Filling in for Paul Gough! Indie/indietronica abounds.
And you can LISTEN AGAIN, checkit. After playlist.

Radarmaker – Arm vs Fiery Antenna [self-released]
Radarmaker – Shallow Socialites (Battle The Axe) [self-released]
The Declining Winter – Official World Cup Theme 2010 [Home Assembly Music]
Hood – (the) weight [555 Records of Leeds, UK]
Dntel – If I Don’t Return [Dublab via Emperor Norton]
Lessons in Time – How very good this feeling is [4-4-2 music]
Dntel – Don’t Get Your Hopes Up [Rocket Racer]
Styrofoam – If I Believed You/Back Into Focus [Morr Music]
Howling Bells – Setting Sun (Ulrich Schnauss remix) [Bella Union]
Aarktica vs Aaron Spectre – Alceria [Blue Bell Records]
DJ C feat. Capleton – Conscience A Heng Dem (Aaron Spectre mix) [Mashit]

Listen again — ~ 55MB

Ah, music! You love it, I love it. We may hate each other’s guts, but we’ve got this to tie us together, for all time. MWAHAHAHA.
OK, don’t know where that came from.
Also, public service announcement: You can hear me on Monday the 31st (today!) at midday on FBi, filling in for the estimable Paul Gough on Paul’s Playlunch.
LISTEN AGAIN as per usual, link at bottom!

The Australian Chamber Orchestra are putting on the first Australian performances of Jonny Greenwood’s Popcorn Superhet Receiver right now, and I had a chat with cellist Julian Thompson about it, among other things. I later discovered that Julian & I have met many times because he used to play in a Canberran band called Closet Klezmer – small world!

I started with an old favourite by Talk Talk. Interestingly, I’d been listening to some Radiohead to play in the Jonny Greenwood context, and the Kid A version of “Morning Bell” is one of their songs I keep going back to. The weird sketchy noise solo burrowing around in the background was reminding me of something, which I realised was Talk Talk’s “Ascension Day”, but it wasn’t until I put that song on that I realised the drum beat (and tempo) is incredibly similar. While melodically they’re fairly different, the influence is palpable.

From our Mr Greenwood we heard some of his classical composition going back to 2003’s Bodysong soundtrack (way back in December 2003, UFog’s & FBi’s first year of operation, I gave listeners a sampling of the work of Olivier Messiaen that’s so clearly an influence). And from his soundtrack to There Will Be Bloody we heard a couple of pieces that are in fact extracts from Popcord Superhet Receiver, and bear the mark of composers like Xenakis and (even moreso) Penderecki.

Next up, a mighty special on the mighty Paradise Motel, who are back from the dead to deliver a really wonderful Australian Ghost Story in the next week or two.
Early Paradise Motel was a boon for the mid-’90s indie scene, much of which was falling into tuneless disrepair (YMMV). The string arrangements, band arrangements and Merida Sussex’s all conveyed a sense of oppressive melancholy, supported by mostly-black packaging… Their second release was the unparalleled Some Deaths Take Forever, twisting their folky indie into a crunchier, more experimental version of Portishead. It still stands up today.
The new album is seriously like they never went away. Its production is a little shinier maybe, and Sussex’s vocals are less indistinct (not a bad thing), but the arrangements, particularly the strings, are just as strong as ever, and there are a number of excellent songs. Strangely, it’s a kind of concept album about the Azaria Chamberlain disappearance, but it’s good despite that, m’kay?

…Which brings us to another indie band who I’m rediscovering through no fault of theirs. You may have heard me playing the fantastic solo work of Perth’s Adam Trainer on this show before – one track featured tonight. He played in the post-rock/indie band Radarmaker, whose two CDs are actually forever enshrined in the Utility Fog Hall of Fame (development application lodged with council pending funding).
That aside, they really are two fantastic releases, post-rock sounds and dynamics with great songwriting. Their website lists gigs up to August last year, so whether that’s encouraging or not I can’t say – I guess I have to ask Mr Trainer.

