Hello folks! If you want to LISTEN AGAIN, link’s at the bottom. Note: listening again is in mono. Sorry, just how it comes.

Appropriation was the theme of SNATM, so you get yourselve some interesting sampling in the first track! Er, yes, it’s my band, but remixed by the amazing Melbourne artist Buttress O’Kneel – who gave us an amazing 5 (FIVE) amazing remixes, at least some of which will be on a forthcoming remix album…

We heard a couple of tracks tonight from Spartak’s just-released new album Verona, out now on English label Low Point. Stunning stuff as ever from Shoeb & Evan, on this first track playing dual prepared guitars, panned left and right.

South African “zef” group Die Antwoord have taken the interwebs by storm over the last few months. Their website’s pretty amazing, as are the videos you can watch there, and I’ve been listening to the album recently and thinking that stripped of all the image and hype it’s just great music and great Afrikaans/English rapping. So, enjoy (strong language btw…)

Brazilian singer Cibelle stole our hearts and minds a few years ago with her album The Shine of Dried Electric Leaves, partly produced by Mike Lindsay of Tunng, and the “Noite de Carnaval” single with Matthew Herbert remixes. This new track, courtesy of Pitchfork, is the first from what sounds like a fabulous new album, with none of the electronic adventurism abandoned. Love the dubstep bass pumping away in there…

Funckarma have been exploring dubstep sounds for a while now, as an influence in their releases and in particular on their Dubstoned series of EPs. The third one has just dropped, on 12” and digitally, and the 12” comes with a free download of WAV files of the whole thing plus two bonus tracks (also included in the digital release). Although none of this is exactly dubstep, the influence is strongly there, and these boys are two of my favourite electronica producers of the last decade (1999 was their first EP). So… brilliant stuff.
Later on we heard a lovely remix of an old track by L’usine…

Next up the absolute kings of electronica Autechre with a remix from back in 1998 of drum’n’bass artist Lexis — extraordinary melding of styles. Couple of beauties from the new Autechre album too.
And then another classic from around 1998, from holosud — a due made up of Mouse on Mars associates FX Randomiz and Schlammpeitziger. It’s the sort of stuff that could only come out of the a-musik label in the mid-late ’90s.

…And Tunng. Well, I had my doubts about how they’d fare post-Sam Genders, and on the whole I think they’re confirmed. Mike Lindsay is a wonderful producer but they’re somehow quite a bit more generic here. The one track I played from their new album is a real beauty, no doubt, but most of the rest doesn’t really bear multiple listens. Nice Dntel remix on the UK indie stores bonus CD though…

Couple more remixes from the seemingly ultra-busy classically-trained Mr Son Lux. An alternative mix of one of the My Brightest Diamond tracks we found him remixing a few weeks ago, and a pretty special version of a Why? song from Eskimo Snow.

dakota suite’s remix album, which I featured a couple of tracks from last week, is still going strong – it’s a gorgeous piece of work. Hauschka prepared-pianos it up very nicely, and Machinefabriek is all delicate and sensitive.

Also, new Fieldhead this week. First short track is courtesy of new label nóthings66, whose duskscape not seen compilation features an interesting mélange of electronic and other styles, including the aforementioned L’usine remix of Funckarma (an old track but welcome).
But our Fieldhead also appears on a (seemingly already sold out) split/combined EP with Static Caravan artist Iris to Hypnos, each remixing two of the other’s tracks. Got quite a response from these tunes tonight, so it’s a shame if it’s gone. Check the label website and potentially pester Norman Records (link to sold-out item).

Second Spartak outing for tonight features the angelic vocals of Lucrecia Perez. Go and buy this CD, peoples! PayPal link on their MySpazz, or find an online retailer (there are plenty).

Tonight we also have available the third installment in the LOAF Explorers’ Club, with a new band from Montreal called Oen Sujet. It’s… intriguing stuff. A little bit pop, somewhat electronic, a tad experimental.

Further electronic dalliances are rounded out with a New Weird Australian tune from near Sydney by The Atlas Room. Freaky and freakin’ great.

Then, finally, Yellow Swans’ final album graces our ears, with a submerged (almost subliminal) beat and loads of gorgeous noise. Two tracks from this album, with a long droney and somewhat noisy track from ex-pat Aussie Robert Curgenven, who’s on these shores for a while. Look out for an interview in May, when he’s also playing in Sydney. I’ll let y’all know.

