HE’S BAAAAACK! 11 hours after the ‘Fog finished, here’s Paul’s Playlunch with Peter.
Today’s swiftly-organised topic is the letter “C”, if it’s not obvious. So I got to play some pretty way-out stuff and some pretty beautiful stuff. YAY RADIO!

Cerberus Shoal – Sweetie [North East Indie]
Chemical Brothers – Song To The Siren [Junior Boy’s Own]
Cocteau Twins – Sugar Hiccup [4AD]
Clubroot – Solar Flares [Lo Dubs]
Can – Vitamin C [Mute]
cLOUDDEAD – the keen teen skip [Mush/Big Dada]
Cex – Stop Eating [Jade Tree]
Clark – Herr Bar [Warp]
Collarbones – kill off the vowels [self-released]
The Chap – (Hats Off To) Dror Frangi [Lo Recordings]
Crass – You’re Already Dead [Crass Records]
Coil – Teenage Lightning 2005 [World Serpent]

Listen again — ~ 61MB

What an auspicious date!
While we here at UFog Towers are not numerologically inclined (numbers are fascinating but they’re just numbers), surely on 10/10/10 the least you could do is go off and Like Utility Fog on Facebook! You’ll get reminders, little explosions of musical fandom, and more…
LISTEN AGAIN to tonight’s show via the link at the bottom of the playlist.

Big special on the music of M.Gira and his reformed Swans tonight, along with the band he formed after the death of the Swans (and before their rebirth), Angels of Light. From the noisest band in the world, he went on to create a whole new interest in a revived folk music from the late ’90s, discovered (for his label Young God) artists like Devendra Banhart, Akron/Family and others, and nurtured the careers of artists like James Blackshaw and Lisa Germano.
I dove back into the Swans catalogue, starting in the early ’80s with some dark and dirge-like punk snarl, then through amazing sound experiments and gorgeous (if sometimes forbidding) folk with Angels of Light, back to the raucous and passionate noise of the Swans.

Before that, I played the entire 25+ minutes of the closing track from Sufjan Stevens’ wonderful new album Age of Adz, an epic song featuring massed vocals, glitchy samples, extreme auto-tune, strumming guitars, all with cohesive melodic and lyrical content — pure genius.

More genius, inspired by (and briefly sampling from) the Swans, comes from Ben Frost. I couldn’t resist playing this before breaking out the song it samples and starting on the big journey.

And after the Swans-fest, I played one Young God artist, the pitch-perfect Americana of Fire on Fire. Most of this group used to play in the amazing Portland, Maine group Cerberus Shoal, one of the most creative and adventurous groups the USA has produced, and I’ve just heard they have a new (albeit technically old) album out through a Japanese label, which I hope to bring to you in a few weeks’ time.

Folk from a different vein follows, from Ólöf Arnalds, who eschews the grandeur of much of the music we hear from Iceland, in favour of delicate acoustic guitar and vocals — along with some harp-like sounds and strings. With her new album just out, I finally got hold of the first, from which I have been obsessed for some time with the song “Í Nýju Húsi”. I’m very glad, because there’s some beautiful stuff there, although the new album is a true stunner.

Another little special, albeit a bit more low-key, celebrating the release of a new Mice Parade album. I’ve been a fan since the first Adam Pierce solo album, back when the anagram of his name made more sense :) For a while now they’ve been a band, and a formidable live act, and that energy translates into the albums. There’s nothing that new here in their sound, but the songs are strong and there’s heaps of energy, and I just love what they do, regardless.

Mice Parade represent a strain of postrock that I wish was able to exert more of an influence, but I fear that that genre name is now basically Mogwai/MONO/Explosions In The Sky-style LOUDsoftLOUD riffs and no melodies. I still like to think of it as a genre that’s interest in sound, studio techniques, and pouring of genres into other genres.
Sydney’s Grün (who used to be Greenland and named their album in acknowledgement of that) are vaguely in the more familiar postrock terrain, but with piano/keyboards frequently to the fore, and a great melodic sensibility, they’ve turned in a top class postrock album that’ll be getting spins for quite a while yet. Get hold of the album while it comes with a bonus copy of their old EP.

Originally from Adelaide, Inch-time has been based in London for some time, and releases his new album on his own new label, Mystery Plays Records. As the curator of the Teaism compilation from a little while back he’s got good cred for forming a label, but he’s also an absolutely top-notch producer, and has been since his very first EP of charming and mysterious folktronica got endless amounts of airplay on the ‘Fog.
In a month or so there’ll be a remix album added to this disc, but for now we have lovely warm minimal housey sounds to content ourselves with.

