Tragic news came out today of the passing of the brilliant composer & producer Jóhann Jóhannsson, nowadays famous and much-loved as a film composer. I’ve slotted some of his music in the top of the playlist. Most of the rest of the show is pretty electronic, some more ambient and some more dancefloor-oriented.

LISTEN AGAIN because FBi demands stream on demand, or podcast here.

Jóhann Jóhannsson – Melodia (iv) (Live at Ancienne Belgique) [Headphone Commute]
Jóhann Jóhannsson – Mingyun [Touch]
Two pieces of appropriately moving, slow music to mourn the passing of Jóhann Jóhannsson. Not from his soundtracks, but from some recent(ish) compilations. Like everyone, I was taken entirely be surprise by his death. He’s been an important part of the ambient & experimental world, and the burgeoning “post-classical” scene since before folks like Ólafur Arnalds and Nils Frahm were around, but his work as a soundtrack composer has brought him into major prominence. It’s jarring to lose him so suddenly, at only 48 years old.

Anteloper – Ohoneotree [International Anthem via Wire Magazine]
Wilted Woman – Doing The Math [unreleased, via Wire Magazine]
Two of the amazing exclusive tracks available on the latest Below The Radar download compilation for Wire Magazine subscribers. Anteloper finds brilliant Chicago/New York trumpeter Jaimie Branch teaming up with the very busy & talented drummed Jason Nazary, both adding electronics to their arsenal.
Wilted Woman (aka Eel Burn aka various other names) is a Berlin-based New Yorker making deliciously twisted electronics.

Cedie Janson – Gradient [Cedie Janson Bandcamp]
Cedie Janson – Stillness (feat. Amirtha Kidambi) [Cedie Janson Bandcamp]
Cedie Janson first appeared on these airwaves as part of Brisbane indie/noise band Naked Maja. We heard the first fruits of his solo electronica a couple of years ago, and it’s lovely to hear his solo EP Stillness now that he’s based in LA. It’s all bright synths and busy beats in contrast with the title.

Yves De Mey – Mika [Latency]
Yves De Mey – Box Caisson [Opal Tapes]
Sendai – Anti-Jupiter Archives Intérieurs
Yves De Mey – Solemn But Fading [Houndstooth]
Yves De Mey – Bleak Comfort [Latency]
I’ve been a fan of Belgian musician Yves De Mey for some years, solo and in his duo Sendai with Peter Van Hoesen. His new release on French label Latency brings more of what we’ve come to expect – complex, detailed pure electronics, bass heavy with plenty of modular trickery alongside digital crispness. De Mey is a master sound designer, giving his beats and synth lines a three-dimensionality which makes for engrossing listening. This is actually his second appearance this year, as he had a track on that Houndstooth comp In Death’s Dream Kingdom that I’ve been going on about for a few weeks (as in fact did Van Hoesen).

The Third Eye Foundation – Procession for Eric [Ici d’ailleurs]
The Third Eye Foundation – Controlled Demolition [Ici d’ailleurs]
Suddenly, without warning, Matt Elliott has decided to stick another The Third Eye Foundation album out into the world. Around 2003 he switched from 3ef to his own name, swapping the woozy orchestral & opera samples and drones, and frenetic drum’n’bass & dub-influenced beats for woozy singing & arrangements influenced by sailors’ tunes, French chanson & gypsy jazz. In 2010 a surprise Third Eye Foundation album appeared – apparently people keep bugging him to do them, and he just felt like it. And so it is again. This time the drum’n’bass has been tamed into something they’re referring to as dubstep, but it’s more like deeply dubby hip-hop beats (and occasional junglisms) with the usual morose samples and drones. An extra bonus delight is seeing recent UFog discovery Gaspar Claus contributing cello on most of the tracks! He’s quite prominent at the end of the first selection tonight, and in the drop-out middle section of the second.

