A rare International Women’s Day edition of Utility Fog. It’s not that rare for me to program a lot of music by women, but it’s not that often that the show actually falls on IWD, so it’s nice to be able to celebrate that in style. So much to choose from too!

LISTEN AGAIN, listening is good, listening is necessary. Podcast here, stream on demand from FBi.

Leah Kardos – Bird Rib [bigo & twigetti/Bandcamp]
Leah Kardos – Apology [bigo & twigetti/Bandcamp]
Leah Kardos – Remnant 2 [bigo & twigetti/Bandcamp]
Leah Kardos – Sexy Monday [bigo & twigetti/Bandcamp]
Leah Kardos – Novice [Spirit Level/Bandcamp]
Leah Kardos – Little Phase [bigo & twigetti/Bandcamp]
Leah Kardos – Into Sporks [bigo & twigetti/Bandcamp]
London composer Leah Kardos, who grew up in Brisbane but has been in the UK so long she’s a native now, is a beloved stalwart of Utility Fog playlists, with her combined interests & deep capabilities in classical composition, electronica and pop – indeed she’s teaching a BA(Hons) in Music Technology at the University of Kingston in London nowadays. Since her last album Roccocochet in 2017, she founded the Visconti Studio at the University with the venerable longtime David Bowie producer Tony Visconti. It’s great to have a new album from her, one which looks back at her earlier work and builds a number of compositions from reversed and manipulated versions of older works.
We went back to that original wonder, 2011’s Feather Hammer – two tracks, the sampled yearning voices over emotive piano on “Apology”, and the live acoustic cut-ups and piano-percussion of “Remnant 2”. From 2013’s Machines, featuring the classically-trained Laura Wolk-Lewanowicz on vocals, we have spam emails turned into IDM pop, and then from Spirit Level’s 2017 Piano Day comp Kindred Spirits, her pitch-perfect mute-pedal post-classical piano ballad “Novice”. Finally, on 2017’s Roccocochet, Leah abandoned computer recording techniques almost entirely, so on “Little Phase” we have a live ensemble performing a piece that’s equal parts minimalist composition and post-rock. And we finish back with the new album, where “Into Sporks” harkens back to the IDM beats of Leah’s earlier work.

Belia Winnewisser – Lower [Buh Records/The Wire]
From a compilation of Swiss Underground Experimental Music from late last year, this is a new track of glitchy electronica from producer Belia Winnewisser, a cross between almost academic sound design and quite catchy electronica. Her last release was 2018, so I hope we get something more from her this coming year along the lines of this track!

Soho Rezanejad – Ezra [Silicone Records/SHAPE Platform 2019/The Wire]
I first discovered Danish-Iranian artist Soho Rezanejad via her beautiful vocals on Croatian Amor‘s Love Means Taking Action album. I now need to investigate her two albums on her Silicone Records, from which this track is taken – experimental electronic techniques, extended vocal techniques, a pop sensibility but also a love of darkness, drones and noise. What’s not to love!

Carla dal Forno – Blue Morning [Blackest Ever Black]
Another Australian artist (here from Melbourne) who’s relocated to London, Carla dal Forno has a background in quite experimental ensembles, but creates subtle, catchy minimalist pop with some surprising instruments and a talent for getting under your skin. Her last album came out on her own new Kallista Records label, in no small part because the label who nurtured her earlier releases, Blackest Ever Black, has now closed up shop with this last compilation, aptly titled A short illness from which he never recovered.

Bonniesongs – Sand Dunes [Bonniesongs]
Hot on the heels of her wonderful debut album Energetic Mind, Sydney-based Irish musician Bonnie Stewart aka Bonniesongs recently released this gorgeous new song, inspired by a trip into the NSW wilderness with the improv ensemble Splinter Orchestra, which was followed by the devastation of the recent bushfires. It features regular collaborator Freya Schack-Arnott on cello, and all profits go to WIRES.

Lack The Low – Convert The Masses [Provenance Records]
More strings here, with a stunning track combining beauty with harshness from Melbourne singer-songwriter Kat Hunter aka Lack The Low, from another bushfire fundraiser, Provenance Records’ Marks of Provenance III.

