Good evening! So much good music! It must be Sunday.
Even if it’s not, you can LISTEN AGAIN via the link at the bottom! Everyone’s a winner.

Playing “Pick the influence!” to start with. The wonderful Le Loup are a band I should’ve twigged to a while back, as I played a track from a split 7” back in April last year. Better late than never, I’ve picked up both their albums, and there’s a definite parallel with Grizzly Bear here – first album mainly a solo effort by Sam Simkoff, with folky instrumentation and glitchy studio stuff; second album with full band and rapturous harmonies etc.
Adding to this effect, there’s a direct connection between the first two tracks I played. It’s not an exact quote, but surely must be a homage.
Then we had two pretty amazing tracks from the end of their (his) first album – as folktronic as it gets.

UFog fave Fieldhead has a new vinyl release coming out in July from Gizeh Records. The EP features the grainy processed sounds of five different female vocalists. It’s the typical Fieldehead sound, albeit without beats, but with a whole new dimension added. Definitely recommended.
Meanwhile, ex-pat Englishman Part Timer, who’s been based in Melbourne for a good few years now, continues to send me new music at a rate of knots. Tonight’s tracks, though, come from a fully-fledged new EP that will come out under the name upward arrows, we can only hope soon. It’s truly fantastic ambient stuff, with some surreptitious string samples (you’d never tell where they come from), acoustic guitar and a whole lot of atmos. Dude continues to be a winner.

Thanks to The Wire (and the fact that I’m a subscriber, we get to celebrate German label Staubgold’s 100th release with a few tracks from this month’s download compilation.
Pedal is a duo I hadn’t heard of before, featuring The Necks’ Chris Abrahams and classical pianist Simon James Phillips. Very pretty stuff.
Meanwhile, Reuber has been around for yonks, and his track is some great synth-led krautrock, quite in keeping with the contemporary psychedelic analogue synth scene…

Back to the indietronica, Foals are known for their melodic punky pop, but come out of a scene that’s interested in folktronic and postrock elements as well. We heard a brief glitchy piano piece and then a nice slow-growing number, indie-dance with that popular African-style guitar stuff (a bit Vampire Weekend) that wouldn’t be out of place on a Bloc Party album maybe.
We also heard Kieran Hebden’s epic version of a track from their previous album. Ultra-ace.

And then we get into a couple of retrospectives of electronic artists with new releases out. FIrst up, the amazing Benn Jordan aka The Flashbulb. His latest album is out now on his Alphabasic label, and features live strings and other instruments in amongst his electronics, piano and guitar. I gave a quick tour (well, quick relative to his large back catalogue) as a guide to just how talented this guy is at complex beat programming, unusual arrangements and, particularly on the last track, really beautiful melodies.
And from the same compilation as that last track, we heard a classic of beat-fuckery by Wisp.

Kattoo’s Volker Kahl is another beat-making and arranging genius, whose career stretches back to at least 1998 with his previous (now defunct) duo Beefcake. While his partner therein, Gabor Schablitzki, has gone on to some success in the electro/house realm as Robag Wruhme and part of the Wighnomy Brothers, Volker Kahl has kept the faith and continued to create complex glitchy beats and classical-influenced sounds as Kattoo. I couldn’t help playing a selection from the Beefcake years (so much great stuff!) as well as a bit of older Kattoo. Go to his website and support the music direct!

Following these retrospectives, we’re back to the present day, with brilliant new dubstep/pop producer Emika, who again on her new single uses her own vocals with a beautifully moody dubstep production. The remix by dubstep legend Pinch takes it into even more minimal and head-nodding territory, chopping up Emika’s vocals in tasty fashion, and I found it led very effectively out of Sabre’s hypnotic track from last week’s drum’n’bass set, showing just how nicely these scenes are cross-pollinating right now.

From Sydney/Adelaide, Collarbones give us a glitchy, bright piece of wonky. Their set on Friday at Hardware Gallery was wonk-tastic, and featured Marcus Whale’s vox, absent from this track.

Finally, some Autechre acid. Their second album of the year has been available for pre-order from Bleep for some time. As is their wont, Ae/Warp released the download edition some weeks before the physical copies are available, so pre-orderers like myself found it in our inboxes earlier this week.
It’s certainly more in keeping with their recent stellar live sets than Oversteps. Still some very melodic bits, and plenty of beats. Hasn’t quite sunk in yet, but I know this track is great!

