Evening! I have “moving house” head tonight, so wish me luck! Great interview though with the lovely boys from ollo…
Meanwhile, LISTEN AGAIN via the link at the bottom or the podcast feed.

OK folks, seems like the write-up gets your attention, right? Better get down to it!
Peter Knight & Dung Nguyen’s astounding album Residual was featured on last week’s show, and despite being firmly rooted in Vietnamese music, every track manages to be sincerely different. This one pulses and eventually phases in a Steve Reich fashion, and is rather beautiful.

The Book of Knots is something of a supergroup, and features one of my favourite musicians, Carla Kihlstedt on violin and vocals, along with frequent partner Matthias Bossi (both of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Tony Maimone of the legendary Pere Ubu and prolific producer Joel Hamilton. It’s a mix of rock, Americana and experimental audio, and the latest album completes a trilogy of sea, land and air, over which many other leading lights of rock’s fringes have joined them.
Tonight we start with an amazing contribution from Blixa Bargeld, and at the end the Minutemen’s Mike Watt, both semi-narrating, semi-singing. Crazy and brilliant.

A total surprise is the new single from The Haxan Cloak. I hadn’t paid a lot of attention to their album, although I should — but this is acknowledged as something quite different… Some sort of arcane English folk techno.

And then we got Lars & Alex, the wonderful Sydney duo ollo, in to chat about their work at Underbelly Arts 2011, this year being held on Cockatoo Island. We heard an old favourite of theirs plus two very exciting exclusive new tracks which form part of the EG1/EXT project, drawing together a deliberately limited pallette of classic synthesisers with an examination of the working class’s position at times of industrial decline.

Next up, the incredible return to form from 1990s US idm legends Phoenecia. Recalling the more experimental work of Autechre, it’s nonetheless rather affecting at times, and has a compelling rhythmic impetus.

And rhythm is where we go next. Still caning the new kangding ray album, and “Mojave” is a highlight of irresistble maxi-minimal beats and bass.
Silkie’s City Limits Vol. 1 was 2009’s dubstep album of the year without a doubt for me, and I can’t see this year’s Vol. 2 being eclipsed either, at least for straight-up head-nodding dubstep. Silkie has an incredible talent for jazzy chords and melody that makes him a cut above your run-of-the-mill dancefloor stuff, and his tracks work as dance music but stay on the right side of too repetitive — often they’re surprisingly through-composed.

I felt that the Bersarin Quartett I played last week deserved some more plays, even though it’s a couple of years old. It’s a beautiful concoction of post-classical arrangements and ambient electronica with occasional beats. To me it’s very German.

German ambient and indeed post-classical artist Field Rotation seems to be popping up all over the place at the moment, and contributes a lovely track to the Japan earthquake relief comp Kanshin that we heard from last week.
But the Orla Wren with Katie English is rather gorgeous in its subtle way. English, also known as Isnaj Dui, contributes tasteful flute to Orla Wren’s electronic and acoustic textures.

After a couple of repeat artists we find ourselves back in Australia with recovering psy-trance artist Sunsaria, whose Australien album is rather lovely ambient dub on the whole. And Desiseq, also from Melbourne, writes the updated idm of our age – glitch-hop and semi-drill’n’bass type stuff, good fun.
We heard another lovely tune from Tim Fitz, who combines his piano-pop stylings with mangled beats in a charming home-recording fashion. I was sad to miss him at The Gate Presents at Pablo & Rusty’s in Epping a couple of weeks ago.

Suddenly, before we heard the Mike Watt contribution from the new Book of Knots, we descend into the murky hell of Tasmania’s Machines of Indeterminate Origin, who fairly accurately tag their music as Metal. It’s stripped down and raw, instrumental, and a bit more Slint-style post-punk than Metallica, but let’s call it metal and enjoy it for what it is.