Insect Ark – Tectonic [Profound Lore Records/Bandcamp]
Insect Ark – Lift Off [Insect Ark Bandcamp]
Insect Ark – The Collector [AutumnSongs Records/Bandcamp]
Insect Ark – Daath [Profound Lore Records/Bandcamp]
Insect Ark – Swollen Sun [Profound Lore Records/Bandcamp]
Dana Schechter is a very busy woman. I first heard her work in Michael Gira’s Angels of Light, which combined sometimes heavy sonics with psychedelic folk and roots. She now plays in the touring line-up of Swans, as well as joining the doom-folk of Wrekmeister Harmonies, and the insanely evil extreme metal band Gnaw, among many others. But among a few of her own ensembles, she’s recorded as Insect Ark since 2011. The 2013 EP Lift Off already showcases the doomy riffs and disconcerting sonic experimentation of the project, and the brilliant 2015 debut album Portal/Well has punishing doom riffs and dark drones aplenty. Schecter’s multi-instrumental talents have her playing massive basslines alongside pedal steel and electronics, but for the last two albums she’s augmented the band into a duo with drummers Ashley Spungin for 2018’s Marrow Hymns, and now Andy Patterson (of the great female-led folk/metal group SubRosa, RIP) for 2020’s The Vanishing, both released on Profound Lore Records. The fact that it’s instrumental makes it no less heavy and no less absorbing. It’s all about the bloody great riffs and sonic exploration (e.g. the binaural panning of the lovely ambient track I finished with).

Laura Cannell – BE ONE – The Tallest Tower [Brawl Records]
A stunning field recording of church bells recorded in Cow Hill, Norwich is at the centre of this new track from Laura Cannell, English folk violinist from the UK. She has requested recordings of bells from around the world to incorporate into new recordings – a series called The Bell Effect Project. These ringing tones in the first track to be released fit beautifully with the organ drones and (perhaps?) electronics here. I hope there are more of these soon!

Maria Moles – II [Nice Music]
Releases from solo percussionists can often be surprising affairs. Melbourne percussionist Maria Moles works extensively with contemporary ensembles and composers as well as bands and electronic musicians. Her own practice involves live drums and percussion layered and then manipulated with filters and modulators. This track, the second side of a cassette recently released by Melbourne’s Nice Music, starts with a loping repetitive rhythm but slowly the sounds are swamped in resonant electronics, eventually fading to nothing and restarting a few times in different ways. It’s quite wonderful to zone out to, or to follow closely.

Listen again — ~196MB

The jungle music virus strikes again tonight – after some lovely experimental pop & indie, and other experimental types of electronica.

LISTEN AGAIN because music is an antivirus in these trying times! Stream on demand from FBi, podcast here.

Lee Ranaldo & Raül Refree – Alice, Etc. [Mute]
Richard Youngs & Raül Refree – Nil By Mind [Soft Abuse/Bandcamp]
Lee Ranaldo & Raül Refree – Humps (Espriu Mix) [Mute]
Late last year the legendary outer-limits experimental musician and free folk singer Richard Youngs released an extraordinary 4-track album with Barcelona producer & multi-instrumentalist Raül Refree. The wonderful arrangements, featuring piano, guitar, cello and/or double bass and some interesting studio effects, supported Youngs’ freewheeling melodic sensibility at least as well as his solo work or any other combos he’s been involved with over the years, but this was my first introduction to Refree’s work. If I’d been paying more attention to the archipelago of Sonic Youth side projects, I would have known that Refree produced the last solo album from Lee Ranaldo, but at least I noticed their new album Names of North End Women, on which they are given equal billing. Ranaldo’s songwriting is a revelation, and even his singing voice is touching and expressive. The two use the studio and its contents without fear or favour – tuned percussion, piano, acoustic guitar and strings coexist with tape loops, cut-ups, drum machines and digital effects, and songs venture easily between subdued spoken word, indiepunk expressionism and surprisingly catchy melodic pop. A strange & excellent beast.

