Utility Fogpostfolkrocktronica, from granular pop to orchestral breakcore and beyond... Sunday nights from 10pm to 1am on FBi Radio, 94.5 FM in Sydney, Australia. LISTEN ONLINE now! (only when show is on-air) Click here to find the start time for the show at your location! OMG! It's working again! {Hey! Sign up to Utilityfoglet and get playlists emailed to you after each show!}
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Sunday, 7th of March, 2010
Playlist 07.03.10 (10:08 pm)
Evening! Help us out why don’t you? Support FBi and keep us on air! Sad news that Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse took his own life this week. Played a track to see him off, in collaboration with Christian Fennesz. Fennesz’s laptop power trio FennO’Berg are back with a new album, on which the jury’s still out – but I haven’t had a chance to listen properly yet. This track stood out enough to get the thumbs up tonight! Montreal’s The Besnard Lakes’ new album sounds remarkably like The Besnard Lakes — and that’s a great thing! If you’re familiar with their last two albums you’ll know what to expect – and it’s as rapturous and epic as ever. First off in our little “classical” music-influenced theme tonight is The Knife’s opera based on the life and works of Charles Darwin, written “in collaboration” with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock. It’s pretty crazy cool stuff, with scene-setting experimental sounds, enormous analog synth lines, operatic (and non-operatic) vocals and some percussion… A definite winner. More classicism with Icelandic composer Daníel Bjarnason, whose “Bow To String” is the first work on his new album for Bedroom Community. Countless multi-tracked celli make for a rich and richly-rhythmic sound, with a little help from label boss Valgeir Sigurðsson. From Valgeir we also heard a wonderful track from his new album, featuring many other Bedroom Community artists as guests, plus an older glitchy electronic piece which ushered in a bit of an electronic segment. However, in between we had a reprise of the one track as yet available from Sam Amidon’s new album — blissful rhythmic ostinati and an authentic folk voice. The electronica begins with Sydney’s Vorad Fils, who happens to be one of the members of the beloved Seekae, and has an album coming out via Feral Media soon! Classic electronica. Next, Scottish glitch-hop artist Loops Haunt. Nicely twisted, syncopated and chopped stuff. And while it’s definitely more on the dancefloor tip, it’s still very much listening music too, and strangely appropriate as a segue into a new Autechre track, from their stellar Oversteps. Raved about it last week, and I think we’ll be back for more for a good few weeks yet (at least until the album comes out on CD!) This track starts off a bit oddly but swiftly becomes something fascinating, and the last minute or two as it tails off are pretty amazing. We had a brief tag-team tonight between two excellent remix albums, from Aarktica and dakota suite. The former takes the drone-pop of Jon DeRosa’s Aarktica and either takes it more in the droney-guitar direction or adds some nice crunched beats etc… But UFog-favourites The Declining Winter add some extra vocals and Sarah Kemp’s multi-tracked violin for something very special. Aaron Martin’s latest album isn’t on Sydney’s Preservation, but Experimedia are well-known for their beautiful packaging too. Aaron here seems to be taking things in an even more abstract sound-related direction, but the second track I played is one of his best cello-related works yet, a multi-tracked delight. Further New Weird Australia offerings include the wonderful Sydney-based sound artist Gail Priest, whose vocal processing is a wonder, the ever-fab Crab Smasher with a bit of almost Sonic Youth-like rock jamming, and Red Plum & Snow — new project for Kris Keogh of Blastcorp, taking vocal-swapping acoustic guitar folk-pop in very interesting directions :) Also in there, the improv guitar, sax, drums and other stuff from Sydney’s Espadrille, and a b-side from Collarbones, more glitched-up electronic pop. sparklehorse + fennesz – Goodnight Sweetheart [Konkurrent] Listen again — ~ 180MB Sunday, 28th of February, 2010
Playlist 28.02.10 (10:07 pm)