Aaron Spectre – They Don’t Know We [Jahmoni/drumcorps Bandcamp]
DJ C feat. Capleton – Conscience A Heng Dem (Aaron Spectre Remix) [Mashit!]
drumcorps – incarnate [CockRockDisco/drumcorps Bandcamp]
Aaron Spectre – Roots We Seek [Jahmoni/drumcorps Bandcamp]
It’s kind of funny that Aaron Spectre is still around now, 15 years after I started Utility Fog and coincidentally discovered his updated take on ragga jungle, a genre which originated around the early ’90s when jungle itself was getting going (so over a decade before that revival). The illicit sampling of dancehall versions (along with gangsta rap often) was a staple of breakcore for years, and admittedly of jungle from its earliest days, but it still makes me a little creeped out that the appropriated artists tend to go uncredited. I am certain that Aaron Spectre had nothing but the utmost respect for his sources anyway, both in this stuff and his drumcorps material, which started off as a way of merging his love of grindcore/speed metal/hardcore punk with blistering jungle. Thus, drumcorps’ track “incarnate” from the debut album is a mangling of “Incarnation” by hardcore punks Snapcase; the title track of Roots We Seek is a relatively recent track from Chronixx & Federation Sound. I don’t know the source(s) of the first track from Spectre’s new EP though. For what that’s worth…

Nevermen – Mr Mistake (Boards of Canada Remix Instrumental) [Lex Records]
Weirdly, I’d managed to remain blissfully ignorant of this track’s existence until now. Partly it’s because I’d decided not to be interested in the trio of Mike Patton, Adam “doseone” Drucker and Tunde Adebimpe as Nevermen – they each have their quirks, and dose’s in particular are audible in the vocal version of this track. Nevertheless I should really get that album in me at some point. Meanwhile, a Boards of Canada is in any case always an event, and the instrumental of this shows just how sweet they tend to be. It’s a bit soft rock but that’s how it is.

Listen again — ~203MB

It’s a beat-oriented show tonight, with live drumming in jazzy trip-hop and experimental electronic settings through insane drumfunk jungle, idm and bass musics.

LISTEN AGAIN via the FBi stream on demand love machine, or podcast here.

Hidden Orchestra – The Lizard (Skalpel remix) [Tru Thoughts]
Hidden Orchestra – Wingbeats (Max Cooper remix) [Tru Thoughts]
Last year’s Dawn Chorus was a long-awaited return for Joe Acheson’s Hidden Orchestra, with a mass of international musicians joining the always stellar live drumming, along with lovely morning bird recordings on each track. The album has now been remixed by a great crop of contemporary musicians. A long-time inspiration for Acheson, Polish jazz/breaks artist Skalpel turned in a classic of upright bass and chopped beats, while post-classical/electronic head Max Cooper gifts us with a lovely epic of beat programming and folktronic feels.

Laurence Pike – Life Hacks [Leaf]
Sydney drummer Laurence Pike should be well-known to listeners of this show from his drumming with international electronic act PVT and his membership of beloved long-gone post-jazz pioneers Triosk (along with his drumming with various luminaries of the broader Sydney music scene). Triosk were released on the Leaf label back in the day, and it’s with them he finds himself again for his debut solo album – recorded live on drums and sampler in one day. The album’s not out till the end of March, but this first single is a lovely sample of what’s to come.

Sam Price – Sensucht [Ventor]
Sam Price – AutoHackney [Sam Price Bandcamp]
Sam Price – Refinery [Sam Price Bandcamp]
Sam Price – Brevis [Sam Price Bandcamp]
Sam Price – Trellick [Ventor]
Also playing with live drums and electronics (no overdubs!) is Melbourne drummer Sam Price. We’ve actually heard him a lot on the show over the years, including with his percussion duo Peon, and I’ve so enjoyed going through his back catalogue that I’m playing you a selection tonight from earlier releases to show you what a versatile and under-appreciated musician he is. His electronics can produce basslines melodies as easily as squealing noise, and his drums are head-nodding more than free-jazz scatter. In the middle, “Refinery” is an example of his generative electronics, producing something impressively emotive, and “Brevis” has an uncommon appearance of his vocals.