A Country Practice – The Inundation into Our Room (aheadphonehome remix) [A Country Practice Bandcamp]
Brisbane band A Country Practice have precious few recorded releases as yet, but position themselves as indietronica, basically. Their first single has now been mixed by a couple of Brisbane cross-genre alumni – Andrew Tuttle’s is equally recommended, but tonight we heard the crunchy beats & shoegaze/glitchscape of Phillip Laidlaw’s aheadphonehome, a project which I hope might be resurfacing soon!

Vladislav Delay – Rakkine [Cosmo Rhythmatic/Vladislav Delay Bandcamp]
Vladislav Delay – #22 [Ripatti]
Vladislav Delay – Rasite [Cosmo Rhythmatic/Vladislav Delay Bandcamp]
Finnish producer Sasu Ripatti is legendary among experimental electronic circles, going back to early days in the late 1990s creating extraordinary minimal techno hybridized with dub in league with the Berlin-based Chain Reaction collective among others. As Vladislav Delay, longform minimal dub releases followed, and then various excursions in glitchy soundscaping and electro-acoustic techniques, while under various other guises such as Luomo, Uusitalo, Sistol and others he explored variants of house, deep house, techno etc. He’s also worked extensively with his partner Antye Greie-Fuchs with AGF/Delay and other projects.
It’s been over 5 years since the last Vladislav Delay album, which itself followed a series of amazing 12”s under the Ripatti imprint which took him into glitchy footwork and jungle territory – I played one track tonight as our flashback because the new album heads into industrial, skittery territory, at times echoing grindcore & black metal’s blast beats as much as anything from electronica. It’s perfectly suited to Shapednoise’s Cosmo Rhythmatic label and a welcome return from an inspiring producer.

Aaron Spectre – Inmyeyeees [Jahmoni/Aaron Spectre Bandcamp]
Aaron Spectre – Computorr [Jahmoni/Aaron Spectre Bandcamp]
From jungle-adjacent to one of the original & dedicated jungle revivalists, Aaron Spectre, who’s been pumping out ragga jungle tunes since the mid-2000s, and with his drumcorps alias also niftily combined grindcore/speedcore metal with jungle – something which reappears on the first, short, sharp track lifted tonight from his new EP for German label Jahmoni (it’s a “remix” of Minor Threat by the way). The insanely accelerated breaks and samples push it into breakcore territory probably, but whatever, it’s suitably fun and as technically impressive as ever.

Babylon Timewarp – Durban Poison [Soul Jazz]
Rhythm for Reasons – The Smokers Rhythm [Soul Jazz]
Aaron Spectre’s EP conveniently comes out the same week as Soul Jazz’s latest compilation to explore the origins of jungle – Black Riot: Early Jungle, Rave and Hardcore goes back to at least 1992, with the first track we heard here, Babylon Timewarp’s “Durban Poison”. This would be right where hardcore techno’s speedy beats and sampled breaks got hybridized with dancehall’s syncopations and the nascent jungle genre came into being. It’s still astounding and dizzying stuff (Babylon Timewarp is an alias of drum’n’bass legends Intense). Much of the material on this compilation is incredibly raw, and you can hear them pushing their AKAI samplers to the max. Another legendary tune, “The Smokers Rhythm” from Rhythm for Reasons (probably best known as DJ SS), comes from 1994, when beat juggling was still going strong…

Dom & Roland – Trauma [Renegade Hardware/Dom & Roland Bandcamp]
Strangely enough, here’s another drum’n’bass re-release that came out this week! Dominic Angas (his partner Roland was the S760 sampler) was dropping 12”s in 1994, but really came to the fore a few years later as jungle became drum’n’bass and then the darker, heavier tech step style became the mode. And while a lot of it became oversimplified and too macho, Dom & Roland was always beautifully atmospheric and head-nodding. The Trauma / Transmissions EP came out around the time of his great first album Industry, and I caned those tracks so much that I can still follow along with every change in both tracks. Dom has remastered them for this digital re-release on his Bandcamp, so I hope you find “Trauma” as evocative as I always did.

A2A – Lilac [Local Action]
We’re not quite done with the jungle connection yet. A2A is a new collaboration between two contemporary artists who both draw a lot from the UK hardcore continuum. Manchester’s AYA (fka LOFT) makes messed-up club music and loves dropping mangled jungle breaks over her own tracks and others’, while London-based Air Max ’97 makes dancefloor-ready music drawing on idm, grime, techno and rave styles. The third track on their debut EP, released this week by Local Action, is the one for the junglist connections.