Peter Knight & Dung Nguyen – Phase Pedal [Parenthèses Records]
The Book of Knots – Drosophila Melanogaster (feat. Blixa Bargeld) [Ipecac]
The Haxan Cloak – Hounfour [Aurora Borealis]
ollo – trouble is [Groovescooter]
…interview with Alex & Lars from ollo, talking about their EX1/EXT project, part of Underbelly Arts 2011 at Cockatoo Island…
ollo – Harpoon [demo]
…more interview with ollo…
ollo – Transistor Resistor [demo]
Phoenecia – IV Port [Schematic]
kangding ray – Mojave [raster-noton]
Silkie – Selva Nova [Deep Medi]
Silkie – Feel (feat. Truth) [Deep Medi]
Silkie – Beauty [Deep Medi]
Silkie – Taxi Mi Get [Deep Medi]
Bersarin Quartett – Die Dinge sind nie so wie sie sind [Lidar]
Field Rotation – A Pondering Silence [Fluid Audio] {from very worthy Japan fundraiser comp Kanshin}
Orla Wren with Katie English – Swallowtail Yellow [Fluid Audio] {from very worthy Japan fundraiser comp Kanshin}
Bersarin Quartett – St. Petersburg [Lidar]
The Haxan Cloak – Observatory [Aurora Borealis]
Sunsaria – Deep Space Blues [Tempest]
Desiseq – DeQuanta [Hopskotch]
Tim Fitz – Hopelessman [available from Bandcamp]
Machines of Indeterminate Origin – Nurse !? [Sonoptik]
The Book of Knots – Yeager’s Approach (feat. Mike Watt) [Ipecac]

Listen again — ~ 220MB

Cross-posted from my Raven blog:
Angela & I are becoming first home owners this week(ish), and in celebration and amongst the madness of moving (boxes everywhere, last-minute delays, culling of vinyl and even *gasp* CDs), I’ve compiled a special DJ mix for the occasion.

I love making radio and I love being creative, so DJ mixes are a natural for me. The last one I did was freeform in terms of theme, and I tried to give it a great flow despite great diversity.

There’s certainly a lot of diversity here too. I’ve taken the theme of Home literally — it’s 20(ish) tracks, every one of which has the word “Home” in its title. Other than starting with “Leaving Home” and ending with “Coming Home to the Sun”, the flow is purely music-driven. I’ve allowed a lot of the songs to go pretty long, because it’s meant to be a bit of a journey and it’s entirely self-indulgent. Full tracklisting below.

Download it here:
Home – journey by DJ mix [53:50 / 92.4MB]

[00:00] The Chemical Brothers – Leave Home
[01:45] Blitter vs Hrvatski – Nuclear Cats Get New Home
[03:50] Colin Stetson – Home
[06:08] Various Production – Home / Various Production – Home (edit)
[09:51] Pop Will Eat Itself – Home
[13:15] Hood – Home Is Where It Hurts
[16:59] Clint Mansell – We’re Going Home
[18:28] Depeche Mode – Home (Jedi Knights Drowning In Time Remix)
[19:50] The Flashbulb – Hometown UFO
[22:48] David McComb & Adam Peters – Don’t Go Home With Your Hard-on
[26:08] Broadcast – Message From Home
[28:00] Savath + Savalas – Journey’s Homes
[29:22] John Fahey – Poor Boy Long Ways From Home
[31:40] Shearwater – Home Life
[35:58] The Twilight Sad – That Summer, At Home I Had Become The Invisible Boy
[39:45] Peter Broderick – Not At Home
[42:23] b.fleischmann – A Letter From Home
[43:28] Block Party – Where Is Home? (Burial Remix)
[45:27] Arthur Russell – Home Away From Home
[46:07] David Holmes – Coming Home To The Sun
(with thanks to Leonard Cohen & Phil Spector for bonus bit)

Here’s a slightly ugly way of playing in page via Mixcloud, because Soundcloud are waaaay too assiduous about pursuing copyright:

(see above for download link!)

Quite a trip tonight, from Vietnam via Melbourne through the USA, Germany, Norway, Japan, the Netherlands and the UK…
LISTEN AGAIN via the link at the bottom or the playlist…

Peter Knight & Dung Nguyen are both accomplished jazz musicians and members of Way Out West. Their new album explores Vietnamese musical traditions, through an Australian jazz and experimental lens. There’s some great live processing going on along with great instrumentalism.

The new Dakota Suite is, I believe, his best yet, taking his post-classical piano sounds in a quite jazzy territory, with brushed drumkit and double bass, but to start the show I’m most excited by the contributions from long-established (non-classical) cellist David Darling, whose pizzicato strummings are all over the first few tracks on this album.
Before hearing a cello-less track from the album, with either organ or computer processing, we had a gorgeous remix by Peter Broderick from 2009’s remix album the night just keeps coming in.

More minimal piano and electronics next, from the extremely fruitful collaboration of alva noto + ryuichi sakamoto. Last week I played tracks from their new album; tonight’s is from their very first, from 2005.
And I can’t help following with another raster-noton release, the amazing Or from kangding ray, one of the albums of the year… Minimal electronic beats and surging noise…
Also can’t help following with emptyset, more of the same but with the sinewave noise dialed up to 11…

The new Amon Tobin was a bit of a disappointment — lots of complex sound design but little in the way of compelling composition, and beats that go nowhere, fast. So it’s nice to hear a few remixes bringing things back down to earth. Here 16 Bit takes us into heavy wonky dubstep territory.
And back in Australia, Melbourne’s Desiseq loves his gltich-hop and also loves the wob-wob-wob basslines of dubstep.