dgoHn – All The Fuckin’ As (Scrase remix) [Love Love Records]
dgoHn – Ralph [Love Love Records]
dgoHn – So Be It, Lumbricina [Love Love Records]
English producer John Cunnane has been releasing insanely intricate drill’n’bass/drumfunk as dgoHn (yes it’s pronounced “John”) for ages now, somewhere between the bedroom and the dancefloor. His third 12″ on Love Love Records has just come out, so we’ll have one take from each please. The first track is remixed by Scrase, known for mixing up various electronic styles, here pushing the limits of crazy beat mangling.

Murya – Scientist [Touched Music]
Carbinax – Tiger By The Tail (Endangered Mix) [Touched Music]
Ariadne’s Labyrinth – Loose Freds [Touched Music]
Last week, I featured two massive new electronic compilations on the show. This was the third, which I wasn’t able to fit in – a 2CD from UK label Touched Music, responsible themselves for some absurdly immense compilations (like, over a day’s listening), whose releases raise money for UK charity Macmillan Cancer Support. Their releases always span electronic music from heaps of idm to electronic, techno etc. Brother of Jonas Ruxpin, Murya starts us off with some melodic drill’n’bass, and then Belfast’s Carbinax drop us deep into Plaid or Orbital territory with some classic idm stylings. Finishing up, Ariadne’s Labyrinth mixes up her violin with some dubstep wobble.

Outside – To Forgive But Not Forget (Lim’chol V’lo Lishkoach) [Dorado]
The last track with its Middle Eastern-sounding violin and beats reminded me of this classic mid-’90s drum’n’bass tune from acid jazz band Outside, appearing on various compilations including The Rebirth of Cool Volume Six, with a very klezmer-influenced melody (and title).

Spatial – Haunted Dance Hall [Houndstooth]
Ian William Craig – An End Of Rooms [Houndstooth]
Two more tracks to finish up tonight from the Houndstooth label’s massive, fantastic In Death’s Dream Kingdom compilation. UK artist Spatial first with some nicely messed up bass beats, and to finish, the ever-gorgeous sounds of Ian William Craig and his tape machines.

Listen again — ~274MB

Tonight on the ‘Fog a discussion with the estimable Mr Chris Abrahams, who is playing with this beloved band The Necks around the east coast in the next couple of months… Also some great local & international music including a couple of huge compilations for the start of the year…

LISTEN AGAIN to some illuminating words from Chris and some top-notch postrock, electronics and evolved noise… FBi’s got the stream on demand covered. Podcast here.

Nils Frahm – Fundamental Values [Erased Tapes]
Nils Frahm – My Friend the Forest [Erased Tapes]
It’s been a while between proper solo studio albums for Nils Frahm. I’ve heard a lot of good stuff about this, but to be honest I found the tracks with a choir a little over the top on first listen, and the Juno stuff a bit uninspired. Nevertheless, there’s heaps to be delighted by, and in particular some really quiet, restrained piano stuff that’s just gorgeous – including some prepared piano and subtle orchestration. Good on you Nils old chap.

Chris Abrahams – Beach of Black Stones [Vegetable Records]
Interview with Chris Abrahams…
The Necks – Rise {under interview} [Ideologic Organ/Bandcamp]
Chris Abrahams – One-Liter Cold Laptop [Room40]
I can’t believe this is the first time I’ve talked to Chris Abrahams on the show, despite having not only been a fan of The Necks for decades, but having known Chris for some time too. All three of these people are very thoughtful musicians, and even though The Necks live are dedicated to the wordless communication and communion of spontaneous creation, they have a lot to say about the creative process. We discussed their expansion (both Chris as a solo artist and The Necks together) from “time-based” creation to the freedom afforded by using a DAW like ProTools, allowing for enormous numbers of audio tracks to be moved around the eventual timeline. Live, The Necks create mesmerising longform works, very much about the principle that “one thing comes after another”, as Chris said. The three musicians interact with each other, the space they’re in and indeed the audience themselves, to create patient music that can grow into incredible locked grooves or massive walls of sound, or not at all. I’m looking forward to their show at 3pm next Sunday (Feb 4th) at Parramatta Riverside Theatres, but you can see all the dates here.

