Great range of stuff tonight – shoegaze of various variants, post-classical electronica, an old electronica incarnation of The Haxan Cloak, dark drones’n’beats and more…

LISTEN (AGAIN?) via the link at the bottom or the podcast, or stream on demand from FBi.

I feel like I probably haven’t played enough Justin K Broadrick on this show, even though he’s one of my favourite music-makers. Look, I’ve probably played him a lot, but in proportion to how much I listen to him, and how many variegated acts he’s been involved with, it feels like not enough. Tonight we hear from his metal-shoegaze project Jesu, probably nowadays what he’s best known for, who put out a 7″ on the Matador Singles Club last year featuring a Stranglers cover (“Duchess”) and a new original, “Veiled”. That vinyl release is now available digitally from the Jesu Bandcamp along with alternate versions of both tracks. The trouble with being a JKB fan is all the alternate versions, self-remixes and re-releases that float around, all of which are essential because they’re often both radically different and brilliant – as is most definitely the case here. The outro, where it all changes, is fantastic in both versions.

Speaking of shoegaze, I was just handed the new album by Sydney duo Fabels this week, and had to play some tracks even though the album isn’t being launched until the start of May. It is in fact now available from their Bandcamp. Their shoegaze credentials are strong, as Ben Aylward was singer/guitarist in beloved Sydney shoegaze Swirl in the ’90s. His partner Hiske Weijers brings a psychedelic twist and shares the singing duties. The album features many tracks from their three excellent EPs along with a few new ones including the highlight “Everything”.

Aussie ex-pat Leah Kardos, now living in London, is a classically-trained composer and pianist as well as an electronic musician and songwriter, and she’s not afraid to combine all her influences on her albums – and indeed within tracks. Her debut album Feather Hammer was one of the highlights of 2011, and her new one is set to be the same for 2013. Featuring vocals on many tracks from Laura Wolk-Lewanowicz, who’s versatile enough herself to cover the range from operatic to pop, it starts off definitely seeming in the classical camp before the electronics drop halfway through the first track. There are glitchy layers of vocals, pop songs with deliciously bent lyrics, and gorgeous piano-backed ambient electronica. Both albums are highly recommended.

When Sydney’s Eugene Ward started making post-r’n’b/dubstep/techno as Dro Carey, he instantly seemed to attract the attention of the cool trend-setters in the music crit scene. And he is indeed uniquely talented and deserves his spot on the world stage. For his latest release he imagined what would happen if he took the house tendencies of his alter ego Tuff Sherm out of Dro Carey, leaving bouncing breakbeats and bass with perhaps more the hip-hop influences. Very fine stuff.

Aurora Borealis as The Haxan Cloak. A cellist and sound-artist, he’s at home with twisted techno, drone, and arcane acoustic doom, and his new album will come out on witch-house (etc) label Tri-Angle. Meanwhile, I was very interested do discover that under a little-mentioned earlier pseudonym he released a small amount of folktronica and more light-hearted electronica as Crillix. It’s quite different, and he probably considers it juvenilia, but I’ve been enjoying what I could find!

And speaking of rare and esoteric, Autechre are not the only Warp artist, or artist in general, to release special tracks for the Japanese market (a way of convincing the Japanese to buy from local labels & stores rather than going for cheaper imported stock), but the bonus track on Beat‘s version of their newie is one of the best Autechre tracks I’ve heard in ages. Absolutely stunning.

The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation is the doomy drone version of The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble, with trombone, cello, traditional rock instruments and electronics/beatmakers. They’ve released a number of excellent live albums, and Roadburn is the best yet, with some heavy beats dropping in halfway through a couple of the long tracks. I believe there’s a new TKDE album later this year, which is something to look forward to.

And keeping the “road” theme, as well as numbered tracks, Sydney’s beloved afxjim has released the R.O.A.D. EP at his Bandcamp to tide us over till a new album later this year. Similar in feel to his album, it’s a sort of gentle folktronica and postrock, with samples and tape loops, guitars and drums – very melodic and just a delight to listen to.

Keeping the Sydney connection, next up we had a long-awaited collaboration between Italian drone-meister Fabio Orsi & Sydney’s own pimmon. It’s definitely easy to hear both of their signatures in these long drone tracks. Beautiful stuff.