After the second Yellow Swans tune, an uplifting number from the new The Besnard Lakes. I’m absolutely caning this album at home, as well as their two previous ones. I wanted to play “Like The Ocean, Like The Innocent” again (see last week) because it rocks my world, but Olga gets to sing lead on this one, and like I said, totally uplifting. YAY.

FourPlay String Quartet – Bollyrock (Buttress O’Kneel Temptation of the Key remix) [unreleased]
Spartak – Morning Prayer [Low Point]
Die Antwoord – Fish Paste [unreleased, but they’ve just signed to Interscope!]
Cibelle – Man From Mars [Crammed Discs] {download from Pitchfork}
Funckarma – Solaz Flair [eat concrete]
Funckarma – Nays of dight [Ad Noiseam]
Funckarma – Moor [eat concrete]
Lexis – Hypnotise (Autechre slow mix) [Certificate 18]
Autechre – see on see [Warp]
Autechre – known(1) [Warp]
holosud – alaune [a-musik]
tunng – with whiskey [Full Time Hobby]
tunng – bricks (dntel remix) [Full Time Hobby]
Why? – These Hands (Son Lux remix) [Anticon]
My Brightest Diamond – The Diamond (Son Lux Alternate mix) [Asthmatic Kitty] {unreleased mix available from RCRDLBL} {and sampling I wish I could remember what! Prokofiev? Tchaikovsky?}
dakota suite – a quietly gathering tragedy (hauschka remix) [karaoke kalk]
Fieldhead – Almost Everything There is to Know [nóthings66]
dakota suite – one day without harming you (machinefabriek remix) [karaoke kalk]
Iris to Hypnos – Stele 31 (Fieldhead Remix) [Static Caravan]
Fieldhead – Document 1 (Iris to Hypnos Until Ripples Fade Remix) [Static Caravan]
Spartak – Second-Half Clouded (feat. Lucrecia Perez) [Low Point]
Oen Sujet – Circled, Centred [L-O-A-F]
L’usine – Fog (original version by Funckarma) [nóthings66]
The Atlas Room – Iris [New Weird Australia] {download the latest free comp now!}
Yellow Swans – Foiled [Type]
ex – Largo Capriccioso [LINE]
Yellow Swans – Limited Space [Type]
The Besnard Lakes – Albatross [Jagjaguwar]

Listen again — ~ 178MB

Evening! Help us out why don’t you? Support FBi and keep us on air!
And you can LISTEN AGAIN via the link at the bottom.

Sad news that Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse took his own life this week. Played a track to see him off, in collaboration with Christian Fennesz. Fennesz’s laptop power trio FennO’Berg are back with a new album, on which the jury’s still out – but I haven’t had a chance to listen properly yet. This track stood out enough to get the thumbs up tonight!

Montreal’s The Besnard Lakes’ new album sounds remarkably like The Besnard Lakes — and that’s a great thing! If you’re familiar with their last two albums you’ll know what to expect – and it’s as rapturous and epic as ever.
Fellow Canadians The Arcade Fire slipped in next – for some reason this song was on my mind for a few days this week, and it is a very fine one I must say.
And we had a little reminder of The Besnard Lakes’ first album.

First off in our little “classical” music-influenced theme tonight is The Knife’s opera based on the life and works of Charles Darwin, written “in collaboration” with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock. It’s pretty crazy cool stuff, with scene-setting experimental sounds, enormous analog synth lines, operatic (and non-operatic) vocals and some percussion… A definite winner.
Speaking of classical influence, also another track from that amazing These New Puritans album, with wind ensemble in amongst the percussion and almost new wave attitude…

More classicism with Icelandic composer Daníel Bjarnason, whose “Bow To String” is the first work on his new album for Bedroom Community. Countless multi-tracked celli make for a rich and richly-rhythmic sound, with a little help from label boss Valgeir Sigurðsson. From Valgeir we also heard a wonderful track from his new album, featuring many other Bedroom Community artists as guests, plus an older glitchy electronic piece which ushered in a bit of an electronic segment. However, in between we had a reprise of the one track as yet available from Sam Amidon’s new album — blissful rhythmic ostinati and an authentic folk voice.

The electronica begins with Sydney’s Vorad Fils, who happens to be one of the members of the beloved Seekae, and has an album coming out via Feral Media soon! Classic electronica.
It’s the first in a number of tracks tonight from New Weird Australia Volume Five, which you are hereby instructed to go and download now. Get the others too if you haven’t yet!
There. Good.