Calum Gunn – Moebu [Central Processing Unit]
Thus far, the solo music of Calum Gunn has tended towards the more abstract end of electronic music. He’s known for live programming and generative music (although as a member of Dananananaykroyd he’s known for indie & punk), but this new EP on Central Processing Unit suits that label to a tee – idm, electro, grime as the main touchpoints. I decided to play this 5/4 piece of loveliness because the track that follows also has a leaning into the melodic end of electronica. For the ‘ardkore continuum styles we could instead have heard “Ternenmarz”, which has a kind of grime swagger to it. Recommended EP.

Laurin Huber – Hostage to History [Hallow Ground]
Finishing up with melodic synths juxtaposed with complex rhythms from Swiss underground fixture Laurin Huber, released on Swiss label Hallow Ground, known for experimental electronic and industrial releases. Huber here investigates ways to escape dualistic thinking, and we find various styles and musical approaches juxtaposed. On this long track we have skittering electronic electronic hi-hats in a slow 3/4 over which other rhythms move in 4/4 (perhaps is 12 vs 8), and various melodic elements and chords flit in and out dubwise. It could almost be a strangely alien reference back to the dub techno of Vladislav Delay, although these are not sounds that Delay would ever have produced. The four tracks on this EP dark & light, melodic and mechanical, not really pigeonholeable – just how we like it on Utility Fog.

Listen again — ~197MB

Lots of glitchy electro-acoustic sounds, classical composition meets experimental electronics and so on tonight…

LISTEN AGAIN, listen closely… stream on demand from FBi, podcast here.

Luigi Archetti & Bo Wiget – Santa Cruz – Malans [Die Schachtel]
Luigi Archetti & Bo Wiget – stück 5 [Rune Grammofon]
Luigi Archetti & Bo Wiget – stück 17 [Rune Grammofon]
Simon Lenski & Bo Wiget – Trottinette [Radical Duke Entertainment]
Luigi Archetti & Bo Wiget – stück 33 [Rune Grammofon]
Bo Wiget – O Mango Monopol [Bo Wiget Bandcamp]
Luigi Archetti & Bo Wiget – Kyoto – Salzburg [Die Schachtel]
If you know me at all, you know that I love finding experimental cellists of all sorts. So I have no idea how Bo Wiget remained in the periphery of my awareness until now. His duo with fellow Swiss experimenter Luigi Archetti, with Wiget on cello and Archetti on guitar and both on electronics, is right up my alley, with extended instrumental techniques rubbing up against glitchy production, minimalist electronic tones, and disembodied passages of neoclassical harmony. There is even some distorted guitar riffage in one of the selections tonight. We’re hearing them because Die Schachtel, the in-house label of Italian online experimental record store SoundOhm, have released a wonderful new album from them called Weltformat, 10 years after the last of their trio of low tide digitals albums for the legendary Norwegian label Rune Grammofon. Along with a track from each album, we heard some more from their cellist: in 2007 he released a duo album with Belgian cellist Simon Lenski, best known as a member of the genre-destroying band DAAU (Die Anarchistische Abendunterhaltung) – avant-garde cello & electronics also, but with very different results from the Archetti / Wiget pairing. And in 2017, a solo album from Wiget features alarming avant-garde vocals along with his acoustic cello. Another idiosyncratic take on playing this great instrument.

yMusic – Tesselations (Gabriella Smith) [New Amsterdam/Bandcamp]
American contemporary classical ensemble yMusic straddle genre worlds, having worked with My Brightest Diamond on a wonderful album of hers, have performed compositions of many other crossover artists like Sufjan Stevens, and worked on an album recently with Ben Folds. With a lineup of cello, viola, violin/guitar, trumpet/horn, clarinet and flute, they tend to play commissioned new work, and their new album features Missy Mazzoli among others. Tonight we heard an energetic piece based around rhythmic strings, by San Francisco-based composer Gabriella Smith.

