Another great bunch o’ stuff for you tonight. LISTEN AGAIN link at the bottom of the playlist, as usual!

Tonight’s big feature was the wonderful new compilation Music & Migration on Second Language.
We started, though, with a couple of tracks from Sydney post-rock band The Dead Sea, whose album was out in a limited fashion last year, but is available (again?) now. Excellent atmospheric stuff.

We then hopped across to the west for a couple of Perth bands: the cello-heavy shoegaze of My Majestic Star and the beautiful drone of The Ghost of 29 Megacycles (love that track/album title too!)

Speaking of drone, for a cassette on sound&fury, Jasper TX takes inspiration from a poem by Penelope Joy and creates a 15 minute ode to “Waverly Cemetery (Sydney)” (misspelled, sadly, in the original poem, but you can’t have everything). The track ranges, in typical superlative Jasper TX fashion, from drone to field recordings (lovely wind-on-microphone noise), to piano and post-rock…

Then we had the first of a number of tracks from the excellent Music & Migration compilation. Utility Fog favourite Fieldhead has contributed a mostly ambient piece. brave timbers’ piece is piano and layered violins; it’s Sarah Kemp, who plays with both Fieldhead and The Declinig Winter, whose track I’ll probably play next week!
We had a brief detour via Machinefabriek’s gorgeous remix of post-classical/folk/rock band Balmorhea, and then back to the first track on the compilation, from the reliably delightful Hauschka, with prepared piano and, I think, drum machine. Finally, Lene Charlotte Holm’s track was another highlight, and with a bit of digging (thanks Discogs!) I discovered that she’s one half of Iris to Hypnos, whose 7″ on Static Caravan was a mini-highlight of 2008.

The now-Melbourne-based Heidi Elva’s new album, lo-fi musings, should be out soon. She sent me a preview in the form of “Simple Pleasures”, a lovely dubby number that’s been in her live sets for a while. Meanwhile, John Part Timer was unable to resist a remix opportunity, and did some very juicy things to it under his kinda-dubstep alias Dark Mahoney & the Midnight Bitch. More please!

Next, we had a little mini-special on the work of Mr Owen Pallett, aka Final Fantasy. The new album is apparently set in a made-up world called Spectrum, first introduced by Owen in an EP from late 2008 called Spectrum, 14th Century. As well as a new track and one from this EP, we popped back to his debut album in 2005, and also heard an awesome number from a 7″ in Tomlab‘s Alphabet series.

It seemed suitable, after the strings and melodies of Owen Pallett, to delve into the rapturous romanticism of Sebastian Krueger’s Inlets, whose debut album is out in April. Plenty of woodwind along with the band and vocals…
Melbourne’s The Boy Who Spoke Clouds played in Sydney this week, but sadly didn’t really get the word out in time. Adam Casey and cohorts bring something really unusual to the dark folk sound. His debut album is out now; we also heard an unreleased (I believe) track from 2008 with Alex Taylor on violin and Emily Williams on cello.

From Austimer in the northern suburbs of Wollongong, Russell W produces a lovely blend of hip-hop beats, electronics and acoustic sounds. Among others, he does recall Four Tet’s sound, so I took the opportunity to play a number from There Is Love In You, which I’ve found to be the least compelling Four Tet album yet — but for all that, it has its moments. I’m sure I’ll play something else from it next week, and we’ll definitely be hearing more from Russell W too.

Jaga Jazzist used to be a firm favourite of this show; their first two albums, along with solo efforts from the Horntveth brothers and remixes by original labelmate Kim Hiorthøy, were the epitomy of the post-jazz thrill; complex and nimble jazz playing with all the jump-cuts and glitches you could ask for. Their previous album was released as just “Jaga”, and dropped the jazzist tendencies for more of a prog/post-rock vibe, and didn’t really do it for me, so I’m glad they’re back with the Jazzist, if not so much with the glitchy tendencies.
When the album is released I’ll do a bit of an overview with some favourite tracks.

