is the best of them all. I was strongly tempted to play all 25 minutes of “shimripl casual” (but not all 58 minutes of “all end”, gorgeous though it is) – but in the end, this is wonderful too, and gives me a leetle more space for other stuff. Tracks like all of these blur the line beautifully between generative audio and human input – I’m sure the tonal & harmonic space is created by Sean & Rob, but some elements are allowed to bleep and bloop of their own accord.

Eomac – Language Has Failed Us [Eotrax]
Eomac – Transmutation, Redemption, Forgiveness [Eotrax]
Drawing as much from old-school jungle and Autechre as the industrial techno of his work with Lakker, and from Haitian voodoo drumming and Irish traditional dance, Eomac’s new album presents a frenzy of percussion and cathartic vocal emanations, to Reconnect with our wild nature. A ritual ecstatic dance pushing back against late-stage capitalism, it’s quite an experience.

Shadows – Cuthands [Opal Tapes]
AnD – Resisting Authority [Electric Deluxe]
Andrew Bowen & Dimitri Poumplidis (see? A’n’D) make an ultra-heavy kind of techno that draws a lot from noise but generally remains just on the right side of the dancefloor. Last year’s album took them into drum’n’bass and dubstep territories of a sort, and we’ll segue into some more d’n’b from there – but just now they’ve released an album under their Shadows moniker, somewhat less noise & “heavy” focused, for the awesome Opal Tapes.

Artilect – Concussion [Samurai Music Group]
Berlin’s Samurai Music Group have championed adventurous artists in the drum’n’bass space for over a decade now, and that includes techno & dubstep-influenced excursions, more ambient outings, and the reintegration of old-school junglist tendencies into drum’n’bass – see the mid-’90s techstep meets jungle of Artilect‘s latest EP.

Ahmad & Akinsa – Delusion [Rupture London]
London’s Rupture label is right at the forefront of the jungle revival, and they showcase the latest darkstyle sounds on their recent compilation The Fifth Column. Ahmad & Akinsa‘s track has a half-speed dancehall push from the bass, and junglist hi-hats and breaks shattering over the top. Awesome.

Ruby My Dear – jit thin [Kaometry]
Fresh from his new album Brame, French producer Ruby My Dear has dropped an exclusive track of pretty melodic drill’n’bassy idm for Kaometry‘s Nerves of Time Vol. 4 compilation. It’s the kind of stuff he does best.

Arrom – See How (Ahm Remix) [Provenance]
Arrom – See How (KAIAR Remix) [Provenance]
Melbourne’s Arrom put out a fantastic album of experimental electronic pop songs on Provenance last year, and now she’s handed her tunes over to various friends & collaborators. Ahm, who co-wrote some of the material with her, has done two remixes, one glitching up her vocals, and this one, adding super-fun high-speed breaks to take it into some kind of drill’n’bass territory. Meanwhile labelmate KAIAR tries to keep a lid on the frenetic glitchy beats…

Match Fixer – Rubble 4 [Match Fixer Bandcamp]
Melbourne’s Andrew Cowie is probably better known as Angel Eyes, under which moniker he’s had releases internationally – but the experimental sounds of Match Fixer are a little more focused on freaky programmed beats & electronic. All the tracks on the Rubble EP have splattered beats and a bass grounding, and then tend to detour into quieter, more ambient passages – Autechre is again quite an influence. Cool stuff.

Hence Therefore – Skin Pixels [Little Beat Different]
Sydney’s Hence Therefore has been a little quiet since relocating to London, but we’ve got TWO new tunes coming soon on London-based Little Beat Different label’s very international Evidence Found no.1 compilation. Rolling beats which are not at all drum’n’bass but have that lovely forward impetus to them…

Okzharp & Manthe Ribane – Dun [Hyperdub]
First cut from this Anglo-South African duo’s album coming from Hyperdub in July, this brings us bass-influenced beats from London-based Okzharp, and vocals from Manthe Ribane, famous in South Africa’s fashion & dance scenes. It’s a cool combination of South African & English dance forms, and I’m excited to hear what else they’ve been making.

Lybes Dimem – Auto Alternative [SVS Records]
Lukas Rehm is Lybes Dimem, visual artist and musician, making bass-heavy electronics somewhere between abstract/ambient and beats. It’s kind of like Autechre if they’d grown up in the post-dubstep Bass world.

Luton – Elk Talk [Lost Tribe Sound]
Luton – Södermalm Phantom Cab [Lost Tribe Sound]
Luton – Black Concrete [Lost Tribe Sound]
I’ve read about Luton, the duo of Roberto P. Siguera and Attilio Novellino, as being Italian, but their Bandcamp places them in Stockholm, Sweden, and Siguera’s Twitter says he’s based in Manchester. Citizens of the world! Their music is captivating, some of the best stuff Lost Tribe Sound has put out in a while, and they’re a label with high standards. Acoustic instruments including piano, violin, hammered dulcimer and percussion are artfully combined with field recordings and electronics. It’s spacious and evocative stuff worthy of multiple listens.

From The Mouth of the Sun – Reaching When Nothing Is There [Lost Tribe Sound]
Also on Lost Tribe Sound, the now well-established duo of Dag Rosenqvist and Aaron Martin as From The Mouth of the Sun has a lovely new album out in a few weeks, called Sleep Stations – blissful layers of cello, other acoustic & electronic instruments and field recordings.

Listen again — ~274MB