Utility Fog

Sunday, 7th of February, 2010

WORST
CASE
SCENARIO
(first draft)
What a great song to start off tonight’s show! Violin, post-Tom Waits dirty roots giving way to artsy indie rock. deUS’ first album has been “gently remastered” and this came from the Deluxe version with bonus CD and DVD. I haven’t even watched the latter yet, but it’s a stone-cold Belgian classic.

Meanwhile, LISTEN AGAIN if you wish – link at bottom!

We had a remarkable amount of violin-led postrock, folk and indie tonight. We started with Queenslanders Bremen Town Musician, violin in the foreground, and an angular rock backing. Next up, Slow Six, from their third album. I haven’t yet heard the others, one of which is all classical arrangements and sounds fascinating, but here the violin is mixed up in the traditional postrock dynamics, making for a very distinctive sound.
On the same label, Balmorhea have a new album coming, and if this preview is anything to go by it’ll eclipse their last effort and then some. Stunning banjo, strings and percussion… We also had a reprise (from a few weeks back) of Peter Broderick’s charming remix of the band, in which he narrates his thoughts while building up one of his gorgeous layered numbers with strings and vocals.

Newcomer Charlie Alex March follows, coincidentally turning up with a brace of string arrangements in his pocket. It’s a confusing album, mixing almost-cheesy electronics with tightly arranged emotion-imbued strings, but at its best it’s highly successful.
I feel I could keep playing tracks from Owen Pallett’s week in and week out, and I probably will. He’s a goshdarned genius and I hope he graces our shores again this year.

Speaking of goshdarned genius, how about Cerberus Shoal, eh? If you don’t know them, or much of their stuff, then I too was so afflicted until late last year. I’m catching up and gave little overview tonight. They mutated into the exquisite acoustic Americana practitioners Fire on Fire and released an album as such on Michael Gira’s Young God last year, but I hear that they’re still around as Cerberus Shoal too. In any case, a few tracks from a few different releases, and also a track from Herman Düne from the split CD between the two bands. Oh boy, I have to find more by Herman Düne! European indie-folk or something…

We edge our way back into the electronic realm via Savvas Ysatis & 12k supremo Taylor Deupree, bringing some beautiful shoegazey folk. Then we’re into the more electric shoegaze of Konntinent, whose tracks tonight garnered quite a bit of interest from listeners. He’s a bit of a hidden gem, and I hope he can get some recognition, as his two albums so far are very fine efforts. We had one track from his debut album (released by Japanese label Symbolic Interaction) and then another from the new one on sterling English label Home Normal, showcasing his glitchy beats and textures.

And then we had a pretty serious feature on new releases by Machinefabriek. Seriously, you should go and download De Jonge Jaren (2001-2004), featuring (unsurprisingly) music recorded between 2001 & 2004, and handed out to friends and acquaintances in tiny CDR editions. It’s great stuff, unlike the drone and sound-art he’s best known for in that it features beats and more “normally” structured tracks, but still with plenty of processing and a fantastic ear for sonic texture.
Meanwhile, he’s got three new 3″ CDs out, and we heard something from each – two of them constructed from processed field recordings, and one made from guitar sounds. Finally, his collaboration with Leo Fabriek, Mariska Baars (who doesn’t appear on this track) & Wouter van Veldhoven is another beautiful low-key coup for Home Normal, wrapping you up in its tinkling beauty.

Most of the rest of the show was dedicated to the music of Melbournian Philip Brophy, who’s been around for yonks, pioneering the use of synthesisers along with peeps like David Chesworth. He’s equally comfortable making melodic electronica of all sorts and more conceptual sound art. His I Am Piano from last year explores the timbres of the piano via granulated processing of a number of jazz piano greats, while other tracks were made to accompany an Andy Warhol film, another short film, and a couple of events at the Melbourne Planetarium. While Brophy’s liner notes can seem somewhat (self-?)mocking in their art-punk way, and the Sound Punch releases’ packaging is presumably deliberately kitschy to the point of being blindingly ugly, he has an incredible body of work that should be heard by more people.