Yay for musics! LISTEN AGAIN, folks, at the bottom of this post! We started with one of Son Lux’s own reworkings of “Weapons”, and then the opening track from the Joanna Newsom. The latter was so strikingly reminiscent of the lovely Kate Bush that I had to play a couple of her tunes, and a track from Pikelet’s new album segued so nicely from the latter that, well, it just had to be done. Back to Joanna for one of the absolute highlights, the gorgeous “In California”, with wonderful orchestration and a curious way of changing key and then slipping back down a tone for the refrain. I couldn’t resist playing Clouds’ dubstep anthem from a few years ago, sampling from “The Book of Right On”, and that took us into one of Son Lux’s reworkings of My Brightest Diamond from her fabulous four-artist remix EP collection released a month or so ago. And then brilliant young composer/arranger Nico Muhly got his hands on the Son Lux tune, with a great arrangement and chunky beats. Speaking of chunky beats, I’m still obsessing a little over These New Puritans’s new album. Sad to have missed out on the limited edition featuring the full score, gimmick though that was. Another great track tonight. Following that, we had the first track from the new Autechre, which will no doubt be featured over the next good few shows. “known(1)” is one of the beatless (albeit not rhythm-less) tracks, with an incredible freaked-out melody. It was followed by the utterly classic “Flutter” from the Anti EP, its non-repetitive beats still thrilling, and the gorgeously long fade-out still something else. Couple of other long-fade-out tracks from Ae later on, but we took the tip from the frenetic beats to pull out some early drum’n'bass (1993) from Acro, which turns out to be a collaboration between Decoder & Technical Itch, and is the sort of stuff that must’ve been influencing the IDM/drill’n'bass folks around the mid-’90s. Back with Son Lux, and anticon labelmate Alias gets behind the mic for the first time in ages, as well as remixing the track. Following this, a brilliant track from ex-labelmate Sole with his current collaborater The Skyrider Band, aka William Ryan Fritch (see later in the playlist…) From there, Sydney/Adelaide duo Collarbones give us a piece of glitch-pop, and it’s strongly recommended you go to their Bandcamp and download it FOR FREE. And thence to New Zealand, where we join the wonderful Chris Knox, along with Alec Bathgate for the seminal and hugely-influential lo-fi experimental wonder-group the Tall Dwarfs. As you may know, Chris suffered a stroke last year that has (as often they do) devastated his language centers, although he is able to move around and even play music again now. We heard a tune from the Tall Dwarfs, Chris’s solo indie hit “Not Given Lightly”, and a couple of really marvellous reworkings from a marvellous double CD compilation that you should go and buy right now, called Stroke, in which artists from all around the world gathered together to help this importand and well-loved musician/artist/writer get by. Next up, our man in Melbourne, John McCaffrey aka Part Timer has sent in another UFog exlusive (for now), his remix of Vieo Abiungo, which turns out to be another project of the disturbingly-talented William Ryan Fritch. This is one of the best Part Timer remixes in ages too, a bit of an idm thing nicely complementing the African-influenced original track. Japanese artist Miko contributes vocals and lovely glitches to Ian Hawgood’s remix album, and we then move back to Joanna Newsom for “Does Not Suffice”, the last track from Have One On Me. It’s a wonderful and fitting closer, wrapping up the tale with solo piano and voice, all the way up to the final lines, where the strings enter to underscore the final sentiment: “…and everywhere I tried to love you / is yours again, / and only yours.” Gets you right between the eyes, and from there the song opens up crescendoing into a reverb-laden ending. I took the opportunity of the reverb to cross to the closing track from Autechre’s Oversteps, which managed to be in just the right key. It may not have the advantage of moving lyrics, but it’s a beauty too, and has a lovely long fade out. Two more Ae-related tracks take us out – side project Gescom with “Key Nell 2”, with two great beats and long ambient outro and then “Nuane”, which ends their greatest album, Chiastic Slide, with chattering, burbling synths from another planet. Son Lux – Weapons II [anticon] Listen again — ~ 180MB Monday, 22nd of February, 2010
Paul’s Playlunch 22.02.10 (12:11 pm)
Filling in for the veritable legendary Paul Gough today! I played some favourite tunes from 1993, just for fun. An interesting year, with Underworld’s self-recreation as techno boundary-pushers, jungle/drum’n'bass getting serious as part of the post-hardcore scene, along with Future Sound of London’s lovely ambient techno and the Warp label’s nurturing of what was dubbed IDM in the nascent email list scene… And yes, as usual, you can LISTEN AGAIN. See below… Underworld – mmm skyscraper i love you [Junior Recordings] Listen again — ~ 58.5MB Sunday, 21st of February, 2010