Next, Scottish glitch-hop artist Loops Haunt. Nicely twisted, syncopated and chopped stuff. And while it’s definitely more on the dancefloor tip, it’s still very much listening music too, and strangely appropriate as a segue into a new Autechre track, from their stellar Oversteps. Raved about it last week, and I think we’ll be back for more for a good few weeks yet (at least until the album comes out on CD!) This track starts off a bit oddly but swiftly becomes something fascinating, and the last minute or two as it tails off are pretty amazing.
And then a rarity – an artist about whom I know pretty much nothing! Racoon is on the Italian label Disasters by Choice and makes very Mém-influenced electronic/folktronic sounds. It’s very pretty and I’d love to know more…

We had a brief tag-team tonight between two excellent remix albums, from Aarktica and dakota suite. The former takes the drone-pop of Jon DeRosa’s Aarktica and either takes it more in the droney-guitar direction or adds some nice crunched beats etc… But UFog-favourites The Declining Winter add some extra vocals and Sarah Kemp’s multi-tracked violin for something very special.
The dakota suite remix album actually came out last year but has just been re-released by German label Karaoke Kalk for greater coverage, and it’s brilliant. Tonight, Peter Broderick is at his usual heights with a very soft and reflective piece worthy of multiple re-listens, and Deaf Center contribute something layered and evocative. More of these to come…

Aaron Martin’s latest album isn’t on Sydney’s Preservation, but Experimedia are well-known for their beautiful packaging too. Aaron here seems to be taking things in an even more abstract sound-related direction, but the second track I played is one of his best cello-related works yet, a multi-tracked delight.

Further New Weird Australia offerings include the wonderful Sydney-based sound artist Gail Priest, whose vocal processing is a wonder, the ever-fab Crab Smasher with a bit of almost Sonic Youth-like rock jamming, and Red Plum & Snow — new project for Kris Keogh of Blastcorp, taking vocal-swapping acoustic guitar folk-pop in very interesting directions :)

Also in there, the improv guitar, sax, drums and other stuff from Sydney’s Espadrille, and a b-side from Collarbones, more glitched-up electronic pop.

sparklehorse + fennesz – Goodnight Sweetheart [Konkurrent]
Fenn O’Berg – Part IV [Editions Mego]
The Besnard Lakes – Like the Ocean Like the Innocent Pt I: The Ocean / Pt II: The Innocent [Jagjaguwar]
Arcade Fire – Neighborhood #3 (Power Out) [Rough Trade]
The Besnard Lakes – This Thing [Breakglass]
The Knife in collaboration with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock – Epochs [Rabid/etcetc]
These New Puritans – Hologram [Angular/Domino]
The Knife in collaboration with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock – Tumult/Colouring of Pigeons [Rabid/etcetc]
Daníel Bjarnason – Bow To String Mvt I: “sorrow conquers happiness” [Bedroom Community]
Valgeir Sigurðsson – Grýlukvæði (feat. Sam Amidon, Nico Muhly & Ben Frost [Bedroom Community]
Sam Amidon – How Come That Blood [Bedroom Community] {free download via Pitchfork!}
Valgeir Sigurðsson – Focal Point [Bedroom Community]
Vorad Fils – Temple Leak [New Weird Australia] {download the latest free comp now!}
Loops Haunt – Huarache [Fortified Audio]
Loops Haunt – Joplin [Black Acre]
Autechre – d-sho qub [Warp]
Racoon – the anonymous brother of Lili Chou Chou [Disasters by Choice] {one wonders if the titular person is Racoon, since I can find practically no information about them on the interwebs!}
Aarktica – In Sea (remixed by Mason Jones) [Silber]
dakota suite – very early one morning on old road (deaf center remix) [karaoke kalk]
Aarktica – Am I Demon? (remix by The Declining Winter) [Silber]
dakota suite – this failing sea (peter broderick remix) [karaoke kalk]
Aaron Martin – Ice Melts Onto Fingers [Experimedia]
Gail Priest – Etchings [New Weird Australia] {download the latest free comp now!}
Aaron Martin – Water Tongue [Experimedia]
Espadrille – out of space part 3 [self-released]
Crab Smasher – Skin Destruction [New Weird Australia] {download the latest free comp now!}
Red Plum & Snow – I Would Die 4 U [New Weird Australia] {download the latest free comp now!}
Collarbones – late nights [Collarbones Bandcamp] {download free – follow the link!}