Le Loup – Go East [Hardly Art]
Grizzly Bear – Easier [Warp]
Le Loup – Canto XXXIV [Hardly Art]
Le Loup – I Had A Dream I Died [Hardly Art]
fieldhead – an arrow (feat. Anneke Kampman of Conquering Animal Sound) [Gizeh]
part timer – ^^ [forthcoming on…?]
fieldhead – planks of wood (feat. Anna-Lynne Williams of Trespassers William) [Gizeh]
part timer – ^^^^ [forthcoming on…?]
Pedal – Sump [Staubgold, courtesy The Wire]
Reuber – Altweiber [Staubgold, courtesy The Wire]
Foals – Fugue [Sub Pop]
Foals – After Glow [Sub Pop]
Foals – Cassius (Keiran Hebden Version) [Transgressive]
The Flashbulb – Undiscovered Colors [Alphabasic]
The Flashbulb – your new human [accelmuzhik]
The Flashbulb – Kirlian Shores [Sublight]
The Flashbulb – Kirlian Isles III [Sublight]
The Flashbulb – Meadow Crush [Alphabasic]
The Flashbulb – Hometown UFO [Sublight]
Wisp – Uxe-Bu [Sublight]
Kattoo – ll–l- l–l-l ll– ll-ll- ll– l–ll l-ll l-l [jungle.clan.ag]
Beefcake – digilog [Hymen]
Beefcake – 5:09 [Hymen]
Beefcake – approx tks 13-15 from Drei [thrillbeatconstruction]
Kattoo – Place2 [Hymen/jungle.clan.ag]
Kattoo – l–l-ll- ll-ll- l- l–l-l l–l-ll ll– l–ll-ll l- ll- l–l- [jungle.clan.ag]
Emika – Double Edge [Ninja Tune]
Sabre – Levelling Out Pt. 2 [Critical Music]
Emika – Double Edge (Pinch remix) [Ninja Tune]
Collarbones – Tashkent [download from Bandcamp]
Autechre – pce freeze 2.8i [Warp]

Listen again — ~ 174MB

Yay! 1 hour of fun fun fun!
You can LISTEN AGAIN via the link at the bottom. Theme was “strings”, in all sorts of different contexts.

deUS – suds & soda [Island]
Burning Star Core – Come Back Through Me [Thin Wrist Recordings]
A Hawk and a Hacksaw – I am not a gambling man [Leaf]
Karen Dalton – Katie Cruel [Light in the Attic]
tunng – sweet william [Fulltime Hobby]
Andrew Bird – opposite day (live in montreal) [self-released, was briefly available from his online shop]
Final Fantasy – Hey, Dad! [Tomlab]
bZARK – They are the worm [BMG Australia]
Gareth Skinner – Amateur Hour [Rubber Records]
The Paradise Motel – My Sister in ’94 [self-released]
Nina Nastasia – What’s Out There [Fat Cat]
dakota suite – this failing sea (peter broderick remix) [karaoke kalk]
The Books – there is no there [Tomlab]
sole & the skyrider band – a sad day for investors [anticon]

Listen again — ~ 76MB

THREE HOURS OF POWER.
Listen Again via the link at the bottom, hey?

Tonight we start with another track from the wondrous noisegaze ov ZOND. Hope you appreciate this public service.
Ambrose Chapel appears to be a single Queensland musician making doom metal on his laptop?!? If so, good on you sir! From the latest New Weird Australia compilation – you know what that means don’t you? FREE MUSICS! Free awesome experimental Australian music!

Speaking of free, UK online label Acroplane can always be relied upon for excellent free electronic sounds. Via Ad Noiseam, who will be releasing a full-length from him later this year, I have discovered the incredibly freaked-out French artist Igorrr. It’s a kind of breakcore attitude, with swing jazz, opera, death metal and plenty of electronica in the mix. The first track I played is probably the funniest track you’ll hear all week. Or at last the most ridiculous.

Also Ad Noiseam-related (at least, you can buy it from their awesome online store) is Belgian artist Fractional, whose new album has some really fine dark drum’n’bass sounds, as well as some more downtempo and techno tracks. Altogether excellent.

This takes us into the realms of Critical Music, who have in the last year been releasing some pretty stunning drum’n’bass music — plenty of dancefloor-pleasing tunes, but also lots of intricate programming, and lots of stuff that combines drum’n’bass tempos and programming with minimal techno and dubstep’s aesthetics. We had an assortment of tunes from some brilliant artists, and while Rockwell and Sabre are represented by a couple of more substantial releases, I’d love to hear more from some of the other artists appearing on the superb Critical Sounds compilation.

…And then we’re back for some more downtempo-ish sounds from Fractional and Igorrr.