And thence to – oh! oh! – new Emeralds, on Editions Mego no less. It’s more of the same — analogue synths of all descriptions, sequenced patterns, psychedelic noises, yummy yummy.
Somewhat inappropriately, in between their two tracks we had the dubstep-pop of new Planet µ artist Rudi Zygadlo. The second Emeralds tune mixed perfectly out of his track though, so it’s all OK!
On my first listen to Zygadlo’s album I was disappointed – it didn’t seem as dubstep or as pop as I was hoping. But it’s definitely a grower, and seems stronger in the second half. There are some great sounds, a few good real songs, and the parping dubstep bass throughout is fun.

And this is how you manage a couple of nice smooth genre-changes, kids. You as Caribou and Four Tet, and they make sure it’s all hunky-dory. I’ve really warmed to Caribou’s latest album, which seemed a bit too electronic at first. In comparison, the housey beats of the new Four Tet still haven’t really taken me in, but I went a little bit overboard with some of his old remixes for tonight… Oh — and one new one. I’d better find out if The Acorn are as good as this track makes out!

We thus find our way into the realms of hip-hop via Four Tet, and in particular one of his much-acclaimed Madvillain remixes. However, the original version of “Accordion” is just beautiful, and of course once you’ve heard that you have to hear the Daedelus track from a few years earlier that uses the same accordion…
Then a reprise (from last week) of his tune from that Bleep comp, and a delightful track from one of my favourite albums by my favourite rapper, Busdriver, here collaborating with the equally excellent Radioinactive, with Daedelus on the beats.

And we end up back with Sydney music for our last few tracks. Of Yucuna I know little, except that we need to hear more! Freak folk meets noise? Shades of Gang Gang Dance maybe…

Improv string quartet The NOISE are curating the Thursday night Left Coast Festival gigs at Sedition throughout June. They’re making some pretty fantastic sounds on these Feedback Experiments, and all the Thursday nights look great (I’m playing there on the 24th!)

And Heidi Elva, recently re-located to Melbourne, has a lovely new single out! With a dubby bassline and her delicate harp and vocals, it’s just what you’re looking for on a rainy day.

Talk Talk – Ascension Day [Polydor]
Radiohead – Morning Bell [Parlophone]
Jonny Greenwood – Moon Trills [Parlophone]
Jonny Greenwood – Proven Lands [Nonesuch]
Radiohead – Paperbag Writer [Parlophone]
…interview with Julian Thompson from the ACO, about their current performances of Jonny Greenwood’s Popcorn Superhet Receiver among other things!…
Jonny Greenwood – Henry Plainview [Nonesuch]
Jonny Greenwood – 24 Hour Charleston [Parlophone]
The Paradise Motel – J.Star [Infectious Records]
The Paradise Motel – (hidden track, excerpt) [Infectious Records]
The Paradise Motel – My Sister in ’94 [self-released]
The Paradise Motel – German Girl [Infectious Records]
The Paradise Motel – Watch Illuminum [Infectious Records]
The Paradise Motel – The Cops [self-released]
Radarmaker – Atlas Shrugged [self-released]
Radarmaker – Balthaaar [self-released]
Adam Trainer – Cabrini Green [hellosQuare Recordings]
Emeralds – Candy Shoppe [Editions Mego]
Rudi Zygadlo – The Man In The Duck [Planet µ]
Emeralds – Does It Look Like I’m Here? [Editions Mego]
Rudi Zygadlo – Magic In The Afternoon [Planet µ]
Caribou – Sun [City Slang]
Caribou – Melody Day (Four Tet remix) [City Slang]
The Acorn – Restoration (Four Tet remix) [Paper Bag Records]
Cyne – Automaton (Four Tet remix instrumental) [City Centre Offices]
Kings of Convenience – The Weight of My Words (Four Tet remix) [Mawlaw t/a Source UK]
Madvillain vs Four Tet – Great Day [Stones Throw]
Madvillain – Accordion [Stones Throw]
Daedelus – experience [Plug Research]
Daedelus – A Bloodworth [Bleep]
Busdriver & Radioinactive with Daedelus – Exaggerated Joy [Mush]
Yucuna – Circle of dead meat [demo?]
The NOISE – Feedback Experiment 1 (loud mix) [demo, available on their site!]
heidi elva – the saviour [self-released]

Listen again — ~ 174MB

Ah, network problems abound tonight, but I’m staying up late for you, kidz! So yes, you can LISTEN AGAIN, check bottom of playlist.

