A few special selections from a few legendary artists tonight, as well as new and forthcoming tunes…
You can LISTEN AGAIN as per usual via FBi’s On Demand streaming or link at bottom or podcast.

Started with something new from the legendary Charles Hayward. Ever since his seminal post-punk(?)/prog/improv/experimental band This Heat recorded their Peel Sessions and created their bizarre noises in their Cold Storage studios, his music has had a huge impact. His live drum’n’bass drumming (long before there was such a thing as drum’n’bass), restless invention and the cheeky, surreal political edge haven’t dampened over the years at all — good to see. Got a pretty great reaction from these tracks, including the incredibly out-of-its-time “24 Track Loop” — they were doing this in 1979?!

In between we heard a pretty amazing track from Swiss improv noise trio dQtç. I was contacted by them as they’re hoping to tour Australia later in the year, which should be unmissable! Stay locked to the ‘Fog and I’ll let you know. Their music incorporates healthy swathes of electronics, with almost-beats, glitched vocals and heavy bass. A very welcome sound!

Steinvord, the latest signing to Aphex & co’s Rephlex Records, takes us via his monophonic, lo-fi idm (or “braindance” as Rephlex like to have it) into a bit of special on Mr Twin, who played a stunning set on Friday night at the Enmore Theatre. With a brilliant light show and video, he took us on a tour of many familiar Aphex genres, albeit with only tiny hints of actual familiar songs. So I thought we might as well hear a few familiar, well-loved Aphex tracks tonight. Missed anything from the Selected Ambient Works albums, but we covered a number of my top faves.

Then we dived straight into another special, on the very fine Benn Jordan aka The Flashbulb. Given we finished with a gorgeous solo piano number from Aphex Twin, it was worth highlighting Jordan’s talents on the ivories (although often an electric piano of some sorts), as well as his work with strings and other acoustic instruments. He can go from charming impressionist piano compositions to impressive drill’n’bass workouts within one track, digital processing to the fore and then gypsy violin with acoustic guitar. “Hometown UFO” is pure melodic electronica, with breakneck beats and an absolutely gorgeous melody.

Keeping the beats frenetic (and pretty) for one more track comes Yppah, on the Ninja Tune label, with female vocals and folktronic prettiness battling with chunky beats. Very nice.

The beats are surprisingly agile and central to the music of Cock and Swan, too. Hailing from the Pacific Northwest, my favourite part of the US, they make very organic-sounding electronic music, or quite electronic-influenced postrock, but whatever it is, it’s like a clattering, down-home version of Broadcast, and their forthcoming album on Lost Tribe Sound is full of wonderful and catchy melodies and rhythms. You’ll be needing to pick this up when it comes out.

Our most familiar artist on Lost Tribe Sound is perhaps Vieo Abiungo, aka William Ryan Fritch. His forthcoming album will feature a DVD of the music with video works by Pete Monro, and was partially funded by a Kickstarter campaign. It contains many of the familiar mournful world-musicky strings and percussion of his earlier works, but shows him moving in some other interesting directions — for want of a better word, some more focused pieces, with more lively and varied melodies and sometimes more foregrounded rhythms. The two tracks I played tonight are particular gems.
We also heard an unreleased Part Timer remix of the first single from the album, and Cock and Swan remixing him from last year, creating the perfect amalgam of the two artists — a remarkably unusual result from a remix.

Remixes and collaborations are the order of the day, in fact. Adelaide’s Jason Sweeney has covered some incredible ground in the last couple of decades, from jangly indie guitars to perfect crunchy cassette-warped idm to glitchy indietronica to shoegaze to indiepop to ambient drone. And with his latest solo project Panoptique Electrical, previously home of drone and post-classical soundtracks, he’s now joined by Richard Adams from my favourite genre-destroyers Hood, the samples from which, so far, are superb. It should be shoegazey processed indie heaven.
Back in 2004 he released an EP as Other People’s Children (was it a duo for this release?) on the legendary 555 Records, whose Bandcamp is now housing digital re-releases of some of the rare vinyl, and this one’s a doozy. Go grab it for some eloquent and affecting Aussie indietronica.