And finally, Greg from Underlapper alterted me to a new project for Matthew Mehlan from Skeletons, Uumans. It harkens back to the solo days of Skeletons, much more electronic, with his instantly-recognizable vocals and general weirdness. Available in cassette form and with various t-shirt alternatives if you’re thataway inclined!

Jesu – Veiled [Matador/Jesu Bandcamp]
Jesu – Veiled (alt version) [Jesu Bandcamp]
Fabels – Everything [Fabels] {forthcoming}
Fabels – Turquoise [Fabels]
Fabels – Semaphore [Fabels]
Leah Kardos – Incantation [Bigo & Twigetti]
Leah Kardos – Sexy Monday [Bigo & Twigetti]
Leah Kardos – Apology [Bigo & Twigetti]
Leah Kardos – Closed Circuit [Bigo & Twigetti]
Dro Carey – Nightworld [Dro Carey Bandcamp]
Dro Carey – Grill Mage [Dro Carey Bandcamp]
Crillix – Sketch [Abandon Building Records]
The Haxan Cloak – Burning Torches of Despair [Aurora Borealis]
Autechre – 18 (keyosc) [Warp/Beat]
The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation – Roadburn II [Available from Bandcamp]
afxjim – R.O.A.D. Part IV [afxjim Bandcamp]
afxjim – R.O.A.D. Part V [afxjim Bandcamp]
Fabio Orsi & pimmon – Garnacha [Home Normal]
Uumans – When U Coming Out? [Uumans Bandcamp]

Listen again — ~ 102MB

Pretty big show tonight, with some mutant drum’n’bass descendents from Demdike Stare and associates, some amazing drones, and experimental indie sounds.

LISTEN (AGAIN or for the first time) via the link at the bottom, subscribe to the podcast, or stream on demand from FBi (best if you’re connected)!

Father Murphy is an Italian trio mixing everything from contemporary classical to black metal, which makes it no surprise that our favourite Marseillais, Philippe Petit, is into them. His remix here comes from a connected 7″ and CD set of reworkings on the ever-adventurous Aagoo label.

In the incredibly fecund Italian experimental scene, Giuseppe Ielasi‘s name is one that stands out. Among a disturbing number of new releases this year already, he’s started a series of beautifully-packaged CD miniatures, with semi-randomly-generated not-quite-found-sounds. I love the not-rhythms of the slapping micro-percussion sounds here.

In more accessible territory we have a beautiful extended piece from offthesky, dreamy washes and subtle beats. I hear there’s a new release from his less droney Juxta Phona alter ego coming on Nomadic Kids Republic – can’t wait.

In more gritty drone, we have a stunning EP out from Sun Hammer. He loves his bass, and even connects it with “Bass” music, albeit without beats and barlines… His signature waves of distorted bottom end are here, along with textured spectral drones and muffled spoken samples. It’s quite short and quite immersive.

Next up, a big special on a couple of artists on the Boomkat-affiliated Modern Love label. Andy Stott lives in a more 4/4 world than I usually visit, but despite the regimented kick drums of his normal, house/techno-derived, fare, the production is so stunning that I was totally sucked in to his album and EPs of the last couple of years. It turns out that he actually makes more upbeat breaks/post-drum’n’bass style beats under his female alter ego Andrea, and has released a few 12″s with Millie, the alter ego of Miles Whittaker, one half of Demdike Stare (and also MLZ and one half of Pendle Coven).
Whittaker too comes from more of a techno background, and Demdike have tended to be a little too oppressive and repetitve for my ears, but there’s a strain of hardcore/drum’n’bass/dub/dubstep through their work which surfaces now and then, along with the dark and thrilling production, which I’ve tried to draw out tonight.
Most excitingly there’s a distinct love of classic jungle and distorted breakbeats which can be heard in the mysterious releases under the Hate / Unknown Artist guise (another Modern Love affiliated label, along with the Daphne label which released the Millie & Andrea collaborations). There’s tightly swung post-dubstep beats on the one hand, and also slowed-down jungle of an early ’90s flavour. Then again, the first Demdike 12″ of 2013 features a long track with crazily distorted amen breaks, and now we have Whittaker’s debut album as Miles, which takes the more beat-oriented Demdike sound, mixed with the viciously-EQ’d Andy Stott-style production, and then on a couple of tracks again references jungle’s breakbeat science (albeit from a weird angle). Pretty thrilling stuff…

And so we get to some “real” jungle, from Finland’s amen king Fanu, who keeps the d’n’b faith like no other right now. If you’re into drum’n’bass at all, you should be following his podcast.

