A night of pop, beats and ambient!
LISTEN AGAIN via the usual channels peeps – podcast/download, or stream on demand.

So on the weekend, I got an email from Dirty Projectors pointing me to their website, on which there was a link to this Soundcloud page, where Domino have posted a new song, and how incredible is it. A lot of people are commenting on how Dave Longstreth has learned to sing. Maybe so, but it’s still characteristically his singing style, and the (now three) girls are sounding better than ever in backing vocals. The song is relatively simple, but it’s a perfect marrying of melody, harmony and lyrics.

So we’ll stick with pop (for certain values of “pop”) for much of the show, courtesy of a couple of other highlight releases of the week. Right at the top is undoubtedly the new album from artist of the moment Julia Holter. I was talking to another UFog artist from tonight, Part Timer, in Melbourne this weekend (as you do), and we were discussing how what we consider “pop” is probably what other people consider incredibly challenging music. Nevertheless, for all that her songs frequently change directions at odd times, her arrangements balance the off-the-wall with tributes to ’80s electro-pop and her voice is exquisite. I wasn’t that impressed with last year’s vinyl-only (and eventually digital) Tragedy, but this is compulsively listenable.

Sydney’s 4-4-2 Music remind us what a lovely album Karoshi put out last year. “Walking In Fields”, with its glitched-up female vox, was a highlight, and on the single Telafonica‘s Eliza composes a whole new lyric for their remix. This is a band at the height of their powers — you shouldn’t be ignoring what Telafonica have been doing the last few years…

As we’re doing the pop thing, I thought we needed to hear another of the tracks from Clark‘s new album featuring the wonderful Martina Topley Bird. It’s a corker of an album and her contributions are really great.

Sydney producer Dro Carey is getting hyped everywhere at the moment, and to be honest his first EPs impressed me but seemed a little overly hyperactive and lacking warmth. But his latest couple of releases seem like a big step forward, especially the free download Tussin Underwater. Post-Bass, post-r’n’b, music for the Tumblr generation.

Addison Groove (aka Headhunter when in his dubstep guise) strikes me as inhabiting a similar space – perhaps more danceable, quite hyper, with solid roots in dubstep — or at least, this is music that couldn’t have happened without dubstep. And it’s from one of the central labels in the history of dubstep, Pinch‘s Tectonic Recordings. They’re up to Volume 3 in the Tectonic Plates series, with a really nice snapshot of dubstep today, from the trad sounds of Pinch and Kryptic Minds to Addison Groove, and the amazing 10-minute dub techno from 2562.

Keeping it dark, but in a fairly different direction, we have Berlin legend Christoph de Babalon, whose 1997 album If You’re Into It, I’m Out Of It on Digital Hardcore Recordings remains a classic of the breakcore/dark ambient genres. It appears he has a new album coming on Tigerbeat6, and from the sounds of it, it’ll be brilliantly-produced, dark and broad-ranging. In 2008 he put out a vinyl-only epic called Scilla and Charybdis, and I discovered on his Bandcamp there’s an album of extra bits available as well.

Dark and dramatic, and back to the pop theme, is Austrian pianist/singer/songwriter Soap&Skin, who again on her new album dabbles with distorted electronic beats along with passionate piano & vocals numbers. Of the songs I still think “Spiracle” is her masterpiece, but from my as-yet brief listening there’s some great stuff on the new album too.

Northerner was one of the first artists on the lovely northern English Home Assembly Music label. Since the beginning, the label has released folktronic artists with bonus remix albums with early editions, and Melbourne’s Part Timer has always been there from the start. Hood-related acts like the wonderful Bracken and The Declining Winter are involved, and one of the best early albums was from one-time Declining Winter member Fieldhead, who also turns in a fine minimalist remix here. Northerner’s new album proper, however, finds him veering away from semi-ambient folkiness into something more upbeat and funky. At first it grated a little on me, but it’s undeniably pretty and melodic.

Speaking of pretty and melodic, the Kompakt label have been doing their Pop Ambient compilation series for some time, and it’s always worth a listen. From the 2012 edition we hear lovely ambient beats from Marsen Jules and blissful sequenced synths from techno maestro Superpitcher.