And back in Sydney, lessons in time finally gets his album out in Australia. A member of Telafonica, he ramps up the indietronica here, with little of the techno elements of his parent band. In fact a lot of the songs are remarkably low-key, and he has a dab hand at sounding shambolic yet well-crafted. This song is particularly nice in the way it breaks down a number of times and barely manages to pick up the pieces.

The very last song on tonight’s show (actually I went overtime a fair bit) comes from one of the best releases of the week. You’ll be hearing plenty more from anbb round here. Alva Noto and Blixa Bargeld seem to be a perfect combination, with Bargeld’s history in industrial music and Noto’s razor-sharp digital production creating a monster. I’m not sure I’m convinced by the cover of Harry Nilsson’s “One”, but I could get used to it. This opening track starts with the most unnervingly elongated screaming, but is vindicated as it turns into a beautiful and simple (sortof!) song by the end.

Swans – Inside Madeline [Young God]
Sufjan Stevens – Impossible Soul [Asthmatic Kitty]
Ben Frost – Stomp [Bedroom Community]
Swans – Red Sheet [Young God]
Swans – Coward [Young God]
Swans – I Am The Sun [Young God]
Angels of Light – Fragment / Praise Your Name [Young God]
Angels of Light – My True Body [Young God]
Angels of Light – Palisades [Young God]
Angels of Light – Not Here/Not Now [Young God]
Swans – No Words/No Thoughts [Young God]
Swans – Look At Me Go (excerpt) [Young God]
Fire on Fire – Assanine Race [Young God]
Ólöf Arnalds – Vinkonur [One Little Indian]
Ólöf Arnalds – Í Nýju Húsi [12 Tonar/One Little Indian]
Ólöf Arnalds – Ævagömul Orkuþula [12 Tonar/One Little Indian]
Ólöf Arnalds – Madrid [One Little Indian]
Mice Parade – In Between Times [Fat Cat]
Mice Parade – My Funny Friend Scott [Bubble Core Records]
Mice Parade – milton road (my skull with flowers remix by Kim Hiorthøy) [Fat Cat]
Mice Parade – Old Hat [Fat Cat]
Grün – common seabirds [Laughing Outlaw Records]
Inch-time – Videograms [Mystery Plays Records]
lessons in time – Wait One More Week [forthesakeofthesong/4-4-2 music]
anbb – fall [raster noton]

Listen again — ~ 213MB

Oh what a big show tonight! LISTEN AGAIN link at the bottom – don’t miss it!

It’s Ninja Tune XX, 20th birthday of this ultra-important label. It’s the new Swans album OMG BRUTAL. And it’s the new Sufjan Stevens album OMG EPIC.

But also, EPIC interview with the brilliant, passionate, ultra-over-the-top Jason Forrest, who I’ve actually known for something like 12 years over the internets, and we were very excited to get on the phone together :)
See Jason as DJ Donna Summer getting his live breakcore on at a big event next Saturday at the Gladstone Hotel in Chippendale. Details on this handy poster.
We had tracks spanning his career, from 2001’s Joe Jackson breakcore mashup through his epic progcore from 2005 and some a bit dubstep and a bit funky from 2010. Plus an exclusive preview of a 7” that will be out on a Melbourne label later this year, the first new Jason Forrest-monikered music in years, with an awesome-sound album along the way too.

I also played another track from one of last week’s features, World’s End Girlfriend’s insane new album Seven Idiots, which would no doubt get the Jason Forrest stamp of approval.

But we started with something else again, from the Ninja Tune XX compilation (or set of compilations), Roots Manuva gets a rockin’ re-fit by Doomed, which is actually Richard Russell of XL Recordings.

After Jason Forrest it’s right back into Ninja Tune, via Amon Tobin, who used to end his live sets with this incredible mashup of The Velvet Underground’s “Venus in Furs” and Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)”. It works really well, with added big Amon Tobin beat.
Next up, Kronos Quartet doing an “interpretation” of some Amon Tobin music. I’m always disappointed that Kronos just commission some young composer or other to do arrangements, even when it’s a cover version like this or their Nine Inch Nails one. I guess they’re great players but not arrangers, but heck guys, it’s fun – I can tell you from experience :)
Anyway, great stuff, and then Amon collaborating with Eskmo, whose new album on Ninja Tune doesn’t quite live up to the expectations of his three(-plus) untouchable singles from last year, but is pretty nice all the same. This track is precisely the two producers’ sounds blended together. Want more!
And since we hadn’t had any “pure” Amon Tobin, a track from the Ninja Tune XX compilation featuring either Martenitsa, The Bulgarian Womens Choir, or someone very similar. And a big thumping beat of course.

