Tonight we took a bit of a trip to Japan, but also featured some great local sounds, and stuff from the UK & USA. Listen again link at bottom of playlist as per usual.

Started with Jason Sweeney’s droney project Panoptique Electrical, with the beautiful piano and cello piece that opens his new album Yes To Fear, Yes To Desire.
Then we started our Japanese sojourn with aus, remixed by the wonderful Bracken last year. aus’s new album is coming out soon on Brisbane’s ROOM40, and we heard one of the lovely tracks tonight.
aus contributed a remix to the Matryoshka remix album Coctura, we heard two of the others tonight. First off, the always World’s End Girlfriend, combining strings, brass and insanely complex editing for a track that’s at least as much WEG as Matryoshka (who I don’t know much about). The other remix is by the excellent glitch-hop artist Riow Arai. In between, an unreleased version of a track from WEG’s latest album Hurtbreak Wonderland.
This month, Wire Magazine institute a new subscriber-only compilation, download only, called below the radar. LSD March’s psych-folk was one of the few things to really catch me on the inaugral comp, but it’s fantastic stuff. Eddie Corman of eddie marcon used to play with them, so after an older LSD March track, we had two tracks from eddie marcon, the second of which comes from their stunning and fragile album on Preservation.
We stick with the Sydney label for two tracks by Caethua, a solo artist from US Midwest who accompanies her songwriting with guitar, piano, field recordings and occasional buried quasi-industrial beats. Compelling stuff, over two CDs.
A quick flash back to 2005 with avia gardner’s indietronic gorgeousness, and then we had a trio of tracks from Nicola Hodgkinson & Chris Coyle, who use to be empress, but have retitled themselves New North Wales for a long-awaited new EP on the Mobeer label. The tracks covered crackly piano/vocals and distorted noise, but the third is one of the loveliest pieces of indie songwriting to be hidden away on an out-of-print compilation…
We hadn’t had enough electronica yet, so Ard Bit stepped in the correct the imbalance. Ard Janssen is based in the Netherlands, and his album is co-produced by Roel Funcken of Funckarma. It’s very much in their vein of bass-heavy complex idm, with a slight tilt towards dubstep here and there. Fine stuff.
There followed three tracks from the legendary Luke Vibert, who has now released two top notch albums this year. “De-Pimp Act”, from the Planet µ release, is as perfect Vibert as you can get, with cheesy jazz samples, sampled voices, tight bass and beats, and acid squelches. As a reminder of his range, the Wagon Christ track I played in the middle was actually drill’n’bass, delightfully melodic with superior amen break programming, and last up, from Rhythm, a hip-hop tune with oh-so-smooth barbershop quartet (yet to be identified – any takers?)
We had two amazing tracks from Vladislav Delay, bringing the bubbly glitchy dub. From his first release on his own huume recordings, the main source sound gradually emerges to be acoustic guitar. The new album quite appropriately lands him with the Leaf label, and in the track we heard, an almost brutal beat grows and then transforms into something like industrial dubstep, complete with hints of wobbly bass, but so much more… We followed with a touch of real dubstep from one of the albums of the year, Clubroot’s self-titled debut.
I am informed that Melbourne bass-drums-keyboards trio Battlesnake’s album is finally getting released. The track I played also features violin, to create something quite unusual.
Edwin Montgomery plays violin, among many other instruments, on his roads album, from which we took another epic track (albeit briefer than last week’s). We kept it ambient with the drone of Bird Traps (formerly Winterville, from Melbourne), and finished up with some more excellent keyboard-noise post-punk from Alps of New South Whales.