Playlist 21.02.10 (10:07 pm)
So. Tonight’s interview with the lovely Mr James Blackshaw was a little delayed but did go ahead. We also had a number of tunes from the amazing BJ Nilsen, and ran the gamut from melodicism to drill’n'bass… Checkit. Starting tonight with a lovely bit of field recording-meets-drone courtesy of BJ Nilsen. It’s the title track to his new album and features the amplified sound of a chair being dragged across the floor. Yum. James Blackshaw was a bit of a focus for tonight. I had a bit of difficulty getting through due to a misunderstanding about area codes, but once I sorted that out we had a fantastic chat about his music. You can download it separately here. We heard a track from Axxonn’s excellent new cassette release last week. Tonight, another piece of shuddering drone. Follow the link to buy the cassette with a free download, or purchase it digitally here. As you may have heard, Michael Gira has announced that he is reforming his legendary gothic rock group Swans, with a new album in the works. Hugely exciting news. In the lead-up, he released a third album of home recordings, including a number of awesome new tunes he played last year on his Australian tour. Tonight’s was one of the highlights. Ah, Keith Mason, another artist going by his first initial! This track is a trial run for his shambolic EP of last year. You can download it for free, whaddaya waiting for! Grungey keyboard bassline, electric guitar that sounds like a pirate coming to cut your throat. Shearwater have another album out – third in the trilogy that started with the glorious Palo Santo and continued with Rook… unashamed romantic melodicism, owing much to late-period Talk Talk. Wonderful stuff. These New Puritans, on the other hand, how to characterise this group? With classical arrangements for woodwinds and choir, plus a highly rhythmic core that points at dancehall and perhaps grime, along with a punkish attitude, and… heck, just check out the video for “We Want War”! Next up, Low’s Alan Sparhawk returns with a second album for his ROCK side-project Retribution Gospel Choir. It’s heavy and it’s got Sparhawk’s songs and vocals – what more could we want? That Low song I played could possibly be one of the greatest songs ever too. Squat Club is one of many Sydney acts based around the crew called QWERTY whose drill’n'bass/idm tunes I used to play a lot when they dropped them into the station a few years back. Squat Club is fabulous epic prog stuff, and goes down a treat. Meanwhile Josh Head’s Calmon H Salmon continues the QWERTY tradition of crazed beats and synths. Yes please. As well as another lovely soundscape from BJ Nilsen, we had something a little different, from the excellent 10×7” set Recovery from Fractured back in 2008. Nilsen covers Joy Division, although you probably wouldn’t notice :) Still, beats and stuff! Meanwhile, first hint of the debut album from Sydney’s Actual Russian Brides, electronic pop experimentalism, followed by some more electronica from Sydney: Loopsnake’s dubsteppy debut EP and Monk Fly’s wonky swung beats (released on the Bay Area’s Daly City Records). And finally, a couple of tunes in tribute to the wonderful Chris Knox. Next week, we’ll have more Knox, Tall Dwarfs, and covers from the fabulous Stroke comp that’s out to raise money to help him recover from last year’s, yes, stroke. Tonight, the lo-fi masterpiece “the slide” is followed by fellow NZ legends The Chills covering a very early Tall Dwarfs tune… BJ Nilsen – The Invisible City [Touch] Listen again — ~ 179MB Sunday, 14th of February, 2010
Playlist 14.02.10 (10:12 pm)
Tonight’s show covered quite some ground, from early ’80s Sydney with the M2 label to contemporary Melbourne with Pikelet’s wonderful new album, with minimal techno, drone and much more in between. When Pikelet played a couple of Sydney shows in Sydney in 2008, she was already road testing some new material, and the wonderful “Toby Light” turned up in a few live sets. It’s been quite a wait, but finally that song opens her fabulous new album Stem, which you should run out and purchase right now! Charming songs based around loop pedals and a plethora of different instruments, perfectly constructed little wonders. Ascension Records have just released a 4CD box set of all (or most?) of the material released by legendary Sydney label, studio and collective M2 during the early 1980s. It’s quite