Back in about 1994 I discovered Ninja Tune via some brilliant compilations they put out at the time, and a few flagship artists. 9 Lazy 9’s track appeared on Funkjazztical Tricknology, which features a lot of the best tracks from the label’s early history.
Then about a year later came Flexistentialism, which many more classics and some early dub-hop sounds from The Herbaliser. While I’m not actually the hugest of fans, they’ve made any number of top-class productions over the years, and for the Xen Cuts comp for Ninja’s 10th birthday (10 years ago!) they teamed up with Latyrx for some very special indeed.
And then back to Roots Manuva, who dubs up their more recent track “Something Wicked” and drops his own lyric over the top. Very nice.

Next up, The Bug reuses his own beat from the amazing “Skeng”, with Kiki Hitomi intoning a rather beautiful and effective new vocal. Next week I must play you the Autechre remix (maybe the dub) of “Skeng”, which is a spin-out and a half.

Not all M.I.A. fans may be aware that Diplo put out one of the best Ninja Tune albums (albeit on Big Dada) in 2004. One of many highlights on Florida was “Summer’s Gonna Hurt You”, and now he’s re-fitted it for 2010 with a big dubstep bassline, while keeping its original heat-saturated atmosphere.
Nice to see Lorn appearing here too, with a pretty number also with the fat basslines and an uncredited vocal.

Very much credited and very awesome is Ms Dynamite, teaming up with Toddla T for anthem of the year. Watch/listen now and bounce around the room. I dare you not to!

But next. OH MY GOD. There are two brilliant remixes of DJ Food’s classic track “Dark Lady”, the bassline of which we’ll explore slightly later. First off, Belgian-born south-west London-resident drum’n’bass producer Alix Perez does a wonderfully smooth contemporary minimal d’n’b remix, slowed down a little to accommodate the d’n’b tempo.
Zomby gives us another track in the post-drum’n’bass/hardcore continuum, with a lovely idm-style melody, and Scuba gives us a stunner of a remix of Fink, which eventually gets going with a classic breakbeat.

But let’s get back to that bassline, shall we? 808 State also got their hands on DJ Food’s “Dark Lady”, and we hear their bleepy acid-techno take which slowly mutates back into the bassline. It’s an astonishing take on a great track.
You’ve heard that bassline before of course. About a year after the DJ Food version, Tim Simenon’s Bomb The Bass released their perennial favourite “Bug Powder Dust”, based around William S Burroughs’ Naked Lunch, with samples from the film (which must have come out around then), and a Naked Lunch-inspired (and just inspired) rap from Justin Warfield, which we can all quote extensively from. “Shockin’ your ass like a faulty vibrator / Hear me now, but you’ll probably get the vibe later”… “I’ve got more flavour than a packet of macaroni”… and so on.
But the original bassline comes from a Flora Purim track from 1977, and it’s by Alphonso Johnson, who played in the early years of the great jazz fusion band Weather Report, so I guess no surprise there!

And yes… Sufjan Stevens’s is also coming out soon. As a pre-orderer, I got the digital download this week and am already willing to announce it as something of a work of genius. Epic and ambitious, it’s got everything from his delicate folk songwriting to his mega-orchestrations and plenty of electronic touches, from crunchy beats to glitchy edits. Most of that appears in this one song which I highlighted tonight, and in a couple of weeks when the physical CD is out I’ll play some more (I really want to play the entire 25-minute closing track!)

Another equal work of genius came out this week, in the form of the new Swans album. I got the limited double CD, and next week I promise to play an excerpt from the bonus disc as well as some useful Swans/M.Gira/Angels of Light history. A cornucopia of wonders brutal and beauteous.