Emma Kate Matthews – Similis [Musicity Global]
The unusual chamber ensemble of yMusic leads us from strings and guitar to clarinet and double bass in the next piece. From an album inspired by London architecture, specifically that of London’s “Culture Mile”, it’s appropriate that Emma Kate Matthews is an architect as well as composer and musician. The album was compiled by BBC Radio 3’s Nick Luscombe (founder of Musicity) and commissioned in conjunction with the Barbican Centre, and it’s the Barbican’s main foyer space that inspired the intense clarinet drones and explosions in Matthews’ track. More info on how the recording & reproduction invokes the space here.

Jasmine Guffond – Forever Listening [Editions Mego/Bandcamp]
Sydney/Berlin composer Jasmine Guffond continues her deep exploration of online surveillance and sound on her first solo album for Editions Mego. Entitled Microphone Permission, the album sways musically between exquisitely detuned acoustic-sounding pads, harsh digital interjections, and clicky rhythmic bursts. The measured pace and pristine sound recording invoke an unsettling sense of paranoia – is my laptop or device’s microphone listening without my permission? Is my data being used in nefarious ways? Am I safe? I don’t really care as long as Jasmine continues to produce stunning music like this and her last few releases…

Daspo – Hollandsche Rading [Setola Di Maiale/Bandcamp]
Daspo – Overvecht [Setola Di Maiale/Bandcamp]
The Italian duo of Davide Palmentiero and Giuseppe Pisano make up Daspo, whose debut album combines improvisations on customised instruments with careful post-production. Produced in an anechoic chamber at the HKU in Utrecht, and evokes some of the same strange discombobulation of Jasmine Guffond’s work above. As is often the case with electro-acoustic and experimental sound work, it’s the human element and the way the music is constructed rather than the concepts behind the works that makes them win, and these musicians have a real sense of musical narrative which makes this album stand out.

Samuele Strufaldi & Tommaso Rosati – Collisio [Auand/Bandcamp]
Staying again in Italy, we have some crepuscular, intergalactic electronic jazz from Samuele Strufaldi (piano) & Tommaso Rosati (live electronics). I would’ve loved to play more than one track from this gorgeous album, but the beauty of the piano & glitchy electronics’ interactions here does some justice to an excellent album. It’s the sort of stuff that could fit in the ECM basket, but is perhaps a bit too disturbed. A great discovery.

Memotone – Trading Cities [Disktopia/Bandcamp]
Multi-instrumentalist William Yates never quite does what you expect – after a series of EPs as Memotone (his main alias but one of many!) which placed him firmly in the post-dubstep/electronica camp, his facility with acoustic instruments, classical and jazz composition came to the fore, and on any release you might find submerged techno beats rubbing up against amazing live percussion, piano motifs, or at the start of this track, some emotive cello lines… before we move into dark electronics and machine beats. This is courtesy of Japanese shop/label Disktopia, from a free compilation that came out at the end of last year.

Hence Therefore – Signal Drift 1 [Cherche Encore/Bandcamp]
So good to have more newness from Sydney’s Simon Unwin aka Hence Therefore. This was recorded during his last London winter before returning to Sydney, and samples from some random London radio noise, muffled and chopped into rhythmic chunks slowly developing over 4 minutes into something resembling minimal techno.

Sightless Pit – Kingscorpse [Thrill Jockey/Bandcamp]
Sightless Pit – Violent Rain [Thrill Jockey/Bandcamp]
Incredible work from an extreme metal/noise supergroup here. All have worked together on other projects before, particularly through Lee Buford’s incredible duo the body, who have recorded two collaborative albums with Dylan Walker’s hardcore force of nature Full of Hell. Meanwhile Kristin Hayer is a force of nature herself, with her classical-meets-gothic-meets-metal project Lingua Ignota, and that classical/gothic influence is very evident all over this album, along with myriad electronics, heavy sounds, and (really only) occasional metal vocals. Disturbing, unsettling? Sure. But also beautiful and thrilling.