appropriate to start with The Makers of the Dead Travel Fast and their “hit” song “Tael Of A Saeghors”. Even though they weren’t the originators of MSquared, they came on board very early in the piece and this song got quite a bit of radio airplay at the time. Next up, Newcastle’s The Atlas Room (I think it’s a solo project) handed in a demo at FBi recently with a pretty impressive range over its 4 tracks. First up we took the almost post-punk “Iris”, and then there’s the more ambient “Dendrite”. Sydney (or central coast) artist Edwin Montgomery is on a roll, and has released two albums for free download at his website. Topography just uses a Roland SH2 monophonic analog synthesiser – yes, just a monophonic synth, with loop and delay pedals. It’s quite a lovely ambient and nostalgic sound. Keeping it stringy, cellist Danny Norbury contributes the first of tonight’s tracks from Ian Hawgood’s Home Normal label, and it’s a remix (or reworking) of Ian Hawgood’s own work. From the same CD, we also had a fabulous folktronic feast from Color Cassette. Next up, one-time folktronic poster-boy Minotaur Shock teams up with one of the members of the Iskra String Quarte for the second entry in the L-O-A-F Explorers’ Club. Something a bit different for Minotaur Shock and one of the best things I’ve heard of his in ages. BJ Nilsen’s productions are still new to me, and pretty friggin’ awesome. Source material can be field recordings, strange objects or musical instruments, and everything has a generous helping of computer processing. It’s not unlike what Machinefabriek is doing, but the results, in terms of track structures and probably sonic intentions, are quite unique. The first track we heard tonight starts with digitally distorted birds, abruptly chops off, and then grows into this almost electric organ thing. Next up, Justin Broadrick & Andrew Broder aren’t really a pair you’d expect to see together on vinyl, but the latest 7″ in Hidden Hive’s Kissing Kin series doesn’t just split sides between them – they’re two collaborations, with Broadrick’s familiar Jesu onslaught of guitars and drum machines, and Broder’s familiar Fog drawl. Strangely, it works. More please! After more Pikelet, we skipped back to 1990 and the second Necks album. I still remember buying this album, with its original artwork (so sad that they changed it for the reissue). Shorter tracks, unlike most live Necks gigs, and some interesting instrumentation and studio experimentation. Their gig this Friday night at the Metro in Sydney can’t come highly enough recommended from me. Rejoining the lovely Home Normal, we have one track of glitchy acoustic guitar from offthesky, the processed vocals and drone of L / M / R / W, and the very chilly ambience of Konntinent. No other new artists in the rest of the playlist, but the last Pikelet selection from her new album has a sweet little bit off the original piano-and-vocal demo version (“Take Off The Face Paint”) which she was selling at gigs in 2008; so I thought we should hear another of those tracks. “My Piano” features some very nimble piano playing and multi-tracked vocals. Pikelet – Toby Light [Chapter Music] Listen again — ~ 175MB
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Labels and artists!We'd love you to send promo/demo CDs or vinyl to:Peter Hollo - Utility Fog FBi Radio PO Box 1962 Strawberry Hills NSW 2012 AUSTRALIA email: utility_fog at fbiradio dot com
Utility Fog teeters on the cusp between acoustic and electronic, organic and digital. Constantly changing and rearranging, this aural cloud of nanotech will take you from deep within the world of post-rock (where live musicians sometimes sound like machines), through the realms of folktronica (where acoustic instruments are chopped and processed into new forms) and into the outer reaches of idm and experimental electronica (where artificial intelligences skitter and crackle, and may just pull at your heart-strings). Since all these genre names are already pretty ridiculous, we thought we'd coin a new one. So "postfolkrocktronica" it is. Wear it. Now available: free "Live on Utility Fog" downloads! We got tasty rss2 or atom feeds - get Utility Fog playlists in your favourite RSS reader/aggregator. New Weird Australia And on Sydney's long-standing community radio station 2ser, tune in to the highly influential Paradigm Shift on Monday nights, and Leigh Tran's Tape Relay on Tuesdays. the lexicon, for the lovely lexi's lexcellent & lexstatic, um, music reviews :) Peter's recently played tracks (via last.fm)
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