Also from New Weird Australia Volume Six is a new tune from the forthcoming Underlapper album, which is mighty fine work altogether. Caveat: I played cello on a number of tracks. But my input was limited to the cello playing, and I’m a longtime fan m’kay? This track is a nice combo of their postrock and electronic stylings.
Isle Adore, meanwhile, do an uncanny likeness of Animal Collective – quite scary.

Mint Julep hail from one of my favourite cities, Portland, OR, and they’re sounding an awful like Ulrich Schnauss on this bass & synth-heavy shoegaze number courtesy of the L-O-A-F Explorers’ Club. This year-long monthly online singles club has been paying dividends all year – regular listeners will have heard many a track from it already.

Keeping it song-related, Mice Parade have a new track out to precede a new album – always a welcome event round here! Caroline Lufkin, who’s been touring with them a lot in the last while, contributes lovely appropriate vocals.

And from sometime Mice Parade touring partner, we have the wonderful Keith Fullerton Whitman with an older krautrocky track. I note he’s been getting new material out there recently on 7″s and suchlike, and I’ll be tracking down new things for your delectation soon! I’m also getting around to ripping my archive of old Hrvatski/KFW material, so you might find some of this listening (it’s seminal stuff for my contemporary music taste!) creeping into future shows too :)

Via Keith we find ourselves in the noise world, but noise doesn’t have to mean screetching feedback and sonic assault. Although it’s great when it does!
Emeralds’ output over the last couple of years certainly belies their noise credentials, despite being released on traditionally noisy labels. We’ve heard plenty of their nostalgia-drenched synth expositions on this show before. Tonight I’m juxtaposing them with a couple of noise heroes, both of whom take synths into fairly similar realms, from a few years back: Burning Star Core with the absolutely beautiful “Mysteries of the Organ”, which is even melodic(! *heh*) and Prurient, on whose label the BxC was released, whose track features his usual full-tilt screaming but for all the overdrive, the backing is also semi-melodic synth stuff. Nice.

In the completely acoustic realm, sax/clarinet player Colin Stetson manages to produce, with one mouth and some heroic circular breathing, an astounding array of sounds. I saw him playing on Monday night with the delightful Shara Worden aka My Brightest Diamond, who will be appearing on his next album (bring it on!) — but here we have him turning a clarinet into a pretty decent facsimile of a malfunctioning computer game.

And from this month’s L-O-A-F Explorers’ club we also have Janek Schaeffer with a particularly beautiful piece with field recordings and floating chords.

And ah, The Declining Winter. Richard Adams from Hood’s side project has been making amazing strides since he first ventured out with a 7″ and some remixes a few years ago. Richard’s confidence with vocals and the band’s development are wonderful to follow, not that it wasn’t excellent from the start (fully paid-up member of the Hood fanclub here, metaphorically speaking).
They have just released their rather cheeky Official World Cup Theme 2010 single on Home Assembly Music, and for all that I know and care nothing about football/soccer, it’s a stirring number. The b-side takes a tune from a recent compilation and fleshes it out with lovely violin and some vocals.

And finally, a new Machine Translations album is on its way, and the first (radio) single reminds us of just what a superb songwriter and arranger Greg “J” Walker is. I wanted us to have a further reminder, so I pulled out one of my favourite tracks ever, his “Out To Sea” from the long-out-of-print Holiday In Spain album. Oh wondrous.

ZOND – Blind [R.I.P. Society Records]
Ambrose Chapel – Black Lava [New Weird Australia] {download free for an email address!}
Igorrr – Brutal Swing [Acroplane] {free download release!}
Fractional – Water [Tympanik Audio/Brume]
Fractional – Blood [Tympanik Audio/Brume]
Technicolour – Freedom Theme [Critical Music]
Stray – Timbre [Critical Music]
Rockwell – Bone Structure (ft. Zero Tolerance) [Critical Music]
Sabre – A Wandering Journal (Rockwell’s Club Mix) [Critical Music]
Rockwell – Stay Calm [Critical Music]
Sabre – Levelling Out Pt. 2 [Critical Music]
Triad – La Calma [Critical Music]
Fractional – Lows [Tympanik Audio/Brume]
Igorrr – Phasme Obèse [Acroplane] {free download release!}
Underlapper – Elephant Shoe [Feral Media] {Also on the free download comp New Weird Australia Volume Six!}
Isle Adore – Keep A Lid On {download free for an email address!}
Mint Julep – Cherry Radio [L-O-A-F]
Mice Parade – In Between Times [Fat Cat] {grab it online at Stereogum!}
Keith Fullerton Whitman – Schnee [Kranky]
Emeralds – Genetic [Editions Mego]
Burning Star Core – Mysteries of the Organ [Hospital Productions]
Emeralds – Geode [Hanson]
Prurient – apple tree victim [Load]
Colin Stetson – Nobu Take [Aagoo]
Janek Schaeffer – Exposure [L-O-A-F]
The Declining Winter – Red Kite [Home Assembly Music]
The Declining Winter – Official World Cup Theme 2010 [Home Assembly Music]
Machine Translations – Telepathic Head [Spunk]
Machine Translations – Out To Sea [Way Over There]

Listen again — ~ 184MB

Quick note: Sadly, FBi’s broadcast of the Creative Sydney closing gig is not going ahead, so (happily!) Utility Fog will start on Sunday at the normal 10pm time!

