Gabrielle Nicholson filled in for me this first week that I’m in the USA. She has just sent word that this was the what that was played. Nice!

Eel – Can i be your pet
Eel – No Heart
Eel – im crying on a street
gang gang dance – nomad for love – warp
gang gang dance – glory in itself/egyptian – warp
gang gang dance – egowar – warp
gang gang dance – before my voice fails – warp
pandatone – did it happen – music related
pandatone – i forgot if we dreamed – music related
pandatone – the fog of memory – music related
pandatone – we fucking love – music related
salem – when you sleep – merok records
pimmon – oh whollsee – preservation
badly drawn boy – the shining (capitol k remix)
junior boys – last exit (fennesz remix) – kin
Hrvatski – Nuclear Cats get New Home – Reckankreuzungsklankewerkzeuge
Opitope – Mist on the Sea – Spekk
Opitope – A Place under the Paired Sal Tree – Spekk
modern institute – post-ino – Expanding Records
modern institute – stairs – Expanding Records
modern institute – regattina della techno – Expanding Records
modern institute – international rustic – Expanding Records
motoro faam – and subsurface flows – Preco
motoro faam – and snow melts – Preco
motoro faam – and surface run off – Preco
motoro faam – and precipitation – Preco
fuck buttons – olympians – ATP Recordings
fuck buttons – the lisbon maru – ATP Recordings
bersarin quartett – mehr als alles andere – lidar
bersarin quartett – endlich am zeil – lidar

Thanks to Gabrielle Nicholson for filling in on last night’s Utility Fog! Next week is Alexandra Savvides, and then we rinse and repeat for another two weeks. I will return on the 29th of November with bucketloads of new stuff from overseas.

For the next four weeks I’m travelling round the USA (mostly – popping by Toronto in the middle). You can follow the travel over at Twitter and my blog (well, the plan is to start blogging in the next day or two!) if you have the required masochistic streak :)

I should have the playlists up for my lovely fill-ins’ shows within a couple of days of their broadcast.

Tonight we had a big Aaron Martin interview, and featured lots of his work. Download the interview separately.
Also, tonight is my last Utility Fog for 4 weeks as I go gallivanting around the USA. Back in time for the last Sunday of November.
LISTEN AGAIN link at bottom of playlist. Download size is smaller due to technical stuff-up.

While we continue to celebrate Ben Frost’s new album, it was interesting to dive back into his earlier work again, this time to 2005, when he rather stunned the locals by getting himself the gig of remixing Björk. And a fine job he did too.
emptyset are a duo from Bristol making deliciously sparse and deep electronic music of the like that Pan Sonic are known for. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that one of the mathematical symbols for the empty set is Ø, which Pan Sonic member Mika Vainio records under. The self-titled album by these guys has grown on me a lot, and I’ve been listening to a few tracks repeatedly.
Tonight featured a lot of repeated artists – new releases and stellar releases suggested this theme. Inch-time’s debut CD in 2004 was featured heavily on this show — the folktronica with deep bass action suiting the ‘Fog perfectly — so it was a great pleasure to receive a promo from Stefan of his forthcoming 12″. I took the opportunity to play a track from his first CD and one from his previous album, as well as a newie.
And thence into Aaron Martin. He’s a lovely feller, and his music — made of cello, banjo, guitars, sundry percussion, found sounds and field recordings, as well as some vocals and no doubt other instruments in the mix — is a unique treasure.
With 3 hours to fill, Utility Fog is able to engage in some delightful indulgences now and then, so tonight we heard what amounted to about half of the new Necks album. Most of their studio albums from the last 10 years or so (Hanging Gardens was 1999!) could count as among their best, and this is no exception, with swooping organ, lush piano and percussion, warm and tight bass and some very tight beats in the middle.
Tonight’s takings from the new Ben Frost album are named after Bill Murray’s character in Ghostbusters, but the ghosts they evoke are altogether more scary. I’m thinking this is album of the year, or very close to.
Big call, I know :)
Melbournians royalchord are deviating in some fascinating ways from their alt.country roots. The tracks with weird Casio keyboards and simple drum machines under the plaintive vocals are very beguiling.
UFog regular Hauschka has a new 3″ EP on the very cute secret furry hole label. It’s back to pretty much solo prepared piano, and it’s lovely.
A rude shock follows, with Fuck Buttons’ acid techno noise. Quite a lush album, not quite as noisy and untethered as it could have been, but Andrew Weatherall’s production lends it a certain something.
Meanwhile, Sydney instrumental ROCK band Captain Kickarse and the Awesomes have a new EP out, and it rocks in their usual fashion.
We then dip back down to Melbourne, where Julian Williams is purveying some experimental pop featuring that very Melbournian light-voiced almost-whinge singing which I have to admit I’m not quite sure about. But he’s a member of Hi-God People, so he’s automatically awesome. Co-released by Synaesthesia, who upped-and-relocated to London a few years back, so it’s nice to see them pitching in here.
We heard from Alister Spence Trio’s new album fit last week, and its scintillating textures required another outing. Fans of Triosk, 3ofmillions and indeed The Necks take note.
Finally, to see me off as I won’t get to play him for 4 weeks now, two tracks from fieldhead’s wonderful album, which should be out in just over a week. Mixing Machinefabriek-style drone-noise with clicky 2step beats and folktronic elements, it’s another entry in the top albums of the year.