A few weeks ago I played a couple of tracks from the excellent EP from Vacant Lake, which is the solo project of Beres Jackson from the now not-solo Karoshi. You should really check out the EP – lovely lsuh ambient electronica with clicky beats.

Sample Minds is a project from Sydney luminary Mashy P, taking in his love of world music and dub, not quite dubstep but somewhere near there, with some pretty epic vibes to it.

And finally, Kell Derrig-Hall has most recently been doing the singer/songwriter indie/country thing with The Singing Skies, but before that he and his partner Lia Tsamoglou (also singer-songwriting as Melodie Nelson) were a much-loved experimental synth duo Moonmilk. On Kell’s new SoundCloud under his own name, a couple of tracks have just appeared which are in the vein of wandery simple synth stuff, like sitting on the porch with your Casio in the afternoon. Very pretty. And I finished with Seaworthy‘s stunning rework of The Singing Skies from last year. Yes.

Father Murphy – Diggin’ the bottom of the hollow by Philippe Petit [Aagoo]
giuseppe ielasi – (or a set of models) track 11 [self-released]
offthesky – Through The Lines [SEM label]
Sun Hammer – Incantations IV [Sun Hammer Bandcamp]
Sun Hammer – Incantations I [Sun Hammer Bandcamp]
Andy Stott – North To South [Modern Love]
Millie & Andrea – Temper Tantrum [Daphne]
Hate / Unknown Artist – Human Resources [Hate]
Hate / Unknown Artist – Pretty Boy (GFTUA Mix) [Hate]
Demdike Stare – Collision [Modern Love]
Miles – Lebensform [Modern Love]
Miles – Archaic Thought Pattern 1 [Modern Love]
Demdike Stare – Mnemosyne [Modern Love]
Fanu – Daggers (feat. Emily Bowlan) [Fanu Bandcamp]
Vacant Lake – Release [available from SoundCloud]
Sample Minds – River of Lights [unreleased/SoundCloud]
Kell Derrig-Hall – Roof of Trees [unreleased/SoundCloud]
The Singing Skies – A Message From The Cliffs (Seaworthy remix) [Preservation] {free download from SoundCloud}

Listen again — ~ 106MB

A bit of everything on tonight’s Utility Fog. LISTEN AGAIN via the link at the bottom, subscribe to the podcast, or just stream on demand (the only stereo option – sorry!)

Trent Reznor’s How To Destroy Angels project with his wife Mariqueen Maandig and his movie soundtrack collaborator Atticus Ross releases their album this week, following an EP which perhaps wore its Nine Inch Nails derivation a little too strongly – although even then it was a different beast. On this album Maandig is not saddled as much with Reznor’s distinctive vocal melodies, and in particular our opening tack tonight, “Ice age”, showcases the sweetness of her voice over a kalimba-like melody, with some nicely sinister drones coming in at the end. It’s got enough NIN in there to satisfy us, mind you. Definitely worth a listen!

Really nice seeing UFog fave Machinefabriek turning up on The Notwist‘s Alien Transistor label. His recent interest in analogue synths continues, with some nice subtle drum machine beats in the mix too. New vistas (vergezichten) for Rutger? Well, straight drone has only ever been part of what he does, but I think his recent stuff has been particularly strong.

Then we had a couple of excellent local repeats from last week (er, not the same tracks, same releases) from the fantastic new Chris Abrahams and the beautiful experimental electronic opera of Textile Audio.
So then from Sydney we head down to Adelaide, with a trio of longtime musical experimenters X-E-S, featuring Louis Burdett, Patrick Kavanagh and Anastasia Mano. This track is a trip through dark and exotic electronic territories.

UFog fave Fieldhead did put out an album last year, but it’s been a quieter time for him of late, so it’s nice to hear a new remix (although I suspect it’s not actually that new), and of a much more recent fave no less, Matthew Collings. This comes from a new online compilation, Wrong Weather Forecast #2, available to download for free from the, erm, fashion blog? clothing store? …place, follow the link. There’s some great tracks there, including the Alien Transistor-affiliated Saroos remixing New York indietronic band Life & Limb.