Original Past Life – Infinity [Original Past Life Bandcamp]
On this new single, Perth postrock/experimental outfit Original Past Life have used Australian artist Alan Lamb‘s Infinite Music Machine to create the otherworldly drones than underpin the postrocky drums & guitars. Bodes well for a freer, more experimental second album from these guys.

Warm Stranger – Neu [Esc.rec]
Warm Stranger – Apron & Valium [Human Mistake Records]
Warm Stranger – Burning Ghost Dream [Esc.rec]
The second EP from Melbourne musician James Annesley under his Warm Stranger alias finds him in a similarly dark place to his first. Mysterious, arcane field recordings and voices at the edge of hearing hover around processed recordings of shellac discs and disintegrating cassettes, with some industrial-derived beats accompanying them. Highly recommended, both of these EPs.

Vapur – Dirtyland [self-released]
Vapur – Magnavox [self-released]
Orchestral & film composer Joseph Nizeti debuts his new project Vapur for idm/electronic-influenced sounds. There are some great beats here, but also very accomplished sound design – the title track of the Magnavox EP being a case in point, with bright shiny synths contradicted by some weirdly warped electronic messiness floating through the middle of the mix. On this release Nizeti was interested in taking electronic sounds and re-amping them through speakers in various environments, so the sounds have a pleasing three-dimensionality to them.

Helm – Blue Scene (Laurel Halo Remix) [ALTER]
Helm – Blue Scene (Parris Remix) [ALTER]
Luke Younger’s Helm makes its final move on to the dancefloor, from his noise beginnings, on this EP – not to say that the previous remix outings and the original EP here haven’t already found him in this space. The World In Action EP is well-placed to provide the material for the remixers, and the two rather different versions of “Blue Scene” here take us into two different worlds of electronic beats – Laurel Halo going down her mini-epic techno route, and Parris playing with tension in his weightless-style bass beats, eventually dropping some righteous jungle amens over the groove.

Sophia Loizou – Shadows of Futurity [Houndstooth]
Lanark Artefax – Styx [Houndstooth]
The new compilation In Death’s Dream Kingdom from the Houndstooth label sees them venturing into new territory with a huge digital-only compilation for which the artists have been instructed to base their track around the album’s title or the whole of TS Elliott’s bleak poem “The Hollow Men” from which it’s taken. The result features a lot more abstract and ambient sounds than the label is usually known for, and a great range of contemporary artists. There’s a plethora of tracks that I could have chosen, and we may hear more in the next week or so, but tonight we had a fantastic piece from Sophia Loizou doing her usual mixture of contemporary composition with rave/jungle memories, and tipped newcomer Lanark Artefax (whose music already draws on themes of spirituality and ancientness) giving us a slab of jungle-tinged techno.

Oli XL – Power Over Death [Posh Isolation]
Ydegirl – LOA _ An Indie Libretto [Posh Isolation]
Puce Mary – I Pray For Deliverance, The Size of My Desires [Posh Isolation]
This week’s other big compilation (and there’s a third, which I’ll feature next week on the show) is I Could Go Anywhere But Again I Go With You – Danish label Posh Isolation‘s first digital-only compilation, showcasing a lot of amazing Danish musicians in various electronic & experimental guises. There’s not a lot of information on many of these people (while others are rather well-known). Oli XL is a Swedish electronic musician. The beautiful electronic pop of Ydegirl is the work of singer Andrea Novel, and Puce Mary is the well-known experimental artist Frederikke Hoffmeier.