Zoë Mc Pherson – Power fluids (pitchless) [SFX/Bandcamp]
Zoë Mc Pherson – vii. Transmission (so it shall never be lost) [SVS Records]
Zoë Mc Pherson – Learn ur language faster feat. Elvin Brandhi [SFX/Bandcamp]
Belgium-based singer, jazz drummer and electronic musician Zoë Mc Pherson released her debut album in 2018, and follows it up now with an album that embeds her processed voice in electronic sound-fields, often percussive, often noisy. Experimental music steeped in club and electronica, it’s the first release on the new label SFX that she’s formed with multimedia artist Alessandra Leone.

Lara Sarkissian – The Girl, Leopard and Trees [Lara Sarkissian Bandcamp]
Finishing up tonight with the San Francisco-based electronic producer Lara Sarkissian, once again drawing on her Armenian heritage, this time using the sound of the kanun, a zither or cembalom-like instrument, here sampled from a performance of a concerto by Karine Hovhannisyan. Heavy bass and electronic orchestrations, and occasional hints at (deconstructed) club beats underscore the amazing sound of this instrument.

Listen again — ~190MB

Lots of experimental electronics tonight, more brilliant junglisms, and also plenty of vocals!

LISTEN AGAIN and sing along, via podcast here or stream on demand at FBi.

golden window house – The Man I Follow (ft. Marcus Whale) [Defaul Settings]
Kcin – Belief Network [Defaul Settings]
Starting tonight with another bushfire relief compilation. There’s been a lot of these, which just goes to show that in a business that could do with all the small amounts of money it could make, people in the arts are admirably morally centred. While some labels and artists were able to draw on existing material to get fundraiser compilations out the door as soon as the scale of the disasters became evident, others have put together wonderfully considered special material. New Sydney label Default Settings is a friend of the show’s – label head Tom Vanderzeil has filled in on shows following us a bit too. Their comp raises funds for WIRES and RSPCA NSW. Golden Window House is the ambient alias of Jacques Emery, enfolding Marcus Whale’s vocals in layers of quasi-classical samples, distorted noise and sub-bass. And Nick Meredith’s Kcin contributes an exclusive work of grungy bass synths and beats.

NERVE – VERMILLION DAWN (MDE Version) [AR53]
Melbourne producer Joshua Wells has appeared a fair bit on the show recently with his hard-hitting industrial-leaning techno as NERVE. This track is a live improvisation from the middle of a recent set, and again shows his techno teetering dangerously on the edge of drum’n’bass.

Thugwidow – i long to be carried away [Aurawire/Bandcamp]
Thugwidow – Dominion [Circadian Rhythms Records/Bandcamp]
Thugwidow – what ever happened to the pouring soul liger [Aurawire/Bandcamp]
Did anybody say drum’n’bass? I just discovered this wild album from 2019 by Manchester-based producer Thugwidow aka Alex Lowther-Harris, whose brilliant bass/drum’n’bass track “Dominion” appeared on the great jungle/idm/grime comp Partisan from last year on Circadian Rhythms. Seemingly one of a billion albums he put out in the last couple of years, it’s released through Minneapolis label Aurawire, a label that specialises mostly in ambient. It’s a beautiful homage to early ‘90s jungle, with rave synths, skittering breaks scattered octaves above sub-bass-lines, an absolute delight. And it’s released on CD! Although the mastering leaves a little to be desired – I boosted all the tracks by 3.4dB and topped-and-tailed all the tracks, because that’s the kind of thing I do, and so here we are. Really, grab this asap.

Louis King ft. Brain Rays – Let’s Get It (Brain Rays + Quiet Remix) [SEAGRAVE]
Louis King ft. Brain Rays – Why Pree? (Ice_Eyes Remix) [SEAGRAVE]
There’s never a dud from British label SEAGRAVE. They remind us of the deep and weird connections between idm and dancefloor genres, and how blurred those lines are. The latest release is a grime single with various remixes. South London MC Louis King pairs up with producer Brain Rays for a couple of tracks which are flipped and messed with by the likes of algorave king Renick Bell, and tonight we heard Brain Rays himself with regular collaborator Quiet taking things into footwork-meets-jungle territory, and then Greek idm duo Ice_Eyes take it head-nodding and crunchy.