Finally, my FBi colleague Andrew Maxam of Friday night’s Liquid Electric passed on his debut EP under the new Loopsnake moniker, and it’s high-quality dubstep-infused stuff. Nice clattering beats and bass on the last track track, also the last track for tonight!

deUS – w.c.s. (first draft) [Island]
Bremen Town Musician – Governor Wren [self-released]
Slow Six – These Rivers Between Us [Western Vinyl]
Balmorhea – Bowspit [Western Vinyl] {wonderful promo for new album – find it here (for instance)}
Balmorhea – November 1, 1832 (Peter Broderick remix) [Western Vinyl/Longtime Listener]
Charlie Alex March – Melodie [L-O-A-F]
Owen Pallett – Midnight Directives [Domino]
Charlie Alex March – Mao [L-O-A-F]
Cerberus Shoal – Train Car Nursery [North East Indie]
Herman Düne – That Woman is a Murderess [North East Indie]
Cerberus Shoal – Sweetie [North East Indie]
Cerberus Shoal – The Land We All Believe In [North East Indie]
Savvas Ysatis & Taylor Deupree – live ice on a summer’s day [12k]
Konntinent – Numeral [Home Normal]
konntinent – This Searing Heat [Symbolic Interaction]
Konntinent – Surrender Number [Home Normal]
Machinefabriek – Kalite [Machinefabriek] {free download album of old stuff, De Jonge Jaren (2001-2004). Go grab it — it’s awesome!}
Machinefabriek – Slovensko 2 [Machinefabriek]
Machinefabriek – Ax [Machinefabriek]
Machinefabriek – The Breathing Water [Machinefabriek]
L / M / R / W – Tegendraads [Home Normal]
Machinefabriek – The Shopping mall [Machinefabriek] {also from De Jonge Jaren (2001-2004).}
Philip Brophy – I Am Andrew Hill [Sound Punch]
Philip Brophy – Blooming Pout [Sound Punch]
Philip Brophy – Whispering in the Dark [Sound Punch]
Philip Brophy – Deep Space / Super Nova / Blue Dwarf / Black Hole [Sound Punch]
Loopsnake – Diamond Sign VIP [self-released]

Listen again — ~ 176MB

Sunday, 31st of January, 2010

Good evening! Many monstrous and wonderful noises tonight!
LISTEN AGAIN link goes at the bottom, after this huge essay.

Starting with a pretty amazing collaboration between the legendary Tony Conrad, C. Spencer Yeh (see next track!) and Norwegian bassist Michael F. Duch. Harpsichord and piano scintillations give way to dual-violin drones and scrapes, while Duch holds a bass pedal. Wondrous stuff…
Spencer’s new Burning Star Core album is in fact an old album, from a number of years ago, but originally released in a very small tour run on his own label. Hospital Productions give it their beautiful glossy treatment for this release, and it’s pretty stunning acoustic drone stuff. It may be half a decade down the line, but it still could be game-changing in its way!

More strings follow, courtesy of Thee Silver Mt Zion Memorial Orchestra, still going strong. Maybe I should do a little retrospective on them in a coming show. They’ve dropped the Tra-La-La Band probably because of a change of line-up, but they still have the incredible propulsive bass of Theirry Amar, and violins from Sophie Trudeau and Jessica Moss, along with Efrim Menuck’s guitar and vocals. A pretty rockin’ number was my choice!

I can’t tell you how excited I was to get the CD edition of My Brightest Diamond’s four Shark Remixes EPs this week! Four quite different artists, with backgrounds in classical music (like Shara Worden herself) as well as electronic and your usual Ashmatic Kitty-style indie – really interesting filters for Worden’s work. First comes from the relatively little-known Alfred Brown, with a wonderful bass rumble in the middle.

Melbourne postrockers Radiant City have a new album on its way, but meanwhile you can grab the single “Two Against Eight” from their website. We heard an excellent slow-growing remix that’s exclusive to the CD single.
To follow them up, Sydney improv Forenzics bring us their singular sound. With electric bass central to the mix, along with guitar, percussion and electronic elements, it’s fascinating listening.

Apropos of nothing much, a little spray from the amazing anarcho-punks Crass. It’s a stone-cold classic and mixes raucous punk with off-key post-punk keyboards and bass, plus right-on political lyrics.

Then some wonderful noise from, in this case, Deterioration Yellow Swans – a nice “D” word to preface them with for a 2008 album of the same name. Call it drone, noise, or whatever you like, it’s beautiful as well as harsh. Fabulous stuff.
We follow it with a track from Carlos Giffoni’s new album, in which he explores analogue synths in his own special way…
And then, on Carlos’ No Fun Productions, Emeralds take us on a synthesised journey into the sea of information… while Oneohtrix Point Never’s Daniel Lopatin takes us in the hyperdawn with his sequenced synths & melodies.
And yes, that’s him on guitar in the next track too! Plus nice lo-fi production and noises going on.

The wonderful Leeds band The Boats then take us in more of an IDM/techno direction with a track from one of their very limited CDR editions. Sounding very mid-’90s I guess.
London wunderkind Bullion is doing wonderful things in the wonky arena and related. This features some cute samples and creates a nicely psychedelic pop feel.
And in a similar vein, Eskmo’s sampled vocals are the icing on the cake of this incredible cross-rhythmic wonky tune. What do I mean by “cross-rhythmic”? You’ll have to listen to the interplay between the beats, the bass and the vocal samples to hear how he swaps between swung rhythms and duples (2s and 4s), often pitting one against the other – it’s a typical wonky/dubstep technique which the lesser producers don’t always understand.