The Dead Sea – Bandicoot [self-released]
The Dead Sea – respire [self-released]
My Majestic Star – Hi [Hidden Shoal]
The Ghost of 29 Megacycles – Love Via Paper Planes [sound&fury]
Penelope Joy & Jasper TX – Waverly Cemetery (Sydney) [sound&fury]
Fieldhead – Open Show [Second Language]
brave timbers – Let’s Never Go Back [Second Language]
Balmorhea – Remembrance (Machinefabriek remix) [Western Vinyl/Longtime Listener]
Hauschka – Lipstick Race [Second Language]
Iris to Hypnos – Hypodermic [Static Caravan]
Lene Charlotte Holm – Tracing Echoes [Second Language]
Heidi Elva – Simple Pleasures [self-released]
Heidi Elva – Simple Pleasures (unauthorized remix by Dark Mahoney & the Midnight Bitch) [unreleased, via Part Timer]
Owen Pallett – Midnight Directives [Domino]
Final Fantasy – Blue Imelda [Blocks Recording Club]
Final Fantasy – Please Please Please [Tomlab]
Final Fantasy – Hey, Dad! [Tomlab]
Inlets – Bright Orange Air [Two Syllables] {free download from Stereogum!}
Inlets – Roots on Sidewalks [Luv Sound] {free download EP! It’s awesome, go get it.}
The Boy Who Spoke Clouds – Fill This Room [Sun Sea Sky Productions]
The Boy Who Spoke Clouds – Misgiving [unreleased]
The Boy Who Spoke Clouds – Happening [Sun Sea Sky Productions]
Russell W – Confetti [Soviet Records]
Four Tet – Sing [Domino]
Russell W – Pastel for Alum [Soviet Records]
Jaga Jazzist – Toccata [Ninja Tune]

Listen again — ~ 168MB

OK… bummer. No listening again to tonight’s show, cool though it was, because the logging software seems to have broken, so it wasn’t recorded.
We’ll make sure it’s back by next week! Post in the comments to tell me how sad you are.

Owen Pallett is no longer Final Fantasy. Fair enough. His new album is wonderful, and still wonderfully geeky. Augmented with orchestra, dabbling in electronics, this album might be his best yet.
William Ryan Fritch is another amazing multi-instrumentalist. He is “The Skyrider Band” in the next track’s Sole & The Skyrider Band, producing amazing layered hip-hop, but the free EP under his own name showcases his cello and heaps of other instruments, as well as vocals (although not on the tracks I played tonight).
Sole’s work with Fritch has been uniformly superb. I picked up their Plastique (mini-)album in the US in November, but didn’t hear about this precursor EP until afterwards. You can grab it for free, like quite a lot of stuff I played tonight (see links in playlist!)
We had a bunch of stuff tonight from, and related to The Elysian Quartet. Their self-released EP features improvisations stitched together on computer by their viola player Vincent.
Back in 2004 they recorded the first string quartet by Gabriel Prokofiev — yes, related to the famous Sergei, whose Romeo & Juliet has been unknowingly sampled by many a hip-hop artist. We heard Prokofiev’s own “Hip-Hop” mix of movement 1.
The quartet’s cellist Laura Moody has a solo EP out, in which she sings, beat-boxes (well… sortof) and plays cello. Pretty amazing stuff. And two of the others are Geese, who have done a number of awesome remixes lately, including one released early this year of Hot Chip.

From England we moved back to Australia, for a collaboration between Part Timer and Heidi Elva (who has recently moved to Part Timer’s adopted home of Melbourne). These two fit together hand-in-glove, and we can only hope there are more of these collaborations and they get released soon.
Late last year John Part Timer released an EP as scissors and sellotape on the boutique cotton goods label. It sold out in about 10 seconds, but he kindly sent me a copy, complete with the stunning packaging. And on the day I received his parcel from Melbourne, an email turned up with another as-yet-unreleased track, this time a lovely remix of Czech band gurun gurun, to come out later this year.
From Melbourne to Perth, with a couple of shoegazey tracks. First off with luscious cello, My Majestic Star. I’ll certainly be playing more from them next week – it’s a varied album, albeit mainly in the shoegaze area.
The Ghost of 29 Megacycles used to be Greg Thaw solo, but for their debut album, it’s a trio. Lovely vocals and drones on sound&fury.