The latest Wire Magazine has one of their regular Wire Tapper compilations accompanying it, and as usual there are some great tracks (and some gratuitous ones). The psychedelic, krautrock-inspired Medicine And Duty caught my ear, and after Teho Teardo‘s new Music, Film. Music disc last week it’s great to hear an exclusive track from him.
The Teho Teardo disc featured Alexander Balanescu on violin, and over the week I pulled out my old CDs from The Balanescu Quartet. Back in 1992(!) they released a set of groundbreaking Kraftwerk covers that brought the sound of the string quartet to ears that wouldn’t have otherwise listened, and these faithful yet creative interpretations were an inspiration for my own band if noone else! Great to revisit these — and some of Balanescu’s originals were very fine too.

Finally, back with 4-4-2 Music, Telafonica member Lessons In Time has another EP of ramshackle indietronica, in which all recorded sounds are fodder for processing and shuffling, all with a great songwriting ear.

Dirty Projectors – Gun Has No Trigger [Domino] {stream from Soundcloud}
Julia Holter – Marienbad [RVNG]
Karoshi – Walking In Fields (Telafonica version) [4-4-2 Music]
Karoshi – Walking In Fields [4-4-2 Music]
Julia Holter – This Is Ekstasis [RVNG]
Clark – Open (feat. Martina Topley Bird) [Warp]
Dro Carey – Foes, Gallons n Fathoms [free download from his Tumblr]
Dro Carey – Someday [The Trilogy Tapes]
Addison Groove – Phantom [Tectonic]
Kryptic Minds – The Talisman [Tectonic]
Pinch – Blow Out The Candle [Tectonic]
Christoph de Babalon – Traumspiel [Tigerbeat6]
Christoph de Babalon – What You Call A Life [Digital Hardcore Recordings]
Christoph de Babalon – Scylla’s Night Out [Cross Fade Enter Tainment]
Christoph de Babalon – Hell’s Harps [Tigerbeat6]
Soap&Skin – Deathmental [SOLFO/PIAS]
Soap&Skin – Spiracle [SOLFO/PIAS]
Soap&Skin – DDMMYY [SOLFO/PIAS]
2562 – Rogue State [Tectonic]
Northerner – To Where? (Part Timer remix) [Home Assembly Music]
Northerner – Worry About The Government [Home Assembly Music]
Northerner – J C De M [Home Assembly Music]
Northerner – Fin (Bracken remix) [Home Assembly Music]
Northerner – Worry About The Government (Fieldhead remix) [Home Assembly Music]
Marsen Jules – Swans Reflecting Elephants [Kompakt]
Superpitcher – Jackson [Kompakt]
Medicine And Duty – Deep Sea Heat Haze [Foolproof Projects via Wire Magazine]
Teho Teardo – Dance The Sauris [Wire Magazine]
The Balanescu Quartet – Autobahn [Mute]
The Balanescu Quartet – Still With Me [Mute]
Lessons In Time – blunt and unreferenced [4-4-2 Music]

Listen again — ~ 154MB

Big interview with Greg Haines tonight, plus Teho Teardo, Margins, Clark and more.
LISTEN AGAIN (including Greg Haines, 1st hour!) as per usual via the link at the bottom, podcast or on demand streaming.

We started the show with some of the beautiful music on Greg Haines‘ new album for Sydney’s Preservation, and then I had a chat with Greg over Skype from Europe. He talked about not coming from an academic classical background, his composition process, working with (very talented) schoolkids and with various Berlin-based colleagues, playing live vs creating music for recordings, and lots more — plus we heard a goodly amount of his wonderful music, including his duo with Danny Saul, Liondialer.

From Greg we go east to another composer working with electronics and crossing genres, Italian Teho Teardo, with his new album Music, Film. Music. A few years ago I played on the show a rather brilliant collaboration with one of my favourite cellists, Erik Friedlander. Erik appears on this new album along with genre-leaping violinist Alexander Balanescu and, on one track, the voice of the one and only Blixa Bargeld. Being film music, the sounds here are somewhat tamed compared to the experimentalism of the Freidlander collaboration, but the combination of electronic elements and lush string arrangements is beautiful.