Started tonight with three tracks from the excellent North / South / East / West compilation of Bass music from both sides of the Atlantic. Daedelus’ track is one of his best in ages. I meant to play something else from Daedelus, but the whole segment with Four Tet remixes etc will have to wait till next week!
A little hip-hop vignette from Flying Lotus and then Skream gives us an almost technoid dubstep tune.

Emika is a new (to me) dubstep producer, and she takes the genre into the pop world with some very nice vocals. The Scuba remix is on par with all his recent stuff, but her original mix is even better!

I played a mix of a whole stack of Clubroot tunes – mostly from his new album II – MMX, during which I think I convinced myself it’s a whole lot better than I’d though :) It has very much that ambient/rave-comedown thing going on, as did the previous, but that’s his style. It’s lovely listening.

From Emika we went to Valerie Trebeljahr’s disembodied vocals in the classic bomb the bass / lali puna track “clearcut”, here remixed by an artist I’ve been rediscovering this week, Thomas Knak aka Opiate. We had a number of examples of his highly intricate production, including another couple of remixes, of Piano Magic (from a wonderful remix 12″ that’s now available digitally) and, more recently, Icarus.

Also from the archives (although only back to 2005) is alog’s wonderful track, combining Reichian minimalism with a sortof folktronic bent. Coincidentally I was reminded of alog when chatting with Shoeb Ahmad a few weeks back, and we heard next from his duo Spartak, whose track was described (approvingly) as “weird shit” by one listener.
Gail Priest also contributes some (beautiful) weird shit, impeccably recorded, and as always so is Machinefabriek’s gorgeous slow-growing drone piece (from the Daas album that featured in last week’s show as well).

Next up, a little Autechre-fest, in celebration of their Australian gigs coming up this week. Friday at the Forum in Sydney, huge anticipation building up. I have to say, both tracks I played from their new album Oversteps show them at the top of their form – sonically inventive, imbued with emotion…

Oneohtrix Point Never has a new album out next month on legendary Austrian electronic label Editions Mego, but tonight I played the title track of a recently-reissued single. I’m pretty sure this is quite an old recording, but it shows his aptitude for analog synths and sequencers, and the second half is very pretty indeed! Next week we’ll be hearing from fellow travellers Emeralds’ newie, also on Mego.

Crab Smasher continue to produce some of the most intriguing and effective music in the Sydney area. The live piece is a kind of noisy krautrock, and the track from their new cassette is really beautiful.

From the looks of the first track released from the new Menomena album, it’s gonna be awesome. This track has all their trademarks, from the vox and big drums to the piano refrains and even saxophones (used in a good way, don’t worry!)

Finally, another track from the truly fantastic new Sage Francis album. This one, featuring Califone among others, is one of the highlights musically on the album. I’m still to listen closely to the lyrics, but there’s some good shit there.

Daedelus – A Bloodworth [Bleep]
Flying Lotus – Rickshaw [Bleep]
Skream – Slumfunk [Bleep]
Emika – Drop the Other (Scuba‘s Vulpine Remix) [Ninja Tune]
Clubroot – Waterways [Lo Dubs]
Clubroot – Talisman [Lo Dubs]
Clubroot – Solar Flares [Lo Dubs]
Clubroot – Whistles & Horns [Lo Dubs]
Clubroot – Chamber [Lo Dubs]
Emika – Drop the Other [Ninja Tune]
bomb the bass / lali puna – clearcut opiate version [morr music]
Opiate – Srain [April Records]
Piano Magic – The Canadian Brought Us Snow (Opiate Remix) [morr music]
Opiate – amstel [morr music]
Icarus – Keet (Opiate rmx) [Rump]
alog – severe punishment and lasting bliss [rune grammofon]
Spartak – Sleepstalker [Low Point]
Gail Priest – Gravity [get via Bandcamp!]
Machinefabriek – Flotter [Cold Spring]
Autechre – known(1) [Warp]
Autechre – second peng [Warp]
Autechre – V-Proc [Warp]
Autechre – Yuop [Warp]
Oneohtrix Point Never – Young Beidnahga [Synth Series]
Crab Smasher – The Morning After (live at Auraltered State) [Monstera Deliciosa] {free download! This was an ace gig.}
Crab Smasher – digging a hole in a dried up lake [Monstera Deliciosa/Bandcamp]
Menomena – Five Little Rooms [Barsuk] {download this cut from their new album via Pitchfork}
Sage Francis – 16 Years [Strange Famous/ANTI-/Epitaph]