Panoptique Electrical – Hyvönen [Sensory Projects]
aus – Moraine (Bracken Remix) [Preco]
aus – Pool [ROOM40]
Matryoshka – Sink Into The Sin (Remixed by World’s End Girlfriend) [Novel Sounds]
World’s End Girlfriend – Birthday Resistance (Parade) [unreleased]
Matryoshka – Ezekiel (remixed by Riow Arai) [Novel Sounds]
LSD March – ai no sakebi [Important Records via The Wire]
LSD March – Rittai Lamp Ashita No Godard [White Elephant Records]
eddie marcon – owari hajimari [Pong Kong]
eddie marcon – amime [Preservation]
Caethua – The Old Ones Go First [Preservation]
Caethua – In the Long Afternoon [Preservation]
avia gardner – oceans of almost rushing [intr_version]
New North Wales – the way back home [Mobeer]
empress – clavioline [555 Records of Leeds, UK]
empress – By The Lamproom [Misplaced Music]
Ard Bit – Dvil [Symbolic Interaction]
Luke Vibert – De-Pimp Act [Planet µ]
Wagon Christ – King’s Lyn [Ninja Tune]
Luke Vibert – A Fine Line [soundofspeed]
vladislav delay – kainuu [huume]
vladislav delay – toive [Leaf]
Clubroot – Embryo [Lo Dubs]
Battlesnake – The Integrity Unit [advance promo]
edwin montgomery – light [self-released]
Bird Traps – Don’t Be So Reckless [Black Cross Recordings]
Alps of New South Whales – Whalebone Whale [Beat Is Murder]

New! Listen again (this week as one big 3hr mp3. Warning: 260MB file.)

Tonight, quite a few little featurettes of a couple of songs each from various artists. See bottom of playlist to listen again.

Sydney’s Edwin Montgomery starts off the proceedings with a dose of widescreen postrock, featuring his violin, guitar and excellent production. I played another of his tracks later in the show, with wild scraping violin and crashing drums in the middle.
The folks who run the fabulous CAD Factory performance/rehearsal/exhibition space in Marrickville are also a band called Grace Before Meals, and I fully intended to play one of their more conventional (ha!) songs from their double-EP, but only had time tonight for the amazing double-bass scrapings and bashings of “Track 12”.
Underlapper guitarist and occasional vocalist Morgan McKellar has been making beautiful dronescapes as Morning Stalker for a while now, but it’s taken hellosQuarerecordings to finally get a fully-fledged release out of him. Half of the tracks on In Unit have previously appeared on compilations and suchlike, and they’re great, but it’s the new tracks which are really doing it for me. I’ll play another next week.
Chris Hearn’s Alps of New South W(h)ales launched his new album on Saturday night – a lo-fi shoegazey indie keyboard album dedicated to our cetaceous friends of the deep. I also played an earlier track, with wonderful abrasive guitar feedback offsetting the drum machine, keyboards and vocals.
Back in 2005 I played quite a bit of young Jordy Lane’s indietronica, after which he appeared to go into hiding. It’s great to see him (in his new guise as Shady Lane) getting his music out there. There are a few nicely off-beat electronic tracks on the new album that I’ll play in coming weeks.
One of the exciting eventualities of last week was discovering a new EP by The Black Dog on Bleep, with none other than an Autechre – and it’s fabulous! Bass-heavy, great beat, melodies not too buried… just what you need.
A recent discovery round these parts is Viennese singer-songwriter Anja Plaschg, aka Soap&Skin. The first track I played is crunchy electronica (and instrumental), while the second is like Tori Amos crossed with This Mortal Coil.
Speaking of female singer-songwriters with unusual arrangements, Clare Hubbard’s Caethua, on Sydney label Preservation, takes folky acoustic guitars and occasional piano as her base, but expands it with field recordings, muffled distorted beats and other techniques to create something otherworldly. Her new album is a double CD, and won’t be far from my stereo all week.
I’ve been meaning to play The Spheres’ new track for a while. The release is a one-track CD accompanied by a DVD that adds visuals — indeed, they describe themselves as an audio-visual group. Crackly jazz samples give way to quiet post-rock and a magical violin-augmented crescendo… Lovely stuff.
A new Jim O’Rourke album is an event. In this case it’s one 38 minute track, which is a bit hard for even me to fit into a show, but I managed the last 22 minutes or so. I played one of his, er, “pop” tunes from a while back, and also two glorious tracks from the iconoclastic fingerstyle guitarist John Fahey, a huge influence on Mr O’Rourke (and many others).
sole & the skyrider band’s remix album, featuring everyone you’d expect from the Anticon/Mush world, must have snuck out while I wasn’t looking, and I grabbed a copy in Melbourne a week and a bit ago. son lux does his usual orchestral thing, with nice edits and scratching.
Also picked up in Melbourne was a stunning album from 2001 by Terminal Sound System, RH-8SB. Pure bass tones & chopped beats, it’s amazing stuff.
And Vladislav Delay’s debut release on the Leaf label is coming shortly. One of his best yet, methinks — more acoustic instruments thrown into the mix, along with chaotic-seeming beats and warm bass.