Listen again — ~ 180MB

Yay for musics! LISTEN AGAIN, folks, at the bottom of this post!
Tonight was mainly a feature on a few special new releases.
Anticon’s Son Lux explores iterations of one track on the digital-only Weapons EP, which Australians can’t get from bloody Amazon, so you might want to try Midheaven…
Have One On Me, Joanna Newsom’s new album is an epic over 3 CDs, but totally worth it for the trip – for both the lyrics and music, a layered love story that’s beautifully poignant.
And while the CD release is still slated for end of March, Warp snuck the digital release of Autechre’s new album Oversteps a good month early. My suspicion is that they wanted to make the best of it, since it had well and truly leaked already. It’s a #1 Stunna, the best release in ages from one of my favourite bands — on the release of their last album, I wrote a feature article in Cyclic Defrost about how much they meant to me. All the melodicism they’ve been submerging for the last decade or so is back to the fore, along with the full spectrum of beats and atmospheres and freakiness.

We started with one of Son Lux’s own reworkings of “Weapons”, and then the opening track from the Joanna Newsom. The latter was so strikingly reminiscent of the lovely Kate Bush that I had to play a couple of her tunes, and a track from Pikelet’s new album segued so nicely from the latter that, well, it just had to be done. Back to Joanna for one of the absolute highlights, the gorgeous “In California”, with wonderful orchestration and a curious way of changing key and then slipping back down a tone for the refrain.

I couldn’t resist playing Clouds’ dubstep anthem from a few years ago, sampling from “The Book of Right On”, and that took us into one of Son Lux’s reworkings of My Brightest Diamond from her fabulous four-artist remix EP collection released a month or so ago. And then brilliant young composer/arranger Nico Muhly got his hands on the Son Lux tune, with a great arrangement and chunky beats.

Speaking of chunky beats, I’m still obsessing a little over These New Puritans’s new album. Sad to have missed out on the limited edition featuring the full score, gimmick though that was. Another great track tonight.

Following that, we had the first track from the new Autechre, which will no doubt be featured over the next good few shows. “known(1)” is one of the beatless (albeit not rhythm-less) tracks, with an incredible freaked-out melody. It was followed by the utterly classic “Flutter” from the Anti EP, its non-repetitive beats still thrilling, and the gorgeously long fade-out still something else. Couple of other long-fade-out tracks from Ae later on, but we took the tip from the frenetic beats to pull out some early drum’n’bass (1993) from Acro, which turns out to be a collaboration between Decoder & Technical Itch, and is the sort of stuff that must’ve been influencing the IDM/drill’n’bass folks around the mid-’90s.

Back with Son Lux, and anticon labelmate Alias gets behind the mic for the first time in ages, as well as remixing the track. Following this, a brilliant track from ex-labelmate Sole with his current collaborater The Skyrider Band, aka William Ryan Fritch (see later in the playlist…)
The latter and the next track are currently available as part of a promotional compilation put together for South By Southwest by Ernest Gonzales’ Exponential Records. The remix of Heliocentrics’s Sirius B features some brilliant rapping from Vast Aire, and comes courtesy of the very fine Stones Throw.

From there, Sydney/Adelaide duo Collarbones give us a piece of glitch-pop, and it’s strongly recommended you go to their Bandcamp and download it FOR FREE.

And thence to New Zealand, where we join the wonderful Chris Knox, along with Alec Bathgate for the seminal and hugely-influential lo-fi experimental wonder-group the Tall Dwarfs. As you may know, Chris suffered a stroke last year that has (as often they do) devastated his language centers, although he is able to move around and even play music again now. We heard a tune from the Tall Dwarfs, Chris’s solo indie hit “Not Given Lightly”, and a couple of really marvellous reworkings from a marvellous double CD compilation that you should go and buy right now, called Stroke, in which artists from all around the world gathered together to help this importand and well-loved musician/artist/writer get by.
Bill Callahan’s cover of “Lapse” is one a few tracks on this album I’ve had on repeat for the last two weeks. It’s just amazing. Also delightful is the contribution from veteran NZ artist Don McGlashan, best known probably for his indie band the Mutton Birds in the ’90s. He pulls out the drum machine and channels Chris Knox’s recording techniques while sounding as angelic as ever. We also had a gorgeous little number from one of the lost masterpieces of NZ music, 1989’s debut album from his duo The Front Lawn.

Next up, our man in Melbourne, John McCaffrey aka Part Timer has sent in another UFog exlusive (for now), his remix of Vieo Abiungo, which turns out to be another project of the disturbingly-talented William Ryan Fritch. This is one of the best Part Timer remixes in ages too, a bit of an idm thing nicely complementing the African-influenced original track.