Listen again — ~ 178MB

Tonight’s another one of those “fixate on certain artists” things I like to do :)
LISTEN AGAIN if you wish – link at bottom of playlist.

Sage Francis starts the show with his hip-hop poetry. His new album, Li(f)e, sees him dispensing with the breaks and samples, instead working with various indie and alt.country bands. What with recent ventures from contemporaries like Sole & the Skyrider Band, not to mention Why?’s metamorphosis into an indie band, this isn’t entirely surprising – and indeed I played a few tracks from as far back as 2005 which show Sage’s interest in a venture like this.
The album opens with “Little Houdini”, a Bob Dylanesque tale told in a pretty un-rap fashion, with ex-Grandaddy Jason Lytle’s very effective musical accompaniment. Then we heard Sage’s 2005 single “Sea Lion” with Will Oldham, and what’s for me the indispensible extra verse by Saul Williams from the 12”.
From 2007 there’s the acoustic guitar-led “Got Up This Morning” with the distinctive folky vocals of Jolie Holland, and then we’re back to the new album and a collaboration with Balkan/Eastern European-inspired DeVotchKa.

I also wanted to play a more “traditional” hip-hop tune with beats by longtime collaborator Alias, because Alias produced the entire new album by Sage’s mate B. Dolan, which was released on Sage’s Strange Famous label, and fantastic it is too.

And somehow that leads us to that maverick of UK music Mark E Smith and his band The Fall. With multitudinous different lineups since the late ’70s, he’s released about a thousand albums to date, and the latest has at least a couple of top-rate tracks. “Chino” is led by a sinister circular bass line, and features a fantastically wild guitar solo as well as MES’s trademark snarl. The last track, by contrast, starts almost jangly pop but the last 2/3 is fuzzy bass noise and MES’s intonations. In between, we heard from Smith’s unlikely collaboration with Mouse on Mars from 2007, Von Südenfed, with a ridiculously catchy song called “Rhinohead”.

Matthew Herbert’s new album takes his PCCOM manifeso (read it!) to its logical conclusion, with all sounds produced only by Herbert himself. Some have complained about his at best workmanlike vocals, but in a way I think they make the album. “Tonbridge” is a touching track with a lovely bouncy beat.

And bouncy is the beat from Sydney wonky producer Know-U, inaugurating The Frequency Lab’s “Fictitious Sevens” series. I love the swing that all the electronic artists seem to be introducing into their beats since the advent of dubstep and wonky. (Of course Herbert is a longtime lover of the swing…)
Eskmo’s another producer who loves his swing, and “Let Them Sing” mixes duple and triple time in beautiful fashion.

Also from west coast USA is Flying Lotus, who’s flying high currently on the back of his best album yet. Taking influences from J Dilla on the one hand, but also the dubstep and wonky sounds from the UK, computer games, and his aunt Alice Coltrane’s transcendent jazz. We had a tiny bit of that range in the two tracks tonight.

