Utility Fog

Indie/folk/rock takes us into some beautiful crunchy indietronica, shoegazetronica and contemporary out-rock, before we move into dub & bass-oriented beats, some first class contemporary drum’n’bass, glitchy ambient/idm and decentred ambient of various ilks. There’s also some industrial post-club spoken word weirdness, and later some newer & older approaches to post-classical, as they probably don’t call it.

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Ned Collette – Little Hans [Ned Collette Bandcamp/Poison City (Aus-based vinyl)/ever/never Bandcamp (US-based CD & cassette)/Sophomore Records Bandcamp (US-based vinyl)]
Naarm/Melbourne musician Ned Collette has been with us since almost the beginning of Utility Fog. The much-beloved indie/postrock band City City City put out two legendary albums between 2003 & 2005, with Ned on guitar and also eventually singing, and the great Joe Talia on drums. Ned’s music has floated between avant-garde and classic rock/folk/pop for those 2 decades too, with a few great albums with Wirewalker, his trio with Joe Talia and another City City City alumnus, Ben Bourke. Ned’s been based in Berlin for a while, but I’m pretty sure he’s around Oz quite a bit too. His latest album Our Other History continues with his catchy songs and melancholy delivery, always recalling Leonard Cohen but I also see Roy Harper namedropped, and Nick Drake – as well as the subtly-avant-garde-informed pop of Jim O’Rourke. The album’s released in various formats through various peeps as you can see in the listing above.

Glen Rey. – coming out of coles [.jpeg Artefacts/Glen Rey. Bandcamp]
empress – homeward sounds (remixed by styrofoam) [555 Recordings of Leeds, UK and then Flagstaff, Arizona]
styrofoam – i will try if you need it [styrofoam Bandcamp]
Mitch Reynolds has released music as Bluetung for a while, but has just renamed himself as Glen Rey. The Eroa/Sydney musician is inaugurating this moniker with a small single on Naarm’s great .jpeg Artefacts, one live collaboration with Luke De Zilva and one low-key gorgeous cover. “Coming out of Coles” is originally by the partially-Aus-based UK duo New North Wales, aka Nicola Hodgkinson and Chris Coyle, who were previously the core of the fragile, minimalist indie/tronic empress. This enabled a nifty segue, because I wanted to play something from the “new” release by Belgian indietronica artist Arne van Petegem aka styrofoam. The titled of The lost album (previously unreleased recordings 2000-2001) is slightly misleading, since some of the tracks were previously released, between 2000 & 2003 or so, so I know a few of the tracks. But a few were on very obscure vinyl releases – “I will try if you need it” was originally titled “This Is All Wrong”, from a split 7″ with Dntel in 2002, and it’s a lovely slab of melancholy melody and glitch-beats. The connection? The great 555 Recordings of Leeds (later Flagstaff, AZ), run by Steward Anderson, released the legendary (to me) compilation chihuahuas and chinese noodles in 2000, with indie/postrock/idm/experimental artists remixing each other, and Styrofoam did a beautiful, minimalist, glitchy remix of Empress’ “Homeward Sounds”. Pure crunchbliss.

Belong – Crucial Years [kranky/Bandcamp]
In 2006, artist/producer Michael Jones and electronic producer Turk Dietrich released their first album as Belong. October Language has gone into some kind of legend, possisbly because of scarcity, and a few years ago it was re-released on vinyl by Spectrum Spools. I knew of Dietrich from his connections with Joshua Eustis & Telefon Tel Aviv (with whom he’d later form glitch/techno duo Second Woman). Belong always adopted the shoegaze aesthetic, even if in a more granular/ambient vein, and their third album (in 18 years) Realistic IX is explicit in its major 7th chords and whammy-bar guitar bends at times. But it does also like its granular, digital deconstruction, as heard in the vignette here.

Good Sad Happy Bad – Shaded Tree [Textile Records/Good Sad Happy Bad Bandcamp]
Previously Micachu and The Shapes, Good Sad Happy Bad named themselves after their last album under that name. Now Raisa Khan takes on lead vocals as well as keys, while Mica Levi is still in the band along with Marc Pell aka Suitman Jungle on drums, and CJ Calederwood on sax, vocals etc. They have an album called All Kinds of Days coming in November from French indie label Textile Records, and the lead single shows that the mix of jangly indie, homemade beats and genre-plasticity of Micachu’s original material still drives their new material. Can’t wait!

Party Dozen – The Righteous Front [Temporary Residence Ltd/Bandcamp]
It’s fair to say that Party Dozen are a force unto themselves. The multi-talented Jonathan Boulet plays drums and samples, while Kirsty Tickle’s saxophone roars (even when she’s not yelling through it). Their latest album, Crime In Australia, focuses on the dire time in Australian politics when the corrupt Joh Bjelke-Petersen government ran QLD – but in an instrumental band, what is the music really about? Well it has heaps of energy and it does sound quite dark. The track I’ve chosen has an almost trip-hop feel, but still brings the noise.