And (nearly) finally, a few samplings of some artists playing a gig (which I happen to be playing at too – sorry!) next Friday, the 8th of October.
Ollie Bown from the brilliant Icarus (see my Cyclic Defrost interview) is based in Melbourne right now, and is coming up to play a show in Sydney in the lovely wooden-panelled surrounds of Megaphon Recording Studios in St Peters. Adrian Lim-Klumpes will take on the grand piano, Shoeb Ahmad and Evan Dorrian of Spartak will play guitar/processing and drum kit respectively, and I’ll play cello & loops/processing. Ollie has developed some amazing software that allows him to improvise in realtime on the laptop, so it will be a very special occasion. And Cleptoclectics will play a set first.
Shoeb has put together a free download comp that you can get from Bandcamp for it, so I featured a few tracks tonight.

And we ended with the expansive percussion and vocals of Sydney’s own kyü. Lovely, lovely.

Roots Manuva – The Falling (Doomed remix) [Ninja Tune]
Jason Forrest – Evil Doesn’t Exist Anymore [Sonig]
World’s End Girlfriend – ULYSSES GAZER [Virgin Babylon Records]
Jason Forrest/Donna Summer – Stepping the fuck out [CockRockDisco]
DJ Donna Summer – Figher [Nightshifters]
…interview with Jason Forrest…
Jason Forrest – Biker Movies [forthcoming 7”]
Amon Tobin – Venus Hendrix Live Mix [was a download from his site, gone now!] {mashup of The Velvet Underground and Jimi Hendrix}
Amon Tobin – Foley Versions (Kronos Quartet Interpretation, arranged by Jonathan Wong) [Ninja Tune]
Eskamon – Fine Objects [Ninja Tune]
Amon Tobin – Eight Sum [Ninja Tune]
9 Lazy 9 – Electric Lazyland [Ninja Tune]
The Herbaliser – A Mother (for your mind) [Ninja Tune]
The Herbaliser feat. Latyrx – 8 Pt Agenda [Ninja Tune]
The Herbaliser – Something Wicked (Roots Manuva Haunted House Dub) [Ninja Tune]
The Bug – Catch a Fire (feat. Kiki Hitomi) [Ninja Tune]
Diplo – Summer’s Gonna Hurt You (Diplo 2010 Remix) [Ninja Tune]
Lorn – Soft Room [Ninja Tune]
Toddla T – Want U Now (feat. Ms Dynamite) [Ninja Tune]
DJ Food – Dark Lady (Alix Perez remix) [Ninja Tune]
Zomby – The Forest [Ninja Tune]
Fink – See It All (Scuba remix) [Ninja Tune]
DJ Food – Dark Lady (808 State remix) [Ninja Tune]
Bomb The Bass feat. Justin Warfield – Bug Powder Dust [Island]
Flora Purim – Open Your Eyes You Can Fly [Milestone]
Sufjan Stevens – I Want To Be Well [Asthmatic Kitty]
Swans – You Fucking People Make Me Sick (feat. Devendra Banhart and Saoirse Daniel Gira) [Young God]
Ollie Bown – Live at London Placard Headphone Festival 2008 [free download from Bandcamp!]
Adrian Lim-Klumpes – Hillside [free download from Bandcamp!]
Shoeb Ahmad – Fashion No. 2 [free download from Bandcamp!]
kyü – koi [Popfrenzy]

Listen again — ~ 179MB

Mixture tonight of a few awesome artist specials.
LISTEN AGAIN link is at bottom as usual!

As longtime listeners of UFog may know, World’s End Girlfriend is truly one of my favourite artists. He’s the perfect Utility Fog musician, combining digital edits & cuts of acoustic and live instrumentation with insane breakcore programming, postrock grandeur and classical string arrangements.
It’s all there on his new album, which I got (and you can too!) direct from his new Virgin Babylon Records label. Sadly, much of his older stuff is still out of print, so at some point I might do more of a special on his older works too.
At first the new album was a bit perturbing, going breakneck with instrumental rock songs. But there’s plenty of the strings and electronics and everything else there, and we heard a good array over the span of tonight.
I also played something from the classic Let’s I Love You compilation on ROMZ Record from 2002, which must have been when I discovered WEG; and from his previous album from 2007, and extraordinary piece of post-classical folktronic drill’n’bass (SO THERE).

Second up tonight is the amazing attack of Melbourne duo PIVIXKI’s second album. Composer & pianist Anthony Pateras teams up with grindcore drummer Max Kohane and it’s somehow all perfectly logical. Both tracks tonight were pretty much piano & drums (with a little electronics) but there are some fairly different sounds on here as well, including more electronics, viola and percussion.