Wonderful to have a new glitch-pop album from the great Uwe Schmidt aka Atom™, who’s been exploring more esoteric territories of late. HD continues his relationship with raster-noton, with punchy, skittery beats and processed vocals of various sorts, with everything chopped & skewed into funk, r’n’b & technoid rhythms. As is his wont. Nobody does this quite like Atom™ does, as he has for many years in his remixes and his own releases. I wanted to take us back to his 1999 album Pop Artificielle under the lassigue bendthaus (aka lb) moniker, a whole album of cheeky-yet-reverent covers, given the perfect(ly silly) “My Generation” cover on the newie, with Pete Townshend’s classic stutters replaced by digital glitches. (And as I played the Bowie cover, it’s worth mentioning how surprisingly excellent the new David Bowie album is… who’da thunk it!)

A Canadian now based in France, Total Normal makes very listenable and slightly weird collage music, kind of like Lemon Jelly or early Ninja Tune. The new album might be just what you need to bounce you through your afternoon. The last track I played samples liberally from a track by one of my favourite bands, Tin Hat Trio, whose violinist Carla Kihlstedt features frequently on this show. Not the kind of thing most people would recognize, but it was pretty weird for me to be hearing these slide guitar chords recontextualized like this!

Penultimately, we heard three tracks from the latest Wire Tapper CD, the 31st, appearing with April’s issue of Wire Magazine. There’s always good stuff on hand, but this one seems to be one of the better recent compilations. We had looped and effected electric guitar fingerpicking from Christopher Cordoba, lovely ambient from the Buddha Machines’ Christiaan Virant, and electronically-mediated minimalist composition from Italian experimentalist Emanuele de Raymondi.

And finally, another remix from the wonderful Inch-time, this time by English duo Piano Interrupted, and I’ll certainly be checking out more from these guys…

How To Destroy Angels – Ice age [Columbia]
How To Destroy Angels – The wake-up [Columbia]
Machinefabriek – Vergezicht 1 [Alien Transistor]
Chris Abrahams – Stabilised Ruin [Room40]
Textile Audio – Searching [Wood & Wire]
Textile Audio – Of Hymn [Wood & Wire]
X-E-S – Paramythi [Digital Penetration]
Matthew Collings – The Sailor In The City Is Buying up Time (Fieldhead remix) [Wrong Weather]
Life & Limb – Before the flame (Saroos remix) [Wrong Weather]
Atom™ – Pop HD [raster-noton]
Atom™ – My Generation [raster-noton]
lb – ashes to ashes (digital spacepop repliceviant) [Form & Function]
Atom™ – The Sound of Decay [raster-noton]
Total Normal – Better Tell Me John [Total Normal Bandcamp]
Total Normal – Driftwood [Total Normal Bandcamp]
Total Normal – Hugo Nine’s Dog Blacky [Total Normal Bandcamp]
Tin Hat Trio – Bill [Ropeadope]
Christopher Cordoba – The Static And The Swerve [Supple Pipe via Wire Magazine]
Christiaan Virant – Metropolis Waltz [courtesy Wire Magazine]
Emanuele de Raymondi – BV6 [ZerOKilled Music]
Inch-time – The Sun Myth (Piano Interrupted mix) [Mystery Plays Records]

Listen again — ~ 106MB

What a line-up we have tonight! Benoît Pioulard retrospective, Graveyard Tapes (Matthew Collings and Euan McMeeken), amazing new Chris Abrahams, Textile Audio‘s opera-meets-electronica, another small retrospective with cellist Julia Kent, and the experimental cello & electronics of Nick Storring.

As per usual, you may want to listen (again?) via the podcast or download at the bottom, or get the full stereo streaming experience at FBi.

Canadian artist Benoît Pioulard aka Thomas Meluch has featured on this show for the last half a decade or so, mostly via his albums for the much-revered Kranky label. While he’s an accomplished songwriter, he’s always been interested in lo-fi drones, field recordings and processed sound, and jumps between these genres on most of his albums. The new one is slightly less on the lo-fi tip, but still features some gorgeous drones as well as his most catchy and perfectly-formed songwriting yet – other, perhaps, than his extraordinary work last year as Orcas, a duo with sound artist Rafael Anton Irissari whose self-titled album was one of last year’s highlights.
He’s also done his fair share of remixes, and one I caned in 2011 was his radical rework of a Vieo Abiungo.