This week also sees the release of the latest in Telafonica’s remix EPs. This time it’s “There’s Something About Your Face”, and the first remix was contributed by yours truly, replacing everything except some vocals with layered cello. Hinterlandt contributes an excellent re-imagining in a different time signature, while Clan Analogue stalwart Genlevel grabs a lovely portion of the backing vocals and crafts a deep techno track from them. Free from Bandcamp!

Earlier, we heard the lovely Leah Kardos with an exclusive remix for the latest epic compilation from Futuresequence, as usual a free download from Bandcamp. It’s a little more ambient than the earlier installations, it seems to me, and at least while trying to get some work done on the weekend (o woe!), I found the earlier part of it a bit harder to focus on. But there are also the usual absolute revelations, of which UK duo Sonnamble are the top scorers, with violin and detailed glitchy processing improvised live.

And finally, some unreleased (I think) pieces from two artists performing at Dirty Shirlows on Friday: the psychedelic experimental almost-pop of Domeyko/Gonzalez, and the post-industrial beats of one of Sydney’s longest-lived bands, Scattered Order.

Charles Hayward – Fifth of November [CONTINUITY… Records/ReR Megacorp]
dQtç – dçtQd [Get A Life Records]
This Heat – 24 Track Loop [ReR Megacorp“>ReR Megacorp]
Charles Hayward – Inconclu [CONTINUITY… Records/ReR Megacorp]
Steinvord – Cyg X-1 [Rephlex]
Steinvord – Backyard [Rephlex]
Aphex Twin – Alberto Balsalm [Warp]
Aphex Twin – Milk Man [Warp]
Aphex Twin – IZ-US [Warp]
Aphex Twin – avril 14th [Warp]
The Flashbulb – The Trees in Juarez [Alphabasic]
The Flashbulb – Wake Up Gladiator [Alphabasic]
The Flashbulb – Love As A Dark Hallway [Alphabasic]
The Flashbulb – kirlian isles iii [Sublight Records]
The Flashbulb – your new human [Accelmuzhik]
The Flashbulb – air nad adrian [Accelmuzhik]
The Flashbulb – passage d [Sublight Records]
The Flashbulb – Hometown UFO [Sublight Records]
The Flashbulb – Precisely Wrong [Alphabasic]
Yppah – Film Burn feat. Anomie Belle [Ninja Tune]
Cock and Swan – Sneak Close [Lost Tribe Sound]
Leah Kardos – DFACE Alt Mix [Futuresequence]
Cock and Swan – Stash [Lost Tribe Sound]
vieo abiungo – while the others sleep (cock and swan – etherise remix) [Lost Tribe Sound]
vieo abiungo – rejoice the blind coincidence [Lost Tribe Sound]
Cock and Swan – Unrecognized [Lost Tribe Sound]
Vieo Abiungo – Why Dogs Mimic Sirens (Part Timer remix) [unreleased]
Panoptique Electrical – Put hope in future days (feat. Richard Adams of Hood) [Panoptique Electrical SoundCloud]
Other People’s Children – Summer leaves autumn [555 Records]
Telafonica – There’s Something About Your Face (Genlevel remix) [4-4-2 Music/available from Bandcamp]
Sonnamble – Vespers [Futuresequence]
Domeyko/Gonzalez – Sunshower [unreleased?]
Scattered Order – Full Metal Rubic [unreleased]

Listen again — ~ 160MB

I’m filling in for Stu Buchanan on New Weird Australia tonight! 2 hours of new weird Australian music for yas!
LISTEN AGAIN via FBi On Demand. I didn’t have time to make the podcast mp3, so you’ll have to stream it m’kay?