It’s only reasonable that PIVIXKI are followed by the energetic jazz piano trio sounds of The Bad Plus. They have an incredible talent for melodicism, gorgeous chord progressions, and plenty of energy. No covers tonight – I’ll have to reprise their version of Aphex Twin’s “Flim” sometime soon though!

Next up, a few items from the utterly idiosyncratic new Oval album – strangely chopped up acoustic guitar (maybe) and, on the first CD of this huge two-disc set, heaps of wildly edited drumming. Over 70 tracks it can get a bit overwhelming, but selected highlights show up many treasures.

This week’s discovery come from a split CD with Machinefabriek. Ithaca Trio’s letter requesting a split release is memorialised on the packaging (well, it’s probably invented) of this beautifully-presented CDR release. But while Machinefabriek’s droney tracks exhibit his usual fine ear for sound design, it’s the piano, guitar, double bass, crackles and hiss (and occasional vocals) of this not-really-a-trio that leave a lasting impression.

More impressive from Machinefabriek this week is the download version of a cassette release collaboration with trombonist Hilary Jeffery. Rutger is often at his best in collaborative mode, and here the sonorous tones of the trombone are stretched and treated in what sounds like a real melding of two artists.

OK, the other huuuuge discovery of the week is not exactly a discovery from this week, but finally my parcel from Finland’s Fonal label arrived with the collected works of Es, and it’s a wondrous, wondrous thing. While I knew the works of label-mates Paavoharju, for some reason Es remained a mystery to me until I recently unearthed a Fonal compilation from a few years ago.
His sound has developed over the years from guitar drone through vinyl sampling, almost psychedelic electronica to something a bit more “maximal” in electronic terms. We heard a fair selection, although I skipped the very first album and the very last (for now). Delicate vocals with crackly piano records, violin ostinati and stuttery guitar and keyboards are just some of the sounds you’ll hear.

The Es special then took us into the main World’s End Girlfriend special (described above).
Coming out of this I played Underlapper’s (eventually) rather maximalist take on an indiepop hit from Parades, quite possibly showing the band’s love of WEG.

Sticking in Sydney we have the debut album from kyü, equal parts experimentalism and ecstatic pop. While one of them tends a little too much towards the Kate Bushisms in her vocals, the creativity and independence of spirit on display (er… aurally on display, OK?) is pretty stunning.

And finally, visiting this week from Perth are The Ghost of 29 Megacycles, with a new release on Canberra’s hellosQuare Recordings. One long drone track (old-style Go29M) and one shoegazey number with vocals – their new-style which I’m digging a lot. They’re playing at the rather sekrit b0hemian gr0ve this Thursday with hellosQuare gurus Spartak.

World’s End Girlfriend – GALAXY KID 666 [Virgin Babylon Records]
PIVIXKI – Flail [Lexicon Devil]
PIVIXKI – Konx [Lexicon Devil]
The Bad Plus – Anthem For The Earnest [Sony]
The Bad Plus – Never Stop [Emarcy/Universal]
oval – Panorama [Thrill Jockey]
oval – Emocor [Thrill Jockey]
oval – Koral [Thrill Jockey]
oval – Dolo [Thrill Jockey]
Ithaca Trio – Orca Towards Ground [Coma Architects]
Ithaca Trio – For Ailing Health [Coma Architects]
Machinefabriek – The Harmed Harp [Coma Architects]
Machinefabriek with Hilary Jeffery – Jeffery [Machinefabriek]
Es – Les fleurs sont des bonnes auditrices [Fonal]
Es – Twenty-five twenty five [Fonal]
Es – Pehmeä iho [Fonal]
Es – Sadepäivät [Fonal]
Es – Sateenkaarisuudelma II [Fonal]
Es – Maailmankaari I [Fonal]
Origamibiro – Nootaikoks Demise [L-O-A-F Explorers’ Club]
World’s End Girlfriend – Bohemian Purgatory Pts 1-3 [Virgin Babylon Records]
World’s End Girlfriend – Good Bye Merry Lou [ROMZ]
World’s End Girlfriend – ghost of a horse under the chandelier [human highway records]
World’s End Girlfriend – Virgin Babylon [Virgin Babylon Records] {from a bonus CD available by ordering direct from the label}
Parades – Hunters (Underlapper remix) [Direct from the ‘lappies, but available on iTunes (eek!)]
kyü – foreword [Popfrenzy]
kyü – sistar [Popfrenzy]
The Ghost of 29 Megacycles – The Hummingbird Dream (Part 2) [hellosQuare Recordings]

Listen again — ~ 171MB