Jay Glass Dubs – Blue Plate Special [Digital Edition on Bandcamp, extended CD available from yr favourite retailers]
Dimitris Papadatos has made highly idiosyncratic music as Jay Glass Dubs since 2015, spread across various interesting labels. DJ Humble was a project from last year that claims to be influenced by jungle and drum’n’bass, although heavily filtered through the Jay Glass Dubs approach to decentred dub. There are certainly rhythms that suggest drum’n’bass, albeit sitting more in a 4/4 space – and there are drum breaks scattered throughout. There’s now an extended CD edition with more tracks in this strange vein. Music for alien dancefloors.

Pearson Sound – Twister [Hessle Audio/Bandcamp]
As one of the co-founders of Hessle Audio, David Kennedy has had a substantial influence on the UK bass music scene. To my ears, both as Ramadanman and as Pearson Sound, he never fitted comfortably into dubstep, and you’re more likely to hear 4/4 kickdrums with unusual basslines and squiggly synths – but he started off DJing drum’n’bass, and the jungle influences are up-front in the two preview tracks from his new Which Way Is Up EP. “Hornet” had programmed broken beats and that insectile buzz, while “Twister” mixes jittery drum machine breaks with a constantly moving bassline and insistent kicks at an almost-d’n’b 165BPM.

Ocean Dawn – Wax Cool [Future Retro]
Damon Kirkham is best known as Jon Convex, one half of autonomic d’n’b pioneers Instra:mental, and also Kid Drama. Ocean Dawn is his new moniker for expansive jungle, and he has a new EP on Future Retro, the label of jungle’s most enthusiastic proponent Tim Reaper. Just a very nicely done piece of contemporary jungle.

John Rolodex – Seeing Around Corners [Over/Shadow/Bandcamp]
Canadian d’n’b hero John Rolodex has released a lot on his own Machinist Music (which also releases other artists, mind you), but he’s recently had a digital release and then one vinyl/digital on Metalheadz. He can craft a pure d’n’b tune with machined tech-step beats and basslines, but there’s usually also some crazy beat-fuckery going on too, which brings us to the title track of Seeing Around Corners, his new EP for Over/Shadow. Pure darkness Arcon 2 style. If you like the moodiness of dark drum’n’bass but the complexity of jungle, this EP’s a must.

Objekt – Ganzfeld (Djrum Remix) [Kapsela Records/Bandcamp]
When Objekt‘s first 12″s came out in 2011, they were among the most creative music in the post-dubstep world, electro/techno full of gnarly syncopation, weird edits, great basslines. As he’s continued, at times sporadically, his music has spread out into sound-designy territory, at least on the albums, but his music is still closely attached to the dancefloor. The early 12″s were self-released, and his two albums came out through Pan, but now he’s returning to self-releasing in a slightly different way, with a label called Kapsela. The first release revisits an obscure track from ten years ago, one side of a split 12″ with electro heroes Dopplereffekt. His track is reprised here, along with a few new remixes. I’m intrigued to hear the one from Ulla, but who better to kick things off than the extraordinary Djrum, who as is his wont encompasses quasi-classical faux-jazz, drum’n’bass, halftime and more, all while maintaining a tenuous hold on the original. Another mind-bender from the man.

KASHIWA Daisuke – Infrared [Virgin Babylon]
Only a couple of weeks ago, I was talking about being surprised that KASHIWA Daisuke had a new track out, only a few months since his latest album Ice came out. That track, “Green“, is very much of a piece with this new one, “Infrared” – both have minimalist piano with skittering glitchy beats. I love this sound, so here you go!

Ran Slavin – Dawn Four [Nocturnal Rainbow Recordings]
Here’s an electroacoustic soundscape that falls somewhat into the “fourth world” ambient aesthetic. Tel Aviv-based Ran Slavin is known for his creative film work as well as experimental audio works that have been released by Crónica among others. Following Oolong: Ambient Works, released by Mille-Plateaux earlier this year, New Dawns takes a different approach to “ambient”, with acoustic bass walking through granular samples and the detritus of easy listening music.

Murcof – All These Worlds Part. II [InFiné/Bandcamp]
When his first albums appeared in the early ’00s, Mexican producer Murcof was at the forefront of a new generation deconstructing classical music through minimal techno or micro-house. Many years later, he’s abstracted his sound further into ambient and sound-art, but the micro-grooves are still there in this first single from Twin Color Vol. I, out on Nov 15th through French electronic label InFiné. Those warm, crisp bass tones are delicious.