Telafonica – There’s Something About Your Face (Hinterlandt Version) [4-4-2music]
The Atlas Room – Projection I [demo]
Hydatid – That Breakthrough Moment [download through last.fm]
Pretty Boy Crossover – lines half spoken [Surgery]
Panoptique Electrical – How The Sun Leaves (feat. Richard Adams of Hood) [Panoptique Electrical SoundCloud]
Other People’s Children – Sun and eucalyptus [555 Records]
Vieo Abiungo – Why Dogs Mimic Sirens (Part Timer remix) [unreleased]
Oren Ambarchi – Knots [Touch]
Founder – Vaster [Understandation Records]
I’lls’ – To Not Second Guess Oneself [available from Bandcamp]
Snowman – A [Dot Dash]
Constant Light – I/O [available from their Bandcamp]
Mannheim Rocket – Oppersdorff [Uncomfortable Beats]

Rap, dubstep, jazzy electronica, experimental, indie and folk. What does it all mean? Just Good Music!
LISTEN AGAIN via On Demand streaming, or you can grab the podcast or click the link below (but not they’re in mono, unlike streaming).

Busdriver has a new album out, and about time! Entirely produced by Belgian producer Loden, it’s lushly melodic, and sees Busdriver mostly singing, albeit still in surrealist phrases and often rapid-fire. More rap-oriented is the bonus 7″, a sarcastic song with additional help from equally obtuse alt-rapper Aesop Rock.

Awesome Japanese dubstepper Goth-Trad is up next, with the first and last tracks from his excellent new album. In the middle I played the insane “Law” from a couple of years back, with a hyperactive bassline, computer game arpeggios and crazy drum fills.

Most of the new SkyRider is way too much in the ratchety wubwub style of US dubstep, which is a shame since he’s better than that. I do like “Empty Houses” though, with its drops into dub reggae and a great female vocal sample.

Back with last week’s find of Michel Banabila, we have takes from the three recent releases I featured then. See that playlist for more info — brilliant electronic-tinged jazz and experimental ambient sounds.

I was inspired by Banabila to dig out Peter Knight’s solo album from last year, and we heard some of his very beguiling minimal jazz composition — prepared piano and electronics under his soft trumpet.

Last week’s centrepiece was from Oren Ambarchi’s new album, and tonight we have the two following tracks, which are also things of beauty. His cover of Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley is rich with doubled acoustic guitar, fingers on wine glasses and wordless vocals.

Italian percussionist Andrea Belfi features again from his ROOM40 album, with loose percussion grooves and abstract electronics, as well as a piece from where I first heard him, in collaboration with Machinefabriek.
And Machinefabriek also has a new 7″ out any minute, on new label Vintermusik (click the link for more details). It’s a brief but gorgeous piece of layered vocal samples.

After The Books’ Nick Zammuto started releasing demos of tracks from his new solo/band project last year, I pulled out his incredible 3CDR set Solutiore of Stareau from 1999, but it wasn’t until now that I listened through it properly. The first two discs are relatively abstract sets of rhythmic guitar patterns and heavily scratched vinyl crackles, but the third (later re-released as Willscher) combines these two modes into some more song-shaped forms, leaning sometimes towards the idm that he was listening to at the time.
Pretty awesome, but even moreso is the demo of “Harlequin“, which I hope ends up on the new Zammuto album.

I’m really not sure that any of the tracks from Sufjan Stevens’ Age of Adz needed remixing, but Shigeto decided to take on the opening track “Futile Devices”, and he makes it more electronic and beat-oriented without obscuring the beauty and delicatness of the original, so props to him.

A few years ago I got an EP on the beloved Static Caravan from a new artist called Beth Jeans Houghton & the Hooves of Destiny. Houghton is a precocious young artist who draws from English folk and other roots musics, and the EP was a real delight. She’s since made a name for herself with an outlandish stage act and a well-crafted image, and her debut album has now landed from the mighty Mute. There’s a bit of an overblown quasi-classical orchestral thing going on, and it’s a little less delicate and straightforward than the earlier EP, but she’s certainly a great songwriter, and the arrangements are strong. I’ve only given it one listen so far, and I’m looking forward to getting to know it better.

And finally, I’d meant to run through a few of the perfect lo-fi pop ditties of Chris Weisman, but ended up running out of time. One take from his latest album, and next week there’ll be lots more!