Another experimental artist “experimenting” with more approachable sounds for soundtrack work is Melbourne composer Anthony Pateras, who we recently saw in Sydney in an incendiary solo piano performance supporting Mike Patton’s Mondo Cane. His piano’s certainly prominent on these tracks, along with orchestral instruments and electronics. One track stands out with beats and noises, produced with Lachlan Carrick.

Sticking with Melbourne, we have the new album from postrockers (or instrumental rock band, anyway) Margins. I’ll be chatting with Brett from the band in a couple of weeks, and I’m really enjoying their new album, which sticks mostly to the guitar/bass/drums template, but isn’t afraid to explore sound, drop dub echoes in here and there, and even introduce some wordless female vocals on one standout track. They strike me as a bit of a Melbourne Founder, which is high praise!

In celebration of his very excellent new album, we had a bit of a feature on Warp‘s Chris Clark — once a young turk bringing his Aphex-influenced acid to a well-established label, and now a vanguard name on the label. He’s got the wonderful Martina Topley Bird singing on a few tracks, to great effect — it’s hard not to be reminded of the Bristol trip-hop of Tricky‘s debut album when one hears her voice, and there’s something of that flavour in the folktronic numbers which feature her, but one thing Clark has achieved over the last 6 or so years since Body Riddle is an absolutely idiosyncratic sound, for all its references to Boards of Canada and Autechre.
As well as some old favourites from that time period, we heard a couple of his remixes. The Milanese remix takes him into raging ragga jungle territory (and a subsequent remix of the same artist followed similar ground), while his version of Amon Tobin‘s “Kitchen Sink” takes the title literally in fine Clark style.

Finally this week also saw the release of a collaboration nobody saw coming, nor asked for. I’m surprised, really, at how lacklustre the Sufjan Stevens / Son Lux / Serengeti collaboration is. I loved the touches of autotune on Sufjan’s last album, but here it’s cloying and gratuitous; and after his autotuned appearance on the first track, Sufjan’s all but ununnoticeable on the rest of the EP. Highlight is definitely the Shara Worden-heavy “If This Is Real”, jazzy and extroverted. And so we finish with the equally extroverted Son Lux remix of Ms Worden’s My Brightest Diamond, and look forward to seeing her at Vivid Sydney in May.

Greg Haines – 183 Times [Preservation]
Greg Haines – Ernetti [Preservation]
…interview with Greg Haines…
Greg Haines – Azure [Preservation]
Greg Haines – Snow Airport [Miasmah]
Liondialer – Intro / Green Room 2 [White Box]
Teho Teardo – I’m Gonna Live Anyhow Until I Die [Spècula]
Teho Teardo – A Quiet Life (feat. Blixa Bargeld) [Spècula]
Erik Friedlander & Teho Teardo – to the red flag [Bip-Hop]
Erik Friedlander & Teho Teardo – warm leatherette [Bip-Hop]
Teho Teardo – Brake [Spècula]
Teho Teardo – Nemmeno Io [Spècula]
Anthony Pateras – At Least I Knew Who I Was Fucking [Editions Mego]
Anthony Pateras – XIJ [Editions Mego]
Margins – Cousteau [Casadeldisco Records]
Margins – Static Cleaner [Casadeldisco Records]
Margins – Cowboys [self-released]
Margins – Rabbit Head [Casadeldisco Records]
Founder – Cat Eat Machine [Understandation Records]
Clark – Secret (feat. Martina Topley Bird) [Warp]
Clark – Com Touch [Warp]
Clark – Herr Bar [Warp]
Milanese – Mr Bad News (Clark remix) [Planet µ]
Amon Tobin – Kitchen Sink (Clark remix) [Ninja Tune]
Clark – Truncation Horn [Warp]
Clark – Growls Garden [Warp]
Clark – The Pining Pt2 [Warp]
s / s / s – If This Is Real (feat. My Brightest Diamond) [anticon.]
My Brightest Diamond – Inside A Boy (Son Lux remix) [Asthmatic Kitty]

Listen again — ~ 158MB

I was lucky enough to catch 1 1/2 sets of The Necks at the Opera House tonight, and thus got in a bit late. Still, we fitted lots in, from a small number of artists!
LISTEN AGAIN via podcast or direct download (below) or stream on demand!