Japanese artist Miko contributes vocals and lovely glitches to Ian Hawgood’s remix album, and we then move back to Joanna Newsom for “Does Not Suffice”, the last track from Have One On Me. It’s a wonderful and fitting closer, wrapping up the tale with solo piano and voice, all the way up to the final lines, where the strings enter to underscore the final sentiment: “…and everywhere I tried to love you / is yours again, / and only yours.” Gets you right between the eyes, and from there the song opens up crescendoing into a reverb-laden ending.

I took the opportunity of the reverb to cross to the closing track from Autechre’s Oversteps, which managed to be in just the right key. It may not have the advantage of moving lyrics, but it’s a beauty too, and has a lovely long fade out. Two more Ae-related tracks take us out – side project Gescom with “Key Nell 2”, with two great beats and long ambient outro and then “Nuane”, which ends their greatest album, Chiastic Slide, with chattering, burbling synths from another planet.

Son Lux – Weapons II [anticon]
Joanna Newsom – Easy [Drag City/Spunk]
Kate Bush – The Man With The Child In His Eyes [EMI]
Kate Bush – Army Dreamers [EMI]
Pikelet – Pillow Castle [Chapter Music]
Joanna Newsom – In California [Drag City/Spunk]
Clouds – Shallow [Noppa] {samples liberally from Joanna’s “The Book of Right On”}
My Brightest Diamond vs Son Lux – To Pluto’s Moon [Asthmatic Kitty]
Son Lux – Weapons IV (Nico Muhly Remix) [anticon]
These New Puritans – Orion [Angular/Domino]
Autechre – known(1) [Warp]
Autechre – Flutter [Warp]
Acro – Superpod [Force Ten Recordings/Breakdown Records]
Son Lux – Weapons VI (Alias Remix) [anticon]
Sole & The Skyrider Band – Mr Insurgent [Sole One/Fake Four] {available (for now) for free download as part of Exponential Records‘ SXSW promo album Kadohadacho here}
Heliocentrics – Sirius B (remix) feat. Vast Aire [Stones Throw] {available (for now) as above}
Collarbones – Kill Off The Vowels [Collarbones Bandcamp] {download free – follow the link!}
Tall Dwarfs – thought disorder [Flying Nun]
Bill Callahan – Lapse [Chris Knox/Spunk]
Chris Knox – Not Given Lightly [Flying Nun]
Don McGlashan – Inside Story [Chris Knox/Spunk]
The Front Lawn – Theme From The Lounge Bar [The Front Lawn] {see a hilarious YouTube transferred from video here}
Vieo Abiungo – Furious (Part Timer‘s Upbeat Mix) [forthcoming on Lost Tribe Sound] {This is William Ryan Fritch of the Skyrider Band – see above. Exclusive remix from Part Timer, direct from the man as usual…}
Ian Hawgood – A Film by Miko [Home Normal]
Joanna Newsom – Does Not Suffice [Drag City/Spunk]
Autechre – Yuop [Warp]
Gescom – Key Nell 2 [SKAM]
Autechre – Nuane [Warp]

Listen again — ~ 180MB

Filling in for the veritable legendary Paul Gough today! I played some favourite tunes from 1993, just for fun. An interesting year, with Underworld’s self-recreation as techno boundary-pushers, jungle/drum’n’bass getting serious as part of the post-hardcore scene, along with Future Sound of London’s lovely ambient techno and the Warp label’s nurturing of what was dubbed IDM in the nascent email list scene…
Plus heaps of great indie guitar music, punk and rock of course! I’m sad not to have played any hip-hop, among the various omissions, but so it goes with only one hour of airplay!

And yes, as usual, you can LISTEN AGAIN. See below…

Underworld – mmm skyscraper i love you [Junior Recordings]
Nick Cave – Faraway, So Close [Electrola]
NoMeansNo – The Land of the Living [Alternative Tentacles]
John Oswald – Mad Mod [Disk Union]
Björk – Human Behaviour [One Little Indian]
Belly – Low Red Moon [4AD]
Clouds – Bower of Bliss [Red Eye]
Future Sound of London – Cascade Part 1 [Virgin/FSOL Digital]
Boogie Times Tribe – The Dark Stranger [Suburban Base]
Aphex Twin – on [Warp]
Autechre – Kalpol Introl [Warp]

Listen again — ~ 58.5MB