More glitch-hop from London’s MusSck, who’s created a short soundtrack to a piece of manga artwork, available from Bandcamp with an accompanying hi-res PDF. Nice!

Some of us would remember Phoenecia and their Schematic label from way back 10-15 years ago as fairly prominent proponents of the US arm of the IDM world. It seems to me their latest album is not even just a return to form — it’s their best work yet. Somehow combining the characteristic sound of the bodhran, a Celtic drum played between the legs like a cross between the cajón of flamenco and the Indian tabla, with electronic processing and some tenuous melodies works very well.

Ex-psy-trance artist Sunsaria has some nice glitchy samples and dub-influenced beats on his new album Australien.
And sticking in Melbourne, we have our first taking from yet another (fantastic) Japan relief compilation, Kanshin. Focusing on drone and post-classical sounds, this one contributes directly to the relief effort via JEARS, a charity that Ian Hawgood‘s wife is working for. First cab off the rank is Melbourne’s Part Timer (John McCaffrey) in his Scissors and Sellotape guise, an amazing track of piano samples, crackle, and indistinct vocal sounds.

An act who were recommended to me by John McCaffrey are up next, from an album that’s a few years old, the self-titled release by Bersarin Quartett. Electronic beats, drones, and orchestral sounds meld into something spectacular.

Aaron Martin‘s acoustic instruments have been tampered with by Machinefabriek previously, creating huge cello drones, but for this track on the Kanshin comp it’s a very different affair, more folktronic than drone. More please!

From Japan but based in Berlin, on US label Overlap is Midori Hirano, whose new EP is beautiful rhythmic glitch well worth checking out.

And back with Japan compilations, this time For Nihon, we heard Norwegian electronic minimalist Biosphere, with lovely pulsating synths. Meanwhile, back with Kanshin, Library Tapes gives us a mournful vignette of piano and strings.

UK-based Czech singer Emika has been remixed by some of dubstep’s finest on her singles for Ninja Tune, so it’s nice to hear her turning the tables with Amon Tobin. I’m not sure how much of the original work is in here, but it’s a beautiful piece anyway.

It’s been a few weeks or more since I last played The Magic I.D., which is a shame. Their new album is quite incredible – two clarinettists, plus Christof Kurzmann on vocals and electronics, and Margareth Kammerer on vocals and guitar, leading to very experimental, quietly creepy arrangements with inspired songwriting. I strongly approve.

Returning from last week to the new Brian Eno, this time we hear him setting the words of Rick Holland to arcane-sounding bell tones and his own voice. I can’t help thinking if Jhonn Balance were still alive, the track would be utterly perfect with his vocal, but Eno does a pretty nice job himself.

I played this next David Sylvian track a couple of weeks ago, but it’s my favourite from the altogether brilliant new album, so it deserved a second spin — Dai Fujikura‘s string arrangements, a line-up of top British & European improv artists, and Sylvian’s vocals & electronics. Fabulous.

There’s a new album from JG Thirlwell out under his Manorexia moniker — so it’s quasi-classical and drone stuff. To give you an idea of his illustrious history, a short sharp industrial shock from 1988 as Foetus Interruptus, and a histrionic piece of industrial grind-pop from last year’s Foetus album Hide.

The weird Eastern Europeanisms of the Foetus track lead us back to Peter Knight & Dung Nguyen — an odd statement given this is Vietnamese-inspired music, and yet this track, with its lopsided time signature and augmented harmonies, sounds almost Eastern European to me.

And finally, one of those things I love — an artist I don’t know at all, Golden Gardens, being remixed by an artist I know and love, Cex. Looks like I’ll need to be checking out Golden Gardens in fact, but this track is pure Cex electro. Nod your head.