edwin montgomery – desert [self-released]
Grace Before Meals – Track 12 [CAD Factory]
Morning Stalker – Day Of The Christmas Beetle [hellosQuarerecordings]
The Red Tree – A Spark, A Sparrow [A New Entity]
Alps of New South Wales – I.D.L.S.? [Shrieksounds]
Alps of New South Whales – Minke Whale [Beat Is Murder]
Jordy Lane – Have Some Patience: Life Is Long [self-released/promo]
Shady Lane – Oh, Reality [Rice Is Nice]
The Black Dog – Tunnels Ov Set (Autechre Remix) [Soma]
Soap&Skin – DDMMYYYY [PIAS]
Soap&Skin – Spiracle [PIAS]
Caethua – In a Garden Barely Looked At [Preservation]
Caethua – Day Break [Preservation]
The Spheres – A song for your sleep [self-released]
edwin montgomery – clouds [self-released]
Jim O’Rourke – The Visitor (2nd half – approx last 20 minutes) [Drag City]
John Fahey – Delta Dog Through The Book Of Revelation [Shanachie]
Jim O’Rourke – Memory Lame [Drag City]
John Fahey – Sun Gonna Shine In My Back Door Someday Blues [Takoma]
sole & the skyrider band – 100 light years and running (son lux remix) [black canyon recordings/midheaven]
Terminal Sound System – Whine [Relapse]
Vladislav Delay – Musta Planeeta [Leaf]

New! Listen again: part 1; part 2; part 3.

Good evening! Back from touring, tired but full to the brim with awesome musics! See bottom of playlist to listen again.

Starting with a brilliant three tracks from Italian postrock maestri Giardini di Mirò, from their new album Il fuoco. Amazing crescendo from (dis)quiet to roar in the first track, into propulsive postrocktronica, and gradually glitchier through the third part.
Second artist for tonight is Sydney’s Edwin Montgomery, who brought in a new album for FBi’s Open Day. I only had some radio edits he did, so next week we’ll have full versions of this wonderfully over the top post-classical/postrock stuff.
Just to be over the top, I thought I’d play the first track from Kes Band’ new album, the 10 minute epic “Doors Open Doors Close”, which goes from charming folk to proggish drone and back again.
Followed this with fellow Melbournites The Red Tree, and a piece of very fine glitch-pop from their debut album (which I haven’t had a good chance to listen to, so I’m expecting to be playing it a fair bit more over coming weeks…)
I played a couple more remixes from Icarus’ brilliant remix album tonight, starting with Xela’s vocal-tastic version, and I also played his remix from one of the albums of the year, redrawn by soccer Committee & Machinefabriek.
We had three tracks from the new multi-medium release from the declining winter – it’s a 7″ that comes with a whole album on CD, and the early birds got a second CD of remixes into the bargain. We had remixes from Melbourne’s part timer, and part-time Declining Winter drummer james yates, but I also played the beautiful title track “Haunt The Upper Hallways”, which in a better world would be a radio hit.
We had a lovely piece of folktronica from The Matinee Orchestra, on Robin Saville’s Arable label, and then heard Saville’s duo Isan remixing Icarus to great effect. Then a brief collaborative piece between Berlin-based jazz/improv trumpeter Tom Arthurs and Icarus’ Ollie Bown.
Bleeding Heart Narrative gets two tracks tonight: firstly in collaboration with Western Australia-based singer Gosia Winter, from a forthcoming digital EP on Tartaruga Records, and then from his amazing self-released EP this octopus is going to eat your face – majestic noise-post-rock…
The consistently excellent Lucky Dragons give us a bit of tribal pitched percussion and voice from their latest 12″, and then we’re on to a couple of showcases for the evening.
First off, we had Mr Ryjan Kidwell aka Cex, with a classic IDM tune followed by a brilliant bit of cod-industrial indietronica, and something from then his latest release Bataille Royale, a double-12″ and digital affair, which is his take on Baltimore house…
After that, a true stalwart of the IDM world, Jega – starting off with a gorgeous bit of crunchy melodic electronica from his first EP, and then a couple of drill’n’bass tracks, one from the very first album Planet µ released, and then from his latest, Variance, which is a double CD. From the lighter & brighter other half of his latest release, we then took a vaguely dubstep-influenced cut.
And finally, from the ever creative Jason Sweeney comes a new album under the Panoptique Electrical moniker. I wanted to draw a connection with the IDM above, so we segued via Jason’s duo pretty boy crossover, whose album the building and formation should by rights have been an Aussie classic, enshrined in the world’s mythic landscape, but record company troubles delayed its release by a few years and its impact was never quite what it should have been. A sad tale, but they continue to make wonderful music, which is what matters in the end.