On the same label as Vieo Abiungo comes an album from new duo Graveyard Tapes, featuring recent favourite Matthew Collings and Euan McMeeken of The Kays Lavelle, who runs the excellent mini50records out of Edinburgh. We’ve heard some of Colling’s songwriting on his extraordinary album Splintered Instruments, from which we heard another cut tonight, but Graveyard Tapes centres on McMeeken’s vocals and lyrics, with music, instruments and production from both. There’s piano, clarinet and many other instruments, along with crackling drones and even crunchy beats on some tracks. It’s a lush album and the deluxe CD packaging looks pretty great too.
As well as hearing from Matthew Collings’ recent solo album, we heard a few from his previous, more ambient project sketches for albinos.

The Necks‘ pianist Chris Abrahams is releasing his third album on Room40 this week, and it continues the experimental nature of the last two. It’s probably his best yet, challenging though it is. His beloved Yamaha DX-7 features (I believe), along with piano of course, field recordings, insane metallic crashing sounds, glitchy cut-ups… yep, a bit of everything.

Sydney-based opera singer Eve Klein has long had a passion for combining opera, contemporary classical and electronic music, which she does under the name Textile Audio. After some compilation appearances and the earlier Pomegranate EP, the full album The Pomegranate Cycle has finally been released on Stuart Buchanan’s Wood & Wire label. These beautiful sounds have also been given life as part of a stage work, first for laptop, opera singer and dancer, and now involving a “networked midi orchestra”.

As you may know, I collect cellists. As a cellist myself, I’m interested in people using the instrument in every way imaginable. I’ve been folliowing Julia Kent‘s work for a few years; I was never familiar with Rasputina, the band that both she and Zoë Keating were in (although not at the same time) (and as an aside, I was lucky enough to support Zoë at the Basement in Sydney on Friday night), but as well as having a couple of previous albums and some EPs, Julia Kent can be found playing cello with such luminaries as Antony & the Johnsons, and Michael Gira’s Angels of Light. Not a bad résumé. Her lush music is usually made from many multi-tracked celli (plural of cello, don’t you know), but she’s not shy of adding in some subtle beats, found sounds and occasionally other instruments. I was very pleased to see her selected among the remixers (albeit doing a cover) in Amon Tobin‘s massive box set last year too.

And we finish with Canadian cellist, composer and experimental musician Nick Storring, whose work I’ve been meaning to check out for some time. I ordered a pile of stuff from the experimental label Entr’acte (whose packaging I’ve admired for years), and among them was Nick’s 2011 album Rife, which almost ridiculously perfect matches my interests – cello, granular electronics, warped sounds, almost-beats, and finishing with a twisted but beautifully melodic piece, it’s a bit of a hidden classic. Nick’s also a collaborator, who’s worked with Aidan Baker/Nadja among many others, and is a member of indie band Picastro.

Benoît Pioulard – Excave [Kranky]
Benoît Pioulard – coup de foudre [Kranky]
Benoît Pioulard – ragged tint [Kranky]
Benoît Pioulard – lasted [Kranky]
Benoît Pioulard – Gospel [Kranky] {under talking}
vieo abiungo – drowsy salted morning (benoît pioulard remix) [Lost Tribe Sound]
Orcas – Carrion [Morr Music]
Benoît Pioulard – Florid [Kranky]
Graveyard Tapes – Gravebat [Lost Tribe Sound]
Graveyard Tapes – Insomniac Dawn [Lost Tribe Sound]
Matthew Collings – Crows [Fluid Radio/Matthew Collings Bandcamp]
sketches for albinos – kids with no energy [nothings66/sketches for albinos Bandcamp]
sketches for albinos – haruki [sketches for albinos Bandcamp]
Chris Abrahams – Strange Bright Fact [Room40]
Textile Audio – Inside [Wood & Wire]
Textile Audio – Ripping [Wood & Wire]
Julia Kent – Kingdom [Leaf]
Julia Kent – Tempelhof [Important/Julia Kent Bandcamp]
Julia Kent – A Spire [Julia Kent Bandcamp]
Amon Tobin – Surge (Cover by Julia Kent) [Ninja Tune]
Julia Kent – Flicker [Leaf]
Nick Storring – Outside, Summer is Bursting at the Seams [Entr’acte]
Nick Storring – artifact 2 [Entr’acte]
Nick Storring – Artifact (I) [Entr’acte]

Listen again — ~ 111MB