Comatone – Carpenters Towers (2012) [Feral Media]
Celebrating 20 years since his debut release, Katoomba’s Greg Seiler aka Comatone has been releasing a series of C-TONE 20 EPs featuring mostly-unreleased music from across his history. There’s a lot of tasty IDM, broken beats, basslines and the like. The 6th and last EP (they’re currently only available on streaming services) looks more to the ambient side of things, but that’s not to say it’s devoid of beats. This 2012 cut bubbles murkily with pitched-down loops until the beats straighten things out halfway through. Cyberpunk vibes. As we’re at the end of this Comatone celebration now, I’ve got to mention the incredible dubstep/trip-hop remix he did of my band FourPlay String Quartet some years ago – listen here.

Rita Revell – Pretty Ugly [Nice Music/Bandcamp]
Rita Revell – Persus [Nice Music/Bandcamp]
Great to have something new from Melbourne’s Rita Revell, a couple of years since her Depozit. As usual, it’s hard to pigeonhole these strange electronics, which draw emotion from crackling old tech: lo-fi samples stretched into new shapes; shuddering distorted beats and pretty synths; weathered choral tapes struggling through static; sparse drones and echoing bass guitar samples. Gorgeous stuff, and Nice Music have kindly done a limited CD edition too.

EPRC – DARK RED [Stray Signals/Bandcamp]
Deep listeners to this show will know I’m a huge fan of Elisabetta Porcinai‘s duo Aperture with her brother Emanuele. When I heard the two tracks on SOMETIMES from her duo EPRC with Roberto Crippa I immediately connected it with Aperture, before realising it is in fact Elisabetta’s voice. A visual artist, her spoken word adorns both groups, along with industrial-leaning electro-acoustic audio. EPRC’s debut album BODIES is out now, and the two tracks from their debut SOMETIMES appear here in slightly different form. Desolate synths, pummeling industrial electronics, and Elisabetta’s spoken and occasionally half-sung words. A winning combination.

claire rousay – ily2 (Maral remix) [Thrill Jockey/Bandcamp]
When I heard claire rousay‘s touching, self-alienated confessional album Sentiment earlier this year, I never expected it to be followed with a remix album. With the likes of more eaze and Patrick Shiroishi featured, it’s released in early November. The first single sees Iranian-American beat-maker Maral setting rousay’s answering machine & vocoder pop to a kind of trip-hop beat, keeping it as off-kilter as the original.

Razen – Lazy Lazy Eye [TAL/Bandcamp]
Ameel Brecht and Kim Delcour have formed the core of Belgian minimalist troupe Razen since 2010. Both play multiple acoustic instruments, and augmented by players of hurdy-gurdy, Ondes Martenot and other unusual instruments, they’ve created uncategorizable, hypnotic works that feel plucked out of time – ensembles from centuries past puzzling their way around post-industrial, post-club musical forms. Every album is different, so on Rain Without Rain, their first on Stefan Schneider’s TAL label, wheezing recorder melodies rise up out of guitar amp noise, primitive electronics and the natural reverberation of an abandoned pedestrian tunnel in Düsseldorf, where it was recorded late one night. An evocative story for evocative music.

Laurence Pike – The Undreamt-of Centre [The Leaf Label/Bandcamp]
Laurence Pike – Orpheus In The Underworld [The Leaf Label/Bandcamp]
I’ve played a couple of previews from the new album by Eora/Sydney drummer/percussionist/producer Laurence Pike, and it’s now out in its entirety. In The Undreamt-of Centre, Laurence’s usual drums, samples and keyboards are augmented by the Sydney Philharmonia Choir‘s VOX choir (made up of 18-30 year olds), with the gravitas of a requiem – which it kind of is, memorialising his father-in-law’s decline and death during the Covid lockdowns. But the texts are drawn from Rainer Maria Rilke’s poems inspired by the myth of Orpheus & Euridice – hence we have here “Orpheus In The Underworld”, where he goes seeking his lover. The blending of the choir’s harmonies with electronics, set apart from Pike’s drums, makes for a poignant, otherworldly experience.

Max Richter – A Colour Field (Holocene) [Decca Records/Online Store]
Max Richter – Life Studies IV [Decca Records/Online Store]
Max Richter – Only Silent Words [Decca Records/Online Store]
Max Richter – Life Studies V [Decca Records/Online Store]
I first played Max Richter on this show in *ahem* 2004, when his second album The Blue Notebooks was released on Fat Cat’s 130701 imprint. That album was re-released in 2018 with bonus tracks & remixes, and as it now reaches 20 years old, Richter has returned to the contemplation of, well, books, but also to a series of dualities: acoustic sounds & electronics, classical music & electronica, the human & the natural world, and ultimately life’s big questions juxtaposed with the small pleasures of life. Thus each of the album’s compositions, which do range from classical strings & piano to Enoesque electronic studies, are separated by a series of “Life Studies”, incorporating field recordings found sounds, including crackly old recordings. It’s lovely, thoughtful, and genuinely unpretentious.

Listen again — ~202MB