Giardini di Mirò – La vampa (∞ / ∞∞ / ∞∞∞) [Unhip]
Edwin Montgomery – storm [demo!]
Kes Band – Doors Open Doors Close [Mistletone]
The Red Tree – A River in Oliver [A New Entity]
Icarus – First Inf(E)rænce (Xela remix) [Rump]
soccer Committee / Machinefabriek – low drone 2 (by xela) [Machinefabriek]
the declining winter – trap remit remix (part timer) [home assembly]
the declining winter – haunt the upper hallways [home assembly]
the declining winter – james yates remix [home assembly]
The Matinee Orchestra – I’ll never be afraid again [Arable]
Icarus – Keet (Isan Saved By The Bell mix) [Rump]
Tom Arthurs & Ollie Bown Electric Duo – rubik [not applicable]
Bleeding Heart Narrative & Gosia Winter – Auto Moro [Tartaruga Records]
bleeding heart narrative – the night of the world. [self-released, available for download from Distance Recordings]
Lucky Dragons – Open Melody [Teenage Teardrops]
Cex – an axe for the frozen sea within her [Tigerbeat6]
Cex – Take Pills [Jade Tree]
Cex – The Fifth One [cexja.ms]
Jega – Phlax [Skam]
Jega – Pitbull [Planet µ]
Jega – Kyoto [Planet µ]
Jega – Antiphon [Planet µ]
pretty boy crossover – speeldoos [surgery records]
Panoptique Electrical – The Fear of Being Beautiful [Sensory Projects]

New! Listen again: part 1; part 2; part 3.

Danny Jumpertz kindly filled in for me tonight. Here’s what he played:

Cosmos – Chaos / AUDIO ACTIVE / Spaced Dolls
Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space / SPIRITUALIZED / title track / 1997
Wide Open Road / THE TRIFFIDS / Born Sandy Devotional 1986
You Show No Emotion At All / HOOD /
Funkier Than A Mosquitos Tweeter / NINA SIMONE
This Is What Funk Is For – THE EXPERIMENT
Silent Biker Type – KINSKI / Down Below It’s Chaos / 2007
4.2 – SUPERSILENT / Adventures (The Wire Magazine) 1982 – 2002
Expressway To Your Skull – SONIC YOUTH / Adventures (The Wire Magazine) 1982 – 2002
Early In The Morning – “22” / The Alan Lomax Collection (Prison Songs)
Socks On Ears – MICHAEL ANDREWS / You Me & Everyone We Know
Wet Work & Cactus Man Rides Again – IDAHO / The Lone Gunman 2005
I Love LA – SUBTLE
Escape – EPIPHANY / 2001
So Happy – LAKUNA
Remedios The Beauty – OREN AMBARCHI / Grapes From The Estate / 2004 ft Peter Hollo (!!)
Fields Of Ice- BRIAN ENO / Curiosities Volume 2 / 2004
Should There Be Violence? – CHILDREN OF THE WAVE / Carapace / 2007
Classic Noodlanding – DO MAKE SAY THINK / & Yet & Yet / 2003
Arc Of A Journey – BROADCAST / Tender Buttons
Japanese Policeman – KIMONO / Mineur-aggressif / 2003
Halcyon (Beautiful Day) – MONO
Lazy – DAVID BYRNE / Grown Backwards
Vacation, Asphyxia, Vacation – THE LADIES
This Thing – THE BESNARD LAKES / Volume 1
In The Cold Light Of Day – EXPERIMENTAL AUDIO RESEARCH / Beyond The Pale / 1993