The reason for the two Ben Frost tracks I played next is that I saw this weekend one of (sadly) the last performances in the Sydney run of Mortal Engine, an incredible work of dance, light and sound by Chunky Move. It features Robin Fox’s lasers, Frieder Weiss’s interactive video design and stacks of music from Ben Frost’s brilliant 2006 album Theory of Machines. Hearing the raw Swans sample in the middle of “Stomp” on the huge Sydney Theatre sound system was pretty amazing, but tonight I thought I’d play the track with the beep-beep. Incredibly tasty stuff, and I had to play something from his latest album too…

Machinefabriek also likes to combine beautiful minimal sounds with swathes of noise, as we heard on his first track of the evening. And he works very well with acoustic instruments in the mix too, like Richard Skelton’s stringed things. We heard from his two most recent releases, and the album Daas is released on UK label Cold Spring, who I know from their black metal, dark ambient and noise stuff, such as the scary but not all that screamingly noisy track I played from Prurient…

I was glad to receive a new CD of recordings from Sydney contemporary music group Ensemble Offspring. It’s impressive how easily a contemporary classical composition such as founding member Matthew Shlomowitz’s fits in among the noise and experimental what-have-you, but when you’ve got two clarinets, accordion, percussion and live lo-fi tape playback, it’s not all that surprising! This is a beautiful work.

Perth’s Adam Trainer has been featured on Utility Fog ever since he was playing in postrock band Radarmaker, and he makes consistently fine experimental music. He’s on tour in East Asia at the moment with Shoeb Ahmad (they just played Bangkok!) and sent me this Tour EP of rareish tracks… And I’m told he’s taking over as Music Director at Perth’s excellent community radio station RTRfm.
Tune in next week and I’ll fish out some Radarmaker as well as some more of his solo stuff.

Final band to take over their bit of tonight’s UFog is Hamilton Yarns. The lovely Sydney band Telafonica recently put together a mixtape for Stu Buchanan’s Discontent blog, and included a track by these guys, so I went and got hold of a few of their albums direct from their site.
I guess basically Hamilton Yarns make English folk music, of a typically English weirdness. Charmingly odd, it’s the sort of stuff which is ramshackle in a way that you just know is studiedly deliberate. If you didn’t hear the show live, I think you’ll really like this stuff.

And finally, I’ve had Eli Murray’s lovely music as Gentleforce on my mind because I’m interviewing him tomorrow for the next issue of Cyclic Defrost. Classic ambient electronica, wonderfully trippy stuff.

Sage Francis with Jason Lytle – Little Houdini [Strange Famous/ANTI-/Epitaph]
Sage Francis – Sea Lion (extended mix feat. Will Oldham, Alias & Saul Williams) [Epitaph]
Sage Francis – Got Up This Morning (feat. Jolie Holland) [Epitaph]
Sage Francis with DeVotchKa – Diamonds and Pearls [Strange Famous/ANTI-/Epitaph]
Sage Francis – Good Fashion / Clickety Clack [Epitaph]
B. Dolan – Earthmovers [Strange Famous]
The Fall – Chino [Domino]
Von Südenfed – Rhinohead [Domino]
The Fall – Weather Report 2 [Domino]
Matthew Herbert – Tonbridge [Accidental Records]
Know-U – Triptych [Frequency Lab]
Eskmo – Let Them Sing [Planet µ]
Flying Lotus – Computer Face / Pure Being [Warp]
Flying Lotus – …And the World Laughs With You (feat. Thom Yorke) [Warp]
Ben Frost – We Love You Michael Gira [Bedroom Community]
Ben Frost – Killshot [Bedroom Community]
Machinefabriek – Study 3 [Machinefabriek]
Machinefabriek – Daas (feat. Richard Skelton) [Cold Spring]
Prurient – Forever Hate [Cold Spring]
Machinefabriek – Onkruid [Cold Spring]
Matthew Shlomowitz – Slow Flipping Harmony (performed by Ensemble Offspring) [Ensemble Offspring/Curious Noise]
Adam Trainer – Corrosion Party [New Weird Australia]
Hamilton Yarns – What If the Joke Comes True? [hark!]
Hamilton Yarns – Search for the Underwater Town [hark!]
Hamilton Yarns – Bedfellows [hark!]
Hamilton Yarns – Can You Hear the Music? Pts 1&2 [hark!]
Gentleforce – Oh The Mystery, Oh The Wonder [Feral Media]

Listen again — ~ 224MB