Busdriver – Feelings [Fake Four Inc.]
Busdriver – Superhand’s Mantra (Fuck Us All) feat. Aesop Rock [Fake Four Inc.]
Busdriver – Here’s to Us [Fake Four Inc.]
Goth-Trad – Man in the Maze [P-Vine/Deep Medi]
Goth-Trad – Law [Deep Medi]
Goth-Trad – New Epoch [P-Vine/Deep Medi]
SkyRider – Empty Houses [SkyRider Bandcamp]
Michel Banabila and Mete Erker – Terra Incognita [Tapu Records]
Michel Banabila – Monochrome Pictures [Audio Tong]
Michel Banabila – MitVz4 [available from Bandcamp]
Peter Knight – Unknowness 1 [listen/hear collective]
Oren Ambarchi – Passage [Touch]
Oren Ambarchi – Fractured Mirror [Touch]
Andrea Belfi – Poaofbp [ROOM40]
Andrea Belfi & Machinefabriek – Pulses & Places 4 [brombron]
Andrea Belfi – D [ROOM40]
Machinefabriek – Ontrafelde tonen 2 [Vintermusik]
Zammuto – mbast goodanswerremix [self-released/re-released by Apartment B]
Zammuto – Harlequin (working version) [demo, released then removed from his Soundcloud] {available if you google it}
Zammuto – swap(a,b); [self-released/re-released by Apartment B]
Sufjan Stevens – Futile Devices (Shigeto remix) [free download from Stereogum]
Beth Jeans Houghton & the Hooves of Destiny – Nightswimmer [Mute]
Beth Jeans Houghton & the Hooves of Destiny – Lilyputt [Static Caravan]
Beth Jeans Houghton & the Hooves of Destiny – Atlas [Mute]
Beth Jeans Houghton & the Hooves of Destiny – Cruel Francis [Static Caravan]
Chris Weisman – music on a tape [Autumn Records]

Listen again — ~ 155MB

Many wonderful sounds tonight, post-jazz, postrock, post-drone (OK doubt there’s such a thing)… soundtracking your late night Sydney storm. Lovely!
So you’ll be wanting to LISTEN AGAIN, right? Do the On Demand streaming thing, or if you want to be offline, there’s the podcast or direct link at the bottom.

The CD of From the Mouth of the Sun has finally arrived — Aaron Martin and Jasper TX in collaboration — and looking back to when I got the mp3s, it seems this track was the highlight then too! I’ll have to play something else from this lovely album in the next week or two.

I received some promo this week from Dutch jazz/electronic artist Michel Banabila, including an excellent duo album with saxophonist/clarinettist Mete Erker, which is a combo of jazz and experimental electronic (I vaguely categorise this stuff as post-jazz), along with a solo album which is much more on the experimental electronic tip. I love hearing jazz musicians working in the electronic/noise/ambient/beats realms, and Banabila does it wonderfully. Some of his solo stuff (see later in the show) has quite a Brian Eno influence, and on his Bandcamp you can find a (highly recommended) album of spoken samples from radio cut-up and pitch-shifted with electronics, which surely owes a lot to David Byrne & Brian Eno’s classic My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. Really great stuff all round.

Melbourne’s Sam Price has started putting up new solo tracks (as well as some from his duo Peon) on his SoundCloud, and they’re as impressively varied as ever, from abstruse pure electronic music to ambient beats and percussion works. Definitely worth checking out.

Back in 2008, German techno artist Shed put out an album that was in the main a bit too 4/4 for my tastes, but featured the incredible deep dubby track “Estrange”. That one track has enough cachet with me that I took note when I heard he had a new EP. Tonight’s cut is a long techno track that gradually becomes more idm-like, with nice crunchy sounds and a submerged melody in the mix. Bodes well for the new album.

Also on a somewhat techno tip is the amazing Objekt, also from Berlin. His first EP blew me away last year, as did his Radiohead remix later in the year. The new EP has more repetitive robotic beats, with his precise ear for strange, angular drop-outs and cuts. It’s not glitch, but it seems like his form of pounding electronic funk couldn’t exist without the glitch.

A taste of things to come later in the show, one of the highlights from the Tyme. x Tujiko album which sees Tujiko Noriko working with Japanese electronic producer Tyme.. She’s a fantastic producer herself (as we hear later on), but loves collaborations as well, as it’s nice to find her back on (Editions) Mego, who without the “editions” started her off over 10 years ago. The new album is as poppy and straightforward as she gets, which is hardly mainstream of course…

Even further off the beaten path is John Wiese, whose music is usually at the far end of piercing noise. Those high-pitched are still present but toned down on his latest album, which sees sine waves pitted against mysterious acoustic sounds, quiet but distinctly disquieting. I’ll play a longer track on a later show.