My promise of another track from In Death’s Dream Kingdom didn’t arise as I misjudged the time, so we’ll hear more from both these compilations next week, along with some selections from Touched Music‘s Found Sound 2CD (and digital) set that ALSO dropped this week!
Listen again — ~191MB

Jam-packed show tonight, with quite a bit of doomy shit, and quite a bit of droney shit, and quite a bit of glitchy weird shit. All good shit.

LISTEN AGAIN via stream on demand at FBi’s website, or podcast over here.

Divide and Dissolve – Resistance [forthcoming]
Divide and Dissolve – BLACK POWER [DERO Culture]
Melbourne duo Divide and Dissolve have made a huge impact since their debut album last year – represented by the second selection tonight. Essentially an instrumental doom duo of guitar and drums, their guitarist Takiaya Reed also plays gorgeous, pure saxophone in a number of tracks, including the intro to both tracks tonight. Their focus is on dismantling the white supremacy and misogyny in so much of the metal scene (and of course wider in the music industry and western culture). They are appearing at the Playing in a War Zone event this Friday, January 26th, curated by Sass Hound as part of The NOW now 2018.

Alessio Santini – Ffar [Elli Records]
Alessio Santini – Sndaz Majorii [Elli Records]
Keeping the doomy theme, two tracks of doom-laden guitar riffs and crunching drums, fed through the granular machines by Alessio Santini, and Italian artist who once played in doom metal bands but also made idm through the ’90s and ’00s. These interests combine on this release, with imposing dark ambient structures accompanied by scattering, chopped percussion.

h.eund – Panic [self-released]
h.eund – Warning [self-released]
h.eund – Drowning [self-released]
Visceral portrayals of the experience of bipolar disorder from Sydney artist Bekkie Kay’s debut solo EP DSM, released under the name h.eund. It’s on Spotify, and you can at least also get it from Google Play, iTunes et al. This is fantastically produced electronic music as well as sonic storytelling.

Buttress O’Kneel – Triennial Hoof [Buttress O’Kneel Bandcamp]
Melbourne’s queen of creative mashups and glitchtronica here extends her “Drum and Waste” concept – originally her glitching, destroyed CDs in duo with live drummers – to virtual collaborations with solo drum stems found online. This track is an anagram of “Fool in the Rain”, suggesting the drum track (and studio chatter) is John Bonham – but what makes it stand out is the rather beautiful glitchy vocals and other sounds layered on top. The anonymous BO’K has always been super creative in super unexpected ways.

Martina Lussi – Citrin [Hallow Ground]
Beautiful electroacoustic sound-art from Swiss artist Martina Lussi on her Selected Ambient EP, with a mix of crackly and droney sounds, and a hint of a ravey acid bassline wobbling below in the second half of this track. There’s some lovely 4/4 techno in the second half of one of the other tracks, but on the whole it lives up to its title, and even to its Aphex Twin reference. Great stuff.

Dina Maccabee – The World is in the Work (Isaac Schankler remix) [MINUS ZERO]
Last year’s solo album The World is in the Work from violist & singer Dina Maccabee was one of my favourite releases of the year (it appeared in my first “Best of” show). She’s now released a remix album, delightfully inverting the title as The Work is in the World, with a musicians’ collective called Minus Zero that donates its entire proceeds to Planned Parenthood – so it’s worth dropping some money on this as well as the wonderful original album. There’s everything from ambient layering like this track to kind of electro-pop reinterpretations.

Aidan Baker & Gareth Davis – Signs [Karlrecords]
Released through the excellent Karlrecords is the debut collaboration between doom guitar & ambient hero Aidan Baker and ambient/postrock/experimental clarinettist Gareth Davis, who frequently works with the likes of Machinefabriek and plays with the excellent Belgian postrock/psych group Oiseaux-Tempête. Ruminative ambient soundscapes with field recordings and smooth clarinet, everything apparently happening just beneath the surface.