LISTEN AGAIN to the show via the link at the bottom.
You might really want to download tonight’s show, as at least 2/3 of it is a tribute to a beautiful soul who left us far too early, at age 29. We’re still reeling from the news: the passing of Adam D Mills of sound&fury weighs heavily on us this week, and after an interview with Finland’s beautiful Ous Mal we remembered him as we do on this show, through the music he brought us…

But first tonight we heard from a band I think Adam would’ve enjoyed – the wondrous noise of ZOND, who almost take it into shoegaze territory, as much as punk rock and just… noise. I wanted to play more tonight but will definitely in next week’s shortened show.

Next up, two from Holy Fuck, who were being featured on FBi last week, and both of whose albums are excellent dance rock with noise elements – like the similarly-titled Fuck Buttons perhaps, but less techno. And how cool to have Owen Pallett on one track! I have no idea why their latest hit is called “Latin America”, but it rocks anyway.

And then… I got a phone call from Finland. Ollie Aarni makes music as Ous Mal and he talked about using cassette decks and turntables, and the natural sound manipulation of old technologies that creates his beautiful nostalgia-imbued sound.

My tribute to the wonderful Adam D Mills covered the whole rest of tonight. I don’t like to play my own music on this show, but as this Raven track was written for Adam’s Passeridae series, and has a real emotional meaning to me at least, I felt it was appropriate to start my homage with a track of mine. I played piano and cello, with a little laptop processing. Adam was absolutely central in making me finally start making solo music again, and using my own instruments in the mix. I owe a lot to him, as do so many of us — I just wish we could let him know.
You might want to read the enormous outpouring of emotion in this thread on the Mess+Noise discussion boards, which his friend Sophi started in order to tell the community the awful news. A news item later confirmed it, and summarises some of his contributions — and it features a beautiful photo of him that makes me cry whenever I look. I can’t write that much about the music tonight, except to say that most of this music was released by Adam on his sound&fury label, and was obviously his passion. The few other tracks are from bands that I know were special to him.
Thanks to Anwyn Crawford, who helped me through the night from faraway New York. She and Shaun Prescott are writing a big article to memorialise Adam, which should be done soon.

ZOND – Io [R.I.P. Society Records]
Holy Fuck – Lovely Allen (feat. Owen Pallett) [Young Turks]
Holy Fuck – Latin America [Young Turks]
Ous Mal – Kumiseva [Preservation]
…and a conversation with the lovely Olli Aarni…
Ous Mal – Merilaulu [Preservation]
Raven – cold afternoon [sound&fury]
Machinefabriek – Second Dew (overdubbed and edited by Adrian Klumpes) [sound&fury]
Shoeb Ahmad – track 4 from Vinyl Sketches 3″ CD [sound&fury]
Scissor Lock – scribbles [sound&fury]
moonmilk – my mother in colours [sound&fury]
Mirrored Silver Sea – Coromandel [sound&fury]
Felicity Mangan – Tea Tree [sound&fury]
Anonymeye – The Disambiguation of Anonymeye [sound&fury]
Shoeb Ahmad – Electric Fields [sound&fury]
Spartak – The National Single [sound&fury]
Scissor Lock – for adm (ft Jasper TX & Penelope Joy) [written by Marcus on hearing the news, which I know hit him hard. Listen/download from SoundCloud]
Mirrored Silver Sea – Ghost Blossom [sound&fury]
Heil Spirits – Chasing New Swords, Tracing Oblivion (excerpt) [sound&fury]
Pefkin – Remember the Words [sound&fury]
Bluebottle Kiss – Barbed Wire Star [murmur]
Aaron Martin – Burl [sound&fury]
Yellow Swans – live at sound&fury, 29.10.2005 part two [sound&fury]
Radiohead – Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors [Parlophone]
Nine Inch Nails – Reptile (re-construction by Dave Ogilvie) [Interscope]
How To Destroy Angels – Parasite [self-released] {download free for an email address! – or order CD…}

Listen again — ~ 182MB