And finally we get to tonight’s epic performance — all 33 minutes of Oren Ambarchi’s “Knots”, from his latest album Audience of One. I could do without the first (vocal) track, but this one is incredible: Joe Talia’s driving cybmal rhythms and drumkit throughout, Oren’s guitar and the other instruments coming in waves over the rest, and for the last 5+ minutes, crushing guitar destruction. Pretty much perfect.

An equal highlight for this week comes from a sort of supergroup, Infinite Light Ltd. — made up of Aidan Baker, Nathan Amundson (Rivulets) and Mat Sweet (Boduf Songs). As you might expect, it’s minimal folk/roots, drone, postrock and even bits of glitch… and it’s pretty spectacular. Hope it’s not just a one-off. And Denovali are doing brilliant work lately.

In between Infinite Light Ltd tracks we heard a lovely piece of postrock from the new Founder album. The beloved Sydney band are launching this album on Friday at the Petersham Bowling Club.
It should be an awesome gig, but I feel obliged to point out that there’s competition on that night, from none other than myself playing cello with Greg and Matt from Underlapper, as Haunts — along with Making, Thomas William vs Scissor Lock and Simo Soo, at Dirty Shirlows. Both gigs should be awesome — how stressful!

So, in celebration of her new album on Editions Mego, I thought it was worth scanning through the back catalogue of Tujiko Noriko. Naturally there was way more that I wanted to play than I could fit it, and we might have a couple more flashbacks next week. If I’m not always 100% taken in by every song, or by the timbre of her voice, there are still always a good few brilliant tracks on every release. She’s an adventurous producer herself, using glitchy samples and crunchy beats in weird and wonderful ways, and chooses well in her frequent collaborations. We went back to the beginning, then through her album for Tomlab (a definite highlight) and collaborations including our own Lawrence English | John Chantler with two albums on their Room40 label. This trip down memory lane has cemented her importance in my mind, and I hear her influence a lot in more recent Japanese music in particular.

We then headed back to the wonderful Banabila and Erker, and then heard one piece of ridiculously great hard rock from Making, followed by another new Founder track, and then a couple of lovely oldies, from more than 10 years ago! Ah, time how she flies.

From the Mouth of the Sun – Color Loss [Experimedia]
Michel Banabila and Mete Erker – Read My Lips (Route Plannet Mix) [Tapu Records]
Sam Price – Refinery [download from SoundCloud]
Shed – Estrange [Ostgut Tonträger]
Shed – RQ-170 [50 Weapons]
Objekt – Porcupine [Hessle Audio]
Tyme. x Tujiko – ten to sen [Editions Mego]
John Wiese – The New Dark Ages [Pan]
Oren Ambarchi – Knots [Touch]
Infinite Light Ltd. – December 12 [Denovali]
Founder – Patches (I’m depending on you son) [Understandation Records]
Infinite Light Ltd. – All Blues [Denovali]
Infinite Light Ltd. – (hidden track) [Denovali]
Tujiko Noriko – Bebe [Editions Mego]
Tujiko Noriko – Narita Made [Tomlab]
Tujiko Noriko – Tablet for Memory [Room40]
AOKI Takamasa + Tujiko Noriko – fly2 [Fat Cat]
Tujiko Noriko | Lawrence English | John Chantler – Ising [Room40]
Tyme. x Tujiko – vacation of god [Editions Mego]
Michel Banabila and Mete Erker – Skyscrapers [Tapu Records]
Michel Banabila – In Other Words [available from Bandcamp]
Michel Banabila – I Wont Play Your Game [Audio Tong]
making – Earth (Tundra) [available from Bandcamp]
Founder – Castro [Understandation Records]
Founder – Happy Cycling [available from their Bandcamp]
Founder – beckon of cowes (soul juice version) [Heavy]

Listen again — ~ 167MB