After the first few tracks, I had a chat with Maddy Boud from the Australian Chamber Orchestra about their ACO Underground gig that’s coming up in 2 weeks. Did I say “gig”? Yes, it’s at The Standard in Surry Hills, and features a collaboration with Jim Moginie of Midnight Oil and music from Radiohead and Nick Drake in amongst the classical pieces. Ace.

Much of tonight’s show was taken up with some specials on a few artists. First up, the wonderful Peter Broderick, whose new album is called http://www.itstartshear.com. Yes it is. That aside, it’s a wonderful overview of all his strengths, as a multi-instrumentalist and arranger, as a songwriter and singer, and indeed as a collaborator. He plays the vast majority of the instruments on the album, but has his friend Nils Frahm producing and playing various instruments, his sister Heather Woods Broderick on a few tracks, and various others.
We start with a lovely chamber piece with piano (duh) and lilting strings, but the album has indie rock (or at least indie folk) pop songs, tracks that recall his soundtrack work, and even one track where, briefly, he raps. Sort of.
It’s really a very special album.

From the archive of Peter Broderick collaborations, we heard from last year’s gorgeous, underrated and under-heard debut album from Dutch singer Laura Arkana “met Peter Broderick“. Peter arranges strings, piano and various other instruments under her delicate, personal songs, in perfect sympathy.
Later, we had a track from one of his amazing collaborations with Machinefabriek — his chamber arrangements meeting Rutger Zuydervelt’s sound design and drone — and his self-effacing and touching remix of Balmorhea.

Regular William Ryan Fritch aka Vieo Abiungo also gets a look-in tonight, because the bonus EP that was promised with his Kickstarter campaign arrived this weekend. Released under his own name and only available to funders of the campaign, it’s nevertheless his usual world folk beat mix, albeit a bit breezier than his usual (hinted at perhaps in a title like “joy in the filth”). We also heard a bonus track from last year’s album plus a sneak preview of the album that was part-funded by this Kickstarter.

Our next special of the evening is the songwriting and arranging genius of Daniel Rossen. Although his music might perhaps seem a bit straight indie pop for the likes of the ‘Fog, he’s come out of the exploratory indietronic world that birthed both his main band nowadays, Grizzly Bear, and his original college duo Department of Eagles, who amply demonstrate why I became obsessed with him in around 2004 or 2005 with a track that showcases his beautiful songwriting in amongst chaotic found samples and drill’n’bass beats.
These days, though, it’s his exquisite chord progressions, quiet-loud song structures and bittersweet vocals that set him apart, and it’s great to have new material, and solo material no less. To celebrate, we heard a couple of sublime cover versions: a touching and reverent Paul Simon cover, and an unrecognizable reworking of bubble-gum popster JoJo.

Back in Oz, we have another take from the forthcoming collaboration between Adelaide’s Jason Sweeney aka Panoptique Electrical and Richard Adams of Hood. I’ve asked Jason for some more info on this, as the preview songs so far are pretty amazing, as you’d expect from two veterans of indie experimentalism.

Last week we heard a couple of takes from a live recording of Alister Spence Trio from late last year. Tonight, a slightly longer take with his Fender Rhodes providing random jazz licks and then spooky sci-fi soundscapes over warm double bass and kitchen sink percussion.

The new album from Robert Henke aka Monolake takes a surprising turn into futuristic drum’n’bass. Some tracks are more minimalist in nature, and the whole thing has his usual impeccably-produced sound, but it’s rather interesting to hear these beats, whether at d’n’b tempo or somewhat slowed down. There’s some pretty heavy bass in there too. I’ll be listening over his back catalogue over the next week or two in preparation for a bit of a retrospective.