Next up, the first track to be taken from LOAF‘s Explorers’ Club series. Check out the link — it’s gonna be awesome, and the first one lives up to all expectations. Peter Broderick’s track is a superb concoction of piano, guitar, drums & cello.
Zelienople give us some of their minimalist dreampop/postrock. I need to explore this band a lot more!
And then Sweet Billy Pilgrim’s contribution to the aforementioned Explorers’ Club – banjo-led postrockfolk, since you were asking for a genre.
Keeping it folky, we have a sneak preview of Sam Amidon’s new album – clearly it’s going to be amazing. A re-tooled folk song not unlike the incredible folk adaptation he sang on Nico Muhly’s latest album.
I was reminded a little of the Appalachian folk adaptations by Brian Harnetty, and thence to The Books, whose delightful live show I witnessed earlier tonight.

We then headed back to William Ryan Fritch (OMG the cello playing) and then a remix of him with Sole by none other than b.fleischmann. Then we had to hop back to Sydney for an excellent percussion-and-spoken-samples jam from Dane Frankcom, after which Mr Fleischmann serenaded us with an extract from 2003’s “Take your time” — the glitchy pianos and Christof Kurzmann’s vocals in the last 10 minutes or so. Still a wonderful track (45 minutes long in total).

The new track from Sydney’s Alpen bodes extremely well for his new album. It’s actually Danny Jumpertz, one of the two people behind New Weird Australia, not to mention Feral Media… Alpen’s guitar riffs reminded me that I wanted to play Retribution Gospel Choir, the rockier side project of Alan Sparhawk from Low. His usual beautiful songwriting in a different context.
Then we’re back with Owen Pallett for two more cuts from his album. In between, another New Weird Australia track, this one from Melbourne’s Automating, whose processed field recording is engaging and just a little scary :)

Owen Pallett – Keep The Dog Quiet [Domino]
William Ryan Fritch – the snow rusted the earth [Asthmatic Kitty] {free Christmas EP! Download here]
Sole & The Skyrider Band – cutoffmoon [Sole One/Fake Four] {free download EP from here!}
the elysian quartet – untitled track 3 from self-released EP [self-released]
Gabriel Prokofiev – String Quartet No. 1, performed by the Elysian Quartet (Gabriel Prokofiev “Hip-Hop mix” of First Movement) [Nonclassical]
Laura Moody – They’re Saying It’s Over [self-released]
Hot Chip – One Pure Thought (remixed by Geese) [EMI]
part timer w/ heidi elva – as-yet untitled track [direct from part timer]
scissors and sellotape – untitled track 7 [cotton goods]
gurun gurun – ano uta (part timer remix) [unreleased, courtesy part timer]
My Majestic Star – Stranger [Hidden Shoal]
The Ghost of 29 Megacycles – The Cold Light of Silence [sound&fury]
Peter Broderick – Robbie’s Song [Lo Alternative Frequencies]
Zelienople – All I Want Is Calm [Type]
Sweet Billy Pilgrim – Amina [Lo Alternative Frequencies]
Sam Amidon – How Come That Blood [Bedroom Community] {free download via Pitchfork!}
Brian Harnetty – i’ll cross the briny ocean, i’ll cross the deep blue sea [Atavistic]
The Books – the future, wouldn’t that be nice? [Tomlab]
William Ryan Fritch – cotton wamth on sore, chafed hands [Asthmatic Kitty] {free Christmas EP! Download here]
Sole & The Skyrider Band – black (b.fleischmann remix) [Sole One/Fake Four] {free download EP from here!}
Dane Frankcom – Word Tone [self-released/demo?]
b.fleischmann – Take your time (extract – last 9-10 minutes) [Morr Music]
Alpen – A Meditation on Flight [New Weird Australia] {of course it’s another free download, follow the NWA link}
Retribution Gospel Choir – Hide It Away [Sub Pop] {free download from Stereogum}
Owen Pallett – Flare Gun [Domino]
Automating – When Use Becomes Abuse [New Weird Australia] {free download, follow the NWA link}
Owen Pallett – What Do You Think Will Happen Now? [Domino]

Well. Tonight’s show is primarily based around music that will be coming up this week for Sydney Festival – well, a few of the things coming up, which I’m self-indulgently stringing out into nearly a whole show (see bottom for LISTEN AGAIN link – not including all the overtime stuff!).
But we start with some pretty new music (and new pretty music), from Brooklyn’s Daniel Lopatin aka Oneohtrix Point Never, who takes analog synth nostalgia to a new level on his double CD album Rifts. Ohio’s Emeralds are doing something else, also ostensibly in the noise field, with beautiful nostalgic mostly electronic music.