Peter Knight & Dung Nguyen – Autumn Music [Parenthèses Records]
dakota suite – easy steps / cataluña (feat. David Darling) [karaoke kalk]
dakota suite – this failing sea (peter broderick remix) [karaoke kalk]
dakota suite – eskimo nebula [karaoke kalk]
alva noto + ryuichi sakamoto – aurora [raster-noton]
kangding ray – La Belle [raster-noton]
emptyset – monad [Subtext/Multiverse]
Amon Tobin – Surge (16 Bit mix) [Ninja Tune]
Desiseq – When Acting as a Squarewave [Hopskotch]
Desiseq – Beatnik [Hopskotch]
MusSck – Shinen No Kaibutsu (to the manga work of Hiiragi Hitsuji) [from Onibaba Bandcamp]
Phoenecia – Two-Part Invention For Bodhran & Computer [Schematic]
Sunsaria – 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Minute [Tempest]
Scissors and Sellotape – Heal [Fluid Audio] {from very worthy Japan fundraiser comp Kanshin}
Bersarin Quartett – Mehr als alles andere [Lidar]
Aaron Martin & Machinefabriek – Utsutsu [Fluid Audio] {from very worthy Japan fundraiser comp Kanshin}
Midori Hirano – Saiboh [Overlap]
Biosphere – Inner Ohm [Unseen Music] {from Japan fundraised For Nihon}
Library Tapes – May (Variation) [Fluid Audio] {from very worthy Japan fundraiser comp Kanshin}
Amon Tobin – Surge (Emika Version) [Ninja Tune]
The Magic I.D. – Mambo [Staubgold]
Brian Eno and the words of Rick Holland – breath of crows [Warp]
David Sylvian – Snow White In Appalachia [Samadhi Sound]
Manorexia – A Plastic Island in the Pacific [Ectopic Ents]
Foetus Interruptus – Fin [Self Immolation/Some Bizzare, now available direct from Foetus]
Foetus – You’re Trying To Break Me [Ectopic Ents]
Peter Knight & Dung Nguyen – Travelling [Parenthèses Records]
Golden Gardens – Elizabeta (Lizzy remix by Cex) [Automation Records]

Listen again — ~ 160MB
Note: as the studio recorder is in any case currently in mono, I’ve encoded the file as mono, reducing its file size. Let me know if there are any issues.

Hiya peeps! Lots of great sounds tonight, including the beautiful For Nihon compilation from Unseen Music, the new Brian Eno, and heaps more.
LISTEN AGAIN via the link at the bottom, or subscribe to the podcast…

We start tonight with the For Nihon compilation, which Peter Broderick just mentioned yesterday on his blog will have raised some $31k in donations to the Japan Earthquake Relief Fund.
My opening track is just what I want from drone — a very varied, dynamic track from Deru. Beautiful.

Just on Saturday, I noticed Busdriver tweeting something about Radiohead on his Twitter, and followed the link to find a ridiculous but ridiculously cool mashup where the ‘driver raps over and edits the ‘head’s “Bloom” from King of Limbs.
Busdriver was also talking to Sole on the Twitters yesterday, and that reminded me to play this excellent tune produced by Tobacco of Black Moth Super Rainbow.

Sydney neo-soul proponent Guerre has promos of his new album out now, but I’m still digging the Darker My Love Remixes free download release, and this week we heard Melbourne’s Naminé with a nice post-dubstep take.

Enormous highlight of another strong week of new releases is the new album, finally, from Kangding Ray. Released on the mighty raster-noton (run by alva noto of whom more later), it’s a swooping, encompassing album of minimal but detailed electronic beats, synths and distortion, with occasional vocals. I say distortion, because at times it sneaks towards a beat-oriented version of Ben Frost’s waves of growling machines.

I played a couple more tracks from this later, but in the meantime we heard from some other masterful sinewave distortion courtesy of emptyset, whose follow-up to 2009’s self-titled debut is out now too. This leans even more towards the noise aspect than the compelling, regimented beats of their first outing, but still has plenty of that techno impetus to it, especially on the first track I played. We also had a reminder of their amazing first album.
And I couldn’t resist playing an idm classic from µ-Ziq, from 1994 — very different beats, but still slathered with distortion and heaps of bass.

After some more kangding ray, it’s time for something gorgeous from the latest collaboration between alva noto + ryuichi sakamoto — all lowercase as the music requires. Sakamoto’s piano playing is legendary, and here he and Alva Noto play off each other in perfect sympathy. Quite wondrous.
In between two tracks, we had a short Sakamoto solo piece from the For Nihon comp, and then afterwards we had something special, also from the compilation, from Nils Frahm & Anne Müller. I played their duo album a lot last year, and it’s great to hear something new, and very string-fuelled.

Strings feature all over David Sylvian’s new album, which still has a lot of life in it as far as UFog-land goes! Tonight’s track features renowned Australian free improv cellist Michael Moser all over it.

Two Melbourne violin-loop acts follow: the indie thrills of Wintercoats and then something almost dub-pop from The Twoks.

I’m still caning the ridiculous(ly fun) Akron/Family remix bonanza <bmbz>, which is now available from what I can only assume is Akron/Family’s own Bandcamp. HIGHLY recommended for insane processed rock noise glory.