Meanwhile, Scuba also harkens back to d’n’b on one track from his new album, with some big breaks over half-pace sweeps and bass pulse. Very little of his new album is dubstep, instead going for a bright and shiny club sound. It’s a big shift from his earlier introspective dubstep, although 2010’s Triangulation moved towards more of a techno feel, and many of his 12″s have been far housier. I couldn’t resist playing some tracks from both other albums, landing with the last two tracks on his debut album, very atmospheric almost static dubstep.

Finally we have one track from the soon-to-be-released new Yppah album on Ninja Tune, featuring the dulcet tones of Anomie Belle, as with the recent single. The album as a whole has its fair share of Ninja-style instrumental hip-hop, Bibio-style folktronica, and large quantities of Ulrich Schnauss-style second-wave shoegaze. It’s grown on me a lot.

Peter Broderick – I Am Piano [Bella Union]
Laura Arkana met Peter Broderick – Huilen [Hush Records]
Peter Broderick – Asleep [Bella Union]
…Interview with Maddy Boud from Australian Chamber Orchestra…
William Ryan Fritch – tooth and claw [Lost Tribe Sound]
Vieo Abiungo – a praire song [Lost Tribe Sound]
Vieo Abiungo – rejoice in the blind coincidence [Lost Tribe Sound]
William Ryan Fritch – joy in the filth [Lost Tribe Sound]
Peter Broderick – With The Notes On Fire [Bella Union]
Peter Broderick & Machinefabriek – Planes [Fang Bomb]
Balmorhea – November 1, 1832 (Peter Broderick remix) [Western Vinyl/Longtime Listener]
Peter Broderick – Colin [Bella Union]
Daniel Rossen – Golden Mile [Warp]
Department of Eagles – The Horse You Ride [Isota Records/Melodic]
Daniel Rossen – Graceland [unreleased Paul Simon cover, from the internet…]
Daniel Rossen – Too Little Too Late [unreleased JoJo cover, from the internet…]
Daniel Rossen – Saint Nothing [Warp]
Panoptique Electrical – Cold Moments Melt (feat. Richard Adams of Hood) [Panoptique Electrical SoundCloud]
Alister Spence Trio – Set 1c, live at People’s Republic of Australasia [unreleased]
Monolake – The Existence Of Time [Imbalance Computer Music]
Monolake – Discontinuity [Imbalance Computer Music]
Scuba – Cognitive Dissonance [Hotflush]
Scuba – Dsy Chn [Hotflush]
Scuba – Tracers [Hotflush]
Scuba – From Within [Hotflush]
Scuba – Suck [Hotflush]
Yppah – Soon Enough feat. Anomie Belle [Ninja Tune]

Listen again — ~ 144MB

Interview tonight with Olli Aarni aka Nuojuva aka Ous Mal! Plus new future-jazz, mathematical drone, audio-visual work rudely stripped of its visual aspect, and more…
LISTEN AGAIN via the link at the bottom or the podcast, or stream at FBi On Demand.

Nuojuva is the new name for Finnish artist Olli Aarni, whose grainy sounds were previously released as Ous Mal. I talked to him live tonight about working with guests like Sophie Hutchings on piano and Rachel Evans of Motion Sickness of Time Travel on vocals. He suggested that his half-focused acoustic-meets-digital music feels like “pop” music to him — perhaps in the context of the very lively experimental music scene that Helsinki enjoys. Pop or not, the sounds are beautiful and highly listenable.

Also tonight we heard some exclusive (for now) mixes of a live set performed by Sydney’s Alister Spence Trio last year at the People’s Republic of Australasia. Featuring Spence on Fender Rhodes and piano, Lloyd Swanton on bass and Toby Hall on drums, the trio inhabit a similar space perhaps to other Sydney acts like 3ofmillions, Triosk and The Necks, but there’s a particular moodiness to Spence’s Fender Rhodes playing and the interplay between the artists that is quite special.