Then the bulk of the show: our Sydney Festival specials. Severed Heads’ importance to Australian and international music can’t be overstressed. We heard material going back pretty early, with tape loop experiments, early amazingly-prescient techno (like, ultra-early: 1982), and some of Tom Ellard’s exquisitely understated and brilliant pop songs.

Next up: John Cale, whose importance doesn’t even need to be stressed by the likes of me. My selections were, I guess, nothing more than a little essay in John Cale’s importance to me, and why not?

That said, The Books are probably one of the most important bands for me in the last decade, at least. Featuring my instrument, the cello, and a wonderfully gregarious approach to music-making, with digital cut-ups commingling with Appalachian folk and more… They’re the perfect Utility Fog band…

SydFest are doing well, because Grizzly Bear are undoubtedly another of the most important recent bands for me, along with Dan Rossen’s other project, Department of Eagles. I tried to play a number of unusual and different related tracks tonight (and we had a couple of rare Books tunes as well earlier).

And finally (for the Festival), Patrick Watson’s début album Close to Paradise was a revelation when it came out in 2006; it won Canada’s Polaris Music Prize, a surprising accolade for a quite experimental (or at least non-mainstream) release. His 2009 album Wooden Arms was an equally beautiful blend of songwriting, post-classical and jazz, along with bits of electronica and experimental touches.
Our Allnighter fell through at the last minute tonight, so I had to hold the fort till about 1:45am. We got a bit of a bonus, therefore, and I played a few more Aussie tracks.

Sydney musician Eve Klein’s Textile Audio project has been a long time coming. Operatically trained, Klein has been working on this mix of classical music (including her operatic vocals) and electronica for well over 5 years if I’m right. The results here are very impressive.
From Melbourne, Tantrums give us a great fun piece of electronica – their album this year will be another to look out for.
Both these tracks are downloadable for free from New Weird Australia.

From Sydney’s Frequency Lab comes another download comp (not free), and we heard Sydney artist Edseven doing a nice wonky number.

And finally, the new single from Pikelet, in anticipation of her new album Stem, out in February. I cannot wait – Evelyn is one of Australia’s musical gems.

Oneohtrix Point Never – Grief and Repetition [No Fun Productions]
Oneohtrix Point Never – Russian Mind [No Fun Productions]
Emeralds – Geode [Wagon/Gneiss Things]
Severed Heads – Anthem 82 [Vinyl on Demand]
Severed Heads – Somehow Pain/Always Randy [Vinyl on Demand]
Severed Heads – 4.W.D. [Ink Records, now available direct thru Sevcom]
Severed Heads – Sydney Quads & the Megascope Space Probe [Ink Records, now available direct thru Sevcom]
Severed Heads – Big Car Intro/Big Car [Volition, now available direct thru Sevcom]
Severed Heads – First Steps [Volition, now available direct thru Sevcom]
Severed Heads – Golden Height/I’m Your Antidote [Volition, now available direct thru Sevcom]
HEY FOLKS! Utility Fog cross-FBi information blirt! Download a 51-minute Severed Heads special from New Weird Australia with Tom Ellard interviewed and more of this awesome music to listen to!
The Velvet Underground – Heroin [Verve]
John Cale – Paris 1919 [Reprise]
John Cale – Fear Is A Man’s Best Friend [Island Records]
John Cale – Heartbreak Hotel [Island Records]
John Cale – Heartbreak Hotel (solo live) [Hannibal]
John Cale – The Soul of Carmen Miranda [Hannibal]
Brian Eno/John Cale – Lay My Love [Hannibal]
The Books – motherless bastard [Tomlab]
The Books – the lemon of pink [Tomlab]
The Books – the lemon of pink [Tomlab] {yes, track 1 and then track 2!}
The Books – there is no there [Tomlab]
The Books – vogt dig for kloppervok [Tomlab]
The Books – Three Day Night [self-released]
The Books – 8 Frame [self-released]
Department of Eagles – Sailing By Night [Melodic]
Grizzly Bear – Deep Sea Diver [Kanine Records]
Grizzly Bear – Don’t Ask (Final Fantasy remix) [Kanine Records]
Grizzly Bear – Owner of a Lonely Heart [audraglint] {Cover, of course, of Yes}
Dan Rossen – Graceland [from some mp3 blog somewhere, I’m sure…] {Cover, you’ll have noticed, of Paul Simon}
Dan Rossen – Too Little Too Late [download from La Blogoteque or the Grizzly Bear blog] {cover, you will probably have no idea, of JoJo…}
Grizzly Bear – Little Brother [Warp]
Department of Eagles – Deadly Disclosure/Balmy Night [taken from their http://www.myspace.com/deptofeagles a couple of years ago…]
Patrick Watson – Down at the beach [Secret City Records]
Patrick Watson – Daydreamer [Secret City Records]
Patrick Watson – Where the wild things are [Secret City Records]
Textile Audio – Some Kind of Mininova [New Weird Australia]
Tantrums – Beat The Happy Pavement [New Weird Australia]
Edseven – Pigeon Clap [Frequency Lab]
Pikelet – Weakest Link [Chapter Music]