Also rather over-the-top is the four track, 45-minute album from Brisbane’s restream. No track is less than 10 minutes long, and each is electronic shoegaze with overdriven guitars and extended song structures. It’s wonderful listening that could go on forever.

I was rather unimpressed by last year’s debut on the Warp from the legendary Brian Eno. He’s always had his moments, some undeniably classic, but often tends towards the insipid, and I found the best bits from last year were the obvious Jon Hopkins moments. This time round he’s teamed up with poet Rick Holland, and somehow the inspiration of the lyrics and working with various vocalists has brought out the best in Eno. There are some quite head-nod-worthy beats, some true glitchy cut-up bits, and just some great settings of the words. Nice one, Brian!

Moving on from Eno’s Warp excursions, it’s time for some dark and complex drum’n’bass beats courtesy of maestro Paradox. I was surprised to see he’s still putting out albums, and he tends to scatter slower breakbeat tracks through the d’n’b, but his programming is just top-notch.
More surprising is slapping a Björk track in this drum’n’bass set. The new track “Crystalline” is absolutely wonderful — it’s not out yet, but a certain famous Aussie DJ played it on Sunday afternoon, and having come across it on a blog around that very time (see below) I thought it needed a spin – especially with the last minute or so being so OMGWTFBBQ. Seriously.
Another track harking back to ’90s junglism is Africa Hitech’s Out In The Streets VIP, which has been rinsed by DJs across the world in the last week or so. Spot-on bassline and beats and energy from Mark Pritchard and Steve Spacek.

Ending with a bunch of Aussie music.
I played MindBuffer’s track from Enig’matik Records’s Painting Pictures on Silence comp a few weeks ago, and it’s a sort of drum’n’bass-derived piece.
Sydney’s Tim Fitz loves his superfast live d’n’b-style drumming in his acoustic indiepop. He’s playing this Saturday at The Gate @ Pablo’s in Epping – worth a visit!
From Melbourne, Pets With Pets cross genres from punky indie to noise and experimentalism, lots of fun.

Melbourne’s in.del.able followed me on Soundcloud last week, and probably doesn’t expect to be played on the radio, but I enjoyed this sketch of gamelan-like instruments and digital effects and samples.

Finally, another Melbourne electronic artist from Enig’matik: Circuit Bent does the glitch-hop thing in fine form.

Deru – Days Then… (Japan Version) [Unseen Music]
Busdriver – Bloomberg (Radiohead mashup) [Busdriverse]
Sole ft. Tobacco – Piano’s Falling [free download from here]
Guerre – Mazu Heart Sutra (Naminé Remix) [Yes Please] {free from Bandcamp!}
kangding ray – Mojave [raster-noton]
emptyset – point [Subtext/Multiverse]
emptyset – Gate 3 [Caravan]
emptyset – return [Subtext/Multiverse]
µ-Ziq – Hector’s House [Rephlex]
kangding ray – Monsters [raster-noton]
kangding ray – Athem [raster-noton]
alva noto + ryuichi sakamoto – pioneer IOO [raster-noton]
Ryuichi Sakamoto – Kizuna [Unseen Music]
alva noto + ryuichi sakamoto – naono [raster-noton]
Nils Frahm & Anne Müller – Aussenseiter [Unseen Music]
David Sylvian – Random Acts of Senseless Violence [Samadhi Sound]
Wintercoats – Unbearable Thinking [via their Bandcamp]
The Twoks – She’ll Be Right [self-released via Listen/Hear Collective]
Akron/Family – Foogee Isalaci [Dead Oceans] {from <bmbz>, now available from Bandcamp}
Akron/Family – Izlamabalmz (feat. Barack 2mama) [Dead Oceans] {from <bmbz>, now available from Bandcamp}
restream – Myriad [lofly]
Brian Eno and the words of Rick Holland – glitch [Warp]
Brian Eno and the words of Rick Holland – the airman [Warp]
Paradox – Ghost Notes [Paradox Music]
Björk – Crystalline [forthcoming… found here] {wasn’t sure I should play it, but Kingsmill played it on another station earlier today! *heh*}
Africa Hitech – Out In The Streets VIP [Warp]
Paradox – Antilogy [Paradox Music]
MindBuffer – Ghost in the Shell [Enig’matik Records]
Tim Fitz – Endtroduction [available from his Bandcamp]
Pets With Pets – Aquatic Life / House Wolf [Sensory Projects]
in.del.able – drather (unpolished) [from Soundcloud]
Circuit Bent – Glitchity Grub [Enig’matik Records]

Listen again — ~ 221MB
{forgot to encode as mono, although it still plays mono — sorry folks}