Björk – Desired Constellation (Ben Frost‘s School of Emotional Engineering Mix) [One Little Indian]
emptyset – Gate 3 [Caravan]
emptyset – Completely Gone [Caravan]
Inch-time – a handful of dust [Static Caravan]
Inch-time – red in green [self-released; re-released by Static Caravan is also out of print]
Inch-time – Icicles and Snowflakes [Static Caravan]
Aaron Martin – Karl Rove [Preservation]
Aaron Martin – Two and a Half Acres [Preservation]
…inteview with Aaron Martin, with excerpts from “Kentucky”, “Tire Swing”, “Terrace” (on Under the Spire), Wheat Beetle (on now-defunct netlabel My Formica Table), “Branch Wheel”, “Tilton’s”, “Cello Recycling” (with and self-released by Machinefabriek, also on Type), “Terrace (Grand View)” (with Part Timer, forthcoming on Under the Spire)…
Aaron Martin – Burl [forthcoming on sound&fury]
The Necks – 25-30 minute excerpt from Silverwater [Fish of Milk, through Shock]
Ben Frost – Peter Venkman Pt I [Bedroom Community]
Ben Frost – Peter Venkman Pt II [Bedroom Community]
royalchord – It’s Not Who [Mistletone]
Hauschka – flingern [secret furry hole]
Fuck Buttons – Phantom Limb [ATP Records]
Fuck Buttons – Space Mountain [ATP Records]
Captain Kickarse and the Awesomes – Doubletank [self-released]
Julian Williams – Fairground Secret Rite [Synaesthesia/Spill]
Alister Spence Trio – wash away [Rufus Records]
Alister Spence Trio – caught in light (reprise) [Rufus Records]
fieldhead – introductions [home assembly music]
fieldhead – this train is a rainbow [home assembly music]

Listen again — ~170MB. File is lower bitrate than usual because a re-edit was required and, er, it’s a long story m’kay?

Tonight’s Utility Fog featured an interview with Portland’s Heather Woods Broderick, which is available for download separately here as well as as part of the whole show.
LISTEN AGAIN link at bottom of playlist.