Michel Banabila – The Ripple Effect (feat. Gareth Davis) [Tapu Records]
Michel Banabila – B1 from Marilli [Séance Centre]
Michel Banabila – A2 + B1 + B2 (Bogumil Misala / IP remix) [Tapu Records]
Michel Banabila – In A Language I Can Understand [Séance Centre]
Michel Banabila – Spider, Spit and Broken Bells [Tapu Records]
Gareth Davis also appears on a new track from Dutch worldtronic/sound-art veteran Michel Banabila (another frequent Machinefabriek collaborator), who of late has been releasing some fascinating archival recordings of his music – our second selection is originally from 1983 – showing his long-standing interest in world music and tape manipulation, and his early forays into drone. The 1983 debut album Marilli was remixed by a whole bunch of experimental electronic artists, and has just been re-released on a double vinyl set with a collection of more recent archival & unreleased material called Trespassing, from which we take a 2009 track that’s part of another long-standing practice of Banabila, the sampling and manipulation of vocals from all around the world, producing alien languages and expressive, warped and glitched new phraseology. Michel really ought to be more famous too hey…
Séance Centre‘s Trespassing album, which comes with the Marilli reissue, is a nice way of getting acquainted with some of his back catalogue, and the new mini-album Just Above The Surface is a good indicator of what he’s up to nowadays.

Rutger Zuydervelt with Ilia Belorukov & René Aquarius – Painting [Sofa]
Rutger Zuydervelt with Ilia Belorukov & René Aquarius – Train [Sofa]
Rutger Zuydervelt with Ilia Belorukov & René Aquarius – Dacha [Sofa]
Rutger Zuydervelt – Gathering 6 [Machinefabriek Bandcamp]
Aaron Martin & Machinefabriek – Arms Turn Slowly [Dronarivm]
Aaron Martin & Machinefabriek – Leaves Are Swimming [Dronarivm] {fragment under talking}
And so we reach the work of Rutger Zuydervelt, aforementioned as Machinefabriek. Rutger has of late been producing quite a bit of soundtrack work. The second volume of his soundtracks to the computer game Astroneer (which within the game are generative, reactive to game-play) was released late last year, as was a gorgeous collaborative contemporary dance soundtrack with Aaron Martin called Seeker, and coming out shortly is a soundtrack to a Dutch documentary on the legacy of Stalin called The Red Soul, produced in collaboration with Russian saxophonist & sound-artist Ilia Belorukov, and Dutch experimental percussionist René Aquarius of incendiary free jazz/metal/noise duo Dead Neanderthals. I was really taken by these words in a review of the movie (which sounds fascinating) in The Hollywood Reporter:

At such moments, the film’s trump cards — Tom Bijnen’s sound design and the score chiefly composed by Rutger Zuydervelt — are played to particularly atmospheric effect. With so many current documentaries spoiled by excessively conventional and heavy-handed musical accompaniment, it’s a pleasure to encounter soundscapes as sparing and subtle as these. Indeed, so subliminally is Zuydervelt’s work incorporated that at first it may not even be recognized as music at all. The ear then picks up on the rhythms of quasi-choral soughing, which seems to emanate from the soil and trees themselves like a phantom voice from the icy breeze.

Aaron Martin – Fire Current [Preserved Sound]
Nice to have a new solo album also from Aaron Martin, using all his acoustic, folk & classical-redolent instruments including the central cello but also banjo, ukulele, guitar and field recordings (at least), most of which appear along with his voice on the beautiful Machinefabriek collaboration above. Out soon on English CDR label Preserved Sound (which is kinda nice since the first few of Aaron’s albums came out through Sydney’s Preservation), it’s contemplative, often sorrowful layers of these instruments – tonight’s track being rapturous but reserved multi-tracked strings.

Listen again — ~274MB