Pentagrime – No Pithering Allowed [James Plotkin Bandcamp]
James Plotkin can’t get enough of the modular synth idm beats. His years making the scariest doom metal in the business and being one of the most respected mastering engineers in the world give him a strange perspective on electronica, but he’s always been into weird & cutting edge electronic production as well. The third EP as Pentagrime is first class, from the acid slow-fast vibes of this track to the Aphexisms of “Lemur Orgy”. Also note the last track, an alternate version of the track I played tonight, bestowed with the subtitle “[rehearsal demo live peel session roughmix (remix)]”.

SUDS – Shuttlecock Fanfare [anno]
Legendary Digital Hardcore producer Christoph de Babalon, as well as releasing new music AND a series of archival releases of amazing drum’n’bass and dark ambient over the last few years, has been involved in a few collaborations lately, and his new one with Berlin-based experimental electronic producer Wilted Woman is very impressive. No junglisms here (although the beats skitter and syncopate plenty), but dark beats, bass and melodies. According to the EP title, SUDS = Sick Universe Demands Sharing. Maybe they’ll change it every release?

Ash Koosha – iLLY [Realms/Bandcamp]
Ash Koosha – Robot Kareem [Realms/Bandcamp]
Ash Koosha – The Egg Sea [Realms/Bandcamp]
Iranian ex-pat Ashkan Kooshanejad aka Ash Koosha, after a brilliant debut mixtape on Olde English Spelling Bee and debut album on Ninja Tune, has been steadily dropping mixtapes and albums on his own label as well as material from his handmade AI singer-songwriter YONA. His latest album-cum-mixtape BLUUD is as exciting as his earliest releases, combining crunchy beats and heavy bass with a Persian-inflected talent for melodic and harmonic invention.

Katie Gately – The Tower [Houndstooth/Bandcamp]
Katie Gately – Last Day [Public Information]
Katie Gately – Lift [Tri-Angle/Bandcamp]
Katie Gately – Rite [Houndstooth/Bandcamp]
We’ve been fans on this show of the vocal magic and sound-art of LA-based musician Katie Gately for ages. It’s easy to forget that she’s a songwriter when contemplating her adeptness with sonic exploration, as well as the 10+-minute tracks appearing on Fat Cat and other labels – and indeed the lead single from her astonishing new album Loom is again over 10 minutes. As Gately was preparing the initial material, she received the devastating news that her mother had terminal cancer, and recorded the album during her mother’s illness. The emotional heft of those events is evident in many of the songs here, but as Gately is an inveterate sound artist, we have the sonic heft of earthquake recordings appearing in these complex tracks, along with coffins closing, wolves howling, pill bottles shaking, etc. None of this distracts from the great songwriting – and along with the rhythmic, song-structured pieces there are a couple of lovely shorter, simpler works for layered vocals and electronics. I felt that her last album (2016’s Color) deserved more accolades than it received, but to prove she’s been a huge creative force for a long time, we went back to 2013’s self-title album on Public Information – already complete with rumbling crashes, found-sound beats and wonderful vocal processing.

Arrom x KAIAR – Starcrossed [Provenance/Bandcamp]
Arrom x KAIAR – I Know The Ocean [Provenance/Bandcamp]
Two vocal & electronic producers from Melbourne team up for a new release on rejuvenated Aussie label Provenance. Both Arrom (aka Melissa Valence) and KAIAR (aka Karla Gilbard) are lovers of experimental electronics, and we hear the vocals of both (Valence is a classically-trained choral singer) as the main sonic element – sometimes floating melodically, sometimes chopped and processed – with booming beats or fragmented drum machines or glitchy crunches.

Olivia Louvel – Conversation with Magic Stones [Cat Werk Imprint]
Olivia Louvel – Bats (If You Cross The Line remix by Simon Fisher Turner) (excerpt!) [Cat Werk Imprint]
French-born British composer Olivia Louvel works with voice and electronics to explore digital narrative. Her latest work Hepworth Resounds, part of her Masters study, is in dialogue with the writings of British sculptor Barbara Hepworth. Part of this work is an installation, and part is the new album SulptOr. Spoken and sung texts appear along with glitchy, stop-start beats. It’s lovely stuff. And I wish I’d had time to play the complete, epic, beautiful remix of her track “Bats By Night” by the unimpleachably great Simon Fisher Turner, but we had time for just an extract.

Listen again — ~203MB