We started with a new track from Alister Spence Trio, featuring Spence on piano/keyboards, The Necks’ Lloyd Swanton on bass, and Toby Hall on drums. Although they’re laid out like a traditional jazz piano trio, like the Necks their musical ventures take them out into ambient and experimental territories — such as the lovely double bass textures at the end of this track.
Sufjan Stevens’ orchestration skills have been evident for as long as he’s been making music, so it’s no great surprise to hear an amazing orchestral work from him. The BQE extends far further than just the classical orchestra, though, as we hear in the plucking at the start of the first track I player, and the second track’s wonderful electronic processing and edits.
I played a track from the new bleeding heart narrative album last week, but tonight wanted to showcase some more of Oliver Barrett’s talent — so we had something from his debut album, and two vocal tracks from tongue tangled hair, featuring string arrangements and studio interventions.
Heather Woods Broderick’s debut album is a beautiful concoction of indiefolk songs, string arrangements and adventurous production. I had an in-depth chat with Heather and played quite a bit of her music!
Simultaneously (I think?) with The BQE, string quartet Osso are releasing an album of string quartet arrangements of Sufjan’s experimental electronic album Enjoy Your Rabbit, so I felt it was worth hearing a track from that album, as well as Nico Muhly’s arrangement of one of the tracks.
This allowed me a segue into Iceland-based Adelaidian Ben Frost’s fabulous music, as Nico is involved in Ben’s latest album (and they share a record label). We had a track (as we did last week too) from Ben’s early EP music for sad children, and one from his band school of emotional engineering, followed by another amazing piece from By The Throat, which should be out in Australia by the end of this week.
This took us back to Alister Spence Trio, with quite a different track from the opener, and then more piano goodness from Leila, masterfully covering Aphex Twin for the Warp20 (Recreated) compilation. Also on piano, from his beautiful Polaroid Piano release on Brisbane’s Someone Good, we had two tracks of soft-focus piano and interesting studio treatments from Akira Kosemura.
One of many free downloads this week came from Sydney’s Seekae, via Loopsnake (FBi‘s own Andrew Maxam), with a lovely remix of their fan favourite “Void”.
We followed this with a few tracks from Dublin breakcore/electronic artist Herv, who first came to my attention way back in 2003. We had one track from that year, and one from 2006, showcasing Herv’s interest in using classical & acoustic sounds in his music, and followed it with a manic track from his latest, a (free) download release on CockRockDisco.
Another remix of the Melvins follows, in which noise god Matthew Bower surfaces as Sunroof! and turns in a piece of gorgeous ambience(!)
Coincidentally perfectly in key with Sunroof!’s track is Sydney’s Deepchild, whose latest release is highly, and most satisfyingly dubstep-influenced.
London prodigy Paul White inhabits more of the wonky hip-hop end of this spectrum, and after his astounding remix featured on the Wild Angels comp, it’s great to hear some equally bent sounds from The Strange Dreams of Paul White, sampling from King Crimson and Captain Beefheart among many, many others.
Rob Sparx has made his way from d’n’b roots (there are a couple of excellent drum’n’bass tracks on this album too) into the dubstep world, and his latest album is a double CD, the second one featuring (I believe) tracks from 12″s and remixes from the likes of Distance.
And Ital Tek has a new 12″ on his own Atom River, and is giving away a bonus track free from the label’s website.
Shadow Huntaz somehow segue nicely out of dubstep, with the bass-heavy production of Funckarma. The brothers remix Belgian electronic pop group Röyksopp, turning something silly into something very dirty and heavy.
And finally, while King Cannibal’s remix of Two Fingers isn’t quite as dirty as The Bug’s one I featured a couple of weeks back, it’s got a great almost-drum’n’bass drive to it.

Alister Spence Trio – neon and rain [Rufus Records]
Sufjan Stevens – The BQE, Movement III: Linear Tableau with Intersecting Surprise [Asthmatic Kitty]
Sufjan Stevens – The BQE, Movement IV: Traffic Shock [Asthmatic Kitty]
bleeding heart narrative – the cartographer [Tartaruga Records]
bleeding heart narrative – bhn [Tartaruga Records]
bleeding heart narrative – colours turn colours [Tartaruga Records]
Heather Woods Broderick – From the Ground [Preservation]
…interview with Heather Woods Broderick (accompanied by extracts from “Something Other Than”, “For Misty” and “Left” and “Old Son”)…
Heather Woods Broderick – Wounded Bird [Preservation]
fieldhead – songs well known [home assembly music]
Sufjan Stevens – year of the rat [Asthmatic Kitty]
Osso – Year of the Dragon (Sufjan Stevens arr Nico Muhly) [Asthmatic Kitty]
Ben Frost – poking holes in your research [self-released and long out of print!]
school of emotional engineering – falling for sylvia [Architecture Label]
Ben Frost – Híbakúsja [Bedroom Community]
Alister Spence Trio – radium [Rufus Records]
Leila – vordhosbn [Warp] {cover of Aphex Twin}
Akira Kosemura – Tyme [Someone Good]
Akira Kosemura – Sign [Someone Good]
Seekae – Void (Loopsnake Remix) [download from SoundCloud]
Herv – Konnektquartet [Go Away Recordings]
Herv – fast food, slow women [compactrisc.]
Herv – At the moment of commitment, the universe conspires to assist you [CockRockDisco] {album is a free download from CRD!}
Melvins – The Silky Apple Butter of Youth by Sunroof! [Ipecac]
Deepchild – Wannado [Sub Continental Dub]
Paul White – The Uprising Of The Insane [One Handed Music]
Paul White – Alien Nature [One Handed Music]
Rob Sparx – The Prayer (Distance Remix) [Z Audio]
Rob Sparx – Stroller [Z Audio]
Ital Tek – Lightning Fields [Atom River] {free download from the label site!}
Shadow Huntaz – Mysteries [Porter Records]
Röyksopp – Tricky Tricky (Funckarma Rmx) [download from SoundCloud]
Two Fingers feat. Ce’Cile and Sway – Bad Girl (King Cannibal remix) [Ninja Tune]

Listen again — ~270MB.