Listen again — ~ 198MB

G’day 2010! New decade eh! (YES IT IS)
I saw Andrew Bird at the Sydney Opera House tonight, so I was an hour late! Thanks heaps to Brooke Olsen for excellent sounds continuing out of Sunday Night at the Movies!
Courtesy of a couple of long tracks and the fact that we started an hour late, this looks like a short playlist. Lots of lovely musics, which you can LISTEN AGAIN to soon!

After Brooke’s selections, tonight I started with a beautiful remix from Oren Ambarchi of Paul Duncan‘s “Parasail” – unreleased until Oren’s recent Intermission 2000-2008 CD.
Sydney improvising string quartet The Noise made their (presumably) radio debut from a recent demo I was handed today! I saw them play one of their first gigs and am very glad they’re finally getting some initial recordings out there.
Andrew Bird had to make an appearance in tonight’s playlist. As I mentioned on air, when I saw him play this song tonight it occurred to me that it would have to make my “top N songs of the ’00s” list — not that I’m likely to ever make one.
Eskmo has been one of my major discoveries of 2009, first with his amazingly heavy dubstep anthem (if only it had been), “Agnus Dei”, and then with the wonky sounds of its b-side and various other tunes. His first 12″ on Planet µ keeps the wonky going, and “Let Them Sing” is another little masterpiece that you need to hear.
London’s Three Trapped Tigers put out one EP in 2008 that I only just got hold of, along with their EP2 from 2009 — another 2009 release that just slipped through the cracks (with more later tonight). They do the live Squarepusher/AFX thing impeccably, but the inclusion of piano along with the live drums and synths and the like makes for something special. I’m thinking we’ll be hearing a lot more from these guys in 2010. I hope so!
David Grubbs’ 2004 album A Guess at the Riddle was another of my purchases while in the US in November. Excellent stuff, and this is one of the tracks featuring Matmos!
Tonight’s track from Au’s Versions has always reminded me (in the vocals at least) of John Cale, and I couldn’t resist playing his exquisite LCD Soundsystem version from a few years back. More Cale next week, I think, in anticipation of his Sydney Festival show!
Finished with a couple of very late 2009 purchases that I was ultra-keen to get out there. Andrea Belfi & Machinefabriek’s collaboration is one of Rutger’s best releases of this year – beautiful textures and guitar playing with Belfi’s percussive soundscapes.
And finally, we heard the entire half-hour of Peter Broderick’s beautiful “Music for a Sleeping Statue of Peter Broderick”, written for the launch of an exhibition featuring none other than a statue of Peter Broderick, reclining in bed :) It’s lovely sleepy music with lots going on if you tune your ears in to it…

Oren Ambarchi – Iron Waves (remix of Paul Duncan‘s “Parasail”) [Touch]
The Noise – Moths and the Moon [unreleased]
Andrew Bird – A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left [from the self-released fingerlings 3]
Eskmo – Let Them Sing [Planet µ]
Three Trapped Tigers – 5 [Blood and Biscuits]
Three Trapped Tigers – 6 [Blood and Biscuits]
David Grubbs – Hurricane Season [Drag City/Fat Cat]
Au – Ida Walked Away [Aagoo Records]
LCD Soundsystem – All My Friends (John Cale version) [DFA Records]
Andrea Belfi & Machinefabriek – Pulses & Places 3 [brombron]
Peter Broderick – Music for a Sleeping Statue of Peter Broderick [Slaapwel Records]

Listen again — ~ 115MB