Scott Morrison has been active and well-known in the east coast music scene for a while, but it’s only recently that, as Room40 put it, his work has been documented. He’s resolutely an audio-visual artist, and the sounds are highly integrated with the video work. I was concerned that I would be doing his art a disservice by splitting the audio off from the visuals, but I felt the music was strong enough as it is, and asked Scott if it was alright to play it. Sensbily enough, he was fine with this :) – so we had one shortish pulsating track and then a longer track in which (literaly, I think) field recordings are slowly augmented with synthetic sounds. It’s very lovely, but you ought to go and experience the music along with the accompanying visuals if you can! Some examples can be seen at his website.

We again revisit Charles Hayward tonight, with another track from his superb new album, vocals no less incisive than in the post-punk days. Afterwards, the title track of the only album from his post-This Heat band Camberwell Now, with his clattering drums and their punkish noise, ending with gorgeous bells floating out of the chaos.

Runningonair Music is a label that likes to release music (of all genres) that specifically bases itself in some way on science/technology/mathematics. The latest release comes from academic Guy Birkin and is called Symmetry Breaking. Rigourously applying mathematical techniques to his sound sources, he nevertheless manages to bring a musicality to the results, which can sometimes be lacking in the more cerebral end of experimental music. It helps that I just tend to find the sound of granular synthesis inherently attractive!

Ecka Liena had a release on Runningonair a few months ago under his real name, Daniel Mackenzie. He appears again on the latest Futuresequence compilation, SEQUENCE3, with a piece of his usual, always-compelling drone/postrock. Remember, the huge Sequence comps are always free on Bandcamp!

The Atlas Room recently relocated from Sydney to Melbourne, and his is the first track from him in a while – a nice slab of dark techno. A young artist worth watching.

From Telafonica‘s latest remix EP (all free on Bandcamp!), Hinterlandt pops There’s Something About Your Face into 3/4 time and somehow reconfigures it all so it sounds quite natural.

Venetian Snares is of course well-known for his time signature misuse — most of his jungle/breakcore is in 7/8, hence his little boutique label being called TIMESIG. From his latest EP we had one track of not-drum’n’bass featuring his pitched-down vocals, and another pitting 20th-century classical samples against vocal samples chopped up to sound like drum’n’bass beats, among other madness.

To the US, just down south from VSnares’ native Canada, we have Chase Dobson’s c.db.sn, somewhat reminiscent of last week’s feature artist The Flashbulb, complete with piano-meets-drill’n’bass on the last track. It’s a surprisingly core-idm release from Tympanik Audio, and I approve.

Lastly, another preview track from the forthcoming Panoptique Electrical album, with encompassing ambient production from Jason Sweeney and soaring vocals from Richard Adams.

Nuojuva – Hämärään [Preservation]
Alister Spence Trio – Set 1b, live at People’s Republic of Australasia [unreleased]
Scott Morrison – Dear Stan [Room40]
Ous Mal – Marraskuu (Pimmon‘s Shallow Grave mix) [Preservation]
…interview with Olli Aarni…
Nuojuva – Laakso [Preservation]
Ous Mal – hämäränvietto [downloaded from here]
Alister Spence Trio – Set 2a, live at People’s Republic of Australasia [unreleased]
Charles Hayward – Swivel/Choose [CONTINUITY… Records/ReR Megacorp]
Camberwell Now – The Ghost Trade [Ink Records/reissued by ReR Megacorp]
Guy Birkin – Fourier-Gabor [Runningonair Music]
Guy Birkin – Gabor-Fourier [Runningonair Music]
Guy Birkin – Bass Drone 6c (Version 031) [Runningonair Music]
Ecka Liena – We Are Drowning Flight [Futuresequence]
Scott Morrison – And Like Stars It Exploded [Room40]
The Atlas Room – Projection I [demo]
Telafonica – There’s Something About Your Face (Hinterlandt remix) [4-4-2 Music]
Venetian Snares – Ego DSP [Timesig/Planet µ]
c.db.sn – …At The End Of It All [Tympanik Audio]
c.db.sn – As If December Never Happened [Tympanik Audio]
Venetian Snares – Fool The Detector [Timesig/Planet µ]
Panoptique Electrical – How The Sun Leaves (feat. Richard Adams of Hood) [Panoptique Electrical SoundCloud]

Listen again — ~ 153MB