We follow with the other artists remixing My Brightest Diamond. Amazing anticon artist Son Lux combines classical and electronic in the most dance-oriented remix, with quite a dazzling arrangement — after which Ecuadorian ex-pat Roberto C. Lange adds South American percussion to loops and minimalist classicisim.
Finally we have two sort-of untitled tracks from fellow Asthmatic Kitty artist and long-time friend of Worden’s DM Stith. I chose these as the most sideways approaches to her work — one with Stith’s own lovely vocals brought to the fore.

And yes, there’s a new Four Tet album out. His angel echoes to us that There’s love in you, and I’m sure there is…
Israeli soprano Hila Baggio brings us a famous madrigal by William Holborne from the 16th century, with very subtle treatments from the Dub Mentor, as part of a series of singles called Allergy To Consciousness. I’m not sure if they’d heard the ambient/dub/techno remixes of Miranda Sex Garden, but I sure remember them – and I still have the CD single, so here you go — enjoy some early ’90s ambient why don’tcha!

After confessing to me last week that he doesn’t really get all this drone music, Melbourne’s part timer decided he’d try his hand at it, and emailed me the results. I keep falling for this – somehow it made it on air! Maybe it’s because it’s really great.
And we close with a very beautiful and bass-heavy drone work from ex-Northern Territorian Robert Curgenven, whose work melds field recordings and musical elements in a way that few have done as successfully. Hopefully you’ll hear an interview when Rob is in Sydney in March.

Tony Conrad/C. Spencer Yeh/Michael F. Duch – Musculus Trapezius (excerpt) [Pica Disk]
Burning Star Core – inside the shadow (w. metals) [Hospital Productions]
Thee Silver Mt Zion Memorial Orchestra – I Built Myself A Metal Bird [Constellation]
My Brightest Diamond vs Alfred Brown – You Are Now Untouchable (Esto Perpetue) [Asthmatic Kitty]
Radiant City – Urban Drilled (Urban Drill remix by Marcus Newman [Wireless Records]
Forenzics – womb 1.0 [4N6]
Crass – You’re Already Dead [Crass Records]
Deterioration Yellow Swans – Reintegration [Modern Radio]
Carlos Giffoni – The Hermit [Hospital Productions]
Emeralds – Alive in the Sea of Information [No Fun Productions]
Oneohtrix Point Never – Hyperdawn [No Fun Productions]
Oneohtrix Point Never – I Know It’s Taking Pictures From Another Plane (Inside Your Sun) [No Fun Productions]
The Boats – cars, bikes, boats, babes (version) [Our Small Ideas]
Bullion – Say Goodbye To What [Bullion Bandcamp]
Eskmo – Let Them Sing [Planet µ]
My Brightest Diamond vs Son Lux – Inside A Boy [Asthmatic Kitty]
My Brightest Diamond vs Roberto C. Lange – Queen [Asthmatic Kitty]
My Brightest Diamond vs DM Stith – ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ / ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ [Asthmatic Kitty]
Four Tet – Angel echoes [Domino]
Hila Baggio – Gush Forth, My Tears (ATC version, treated by Dub Mentor) [EnT-T]
Miranda Sex Garden – Gush Forth My Tears (The First Steppes Mix by Thrash, Fortran 5 & PK) [Mute]
part timer – 5 pillars [direct from artist]
Robert Curgenven – Gran Coda Andante [LINE]

Listen again — ~ 183MB

Sunday, 24th of January, 2010

Another great bunch o’ stuff for you tonight. LISTEN AGAIN link at the bottom of the playlist, as usual!

Tonight’s big feature was the wonderful new compilation Music & Migration on Second Language.
We started, though, with a couple of tracks from Sydney post-rock band The Dead Sea, whose album was out in a limited fashion last year, but is available (again?) now. Excellent atmospheric stuff.

We then hopped across to the west for a couple of Perth bands: the cello-heavy shoegaze of My Majestic Star and the beautiful drone of The Ghost of 29 Megacycles (love that track/album title too!)

Speaking of drone, for a cassette on sound&fury, Jasper TX takes inspiration from a poem by Penelope Joy and creates a 15 minute ode to “Waverly Cemetery (Sydney)” (misspelled, sadly, in the original poem, but you can’t have everything). The track ranges, in typical superlative Jasper TX fashion, from drone to field recordings (lovely wind-on-microphone noise), to piano and post-rock…

Then we had the first of a number of tracks from the excellent Music & Migration compilation. Utility Fog favourite Fieldhead has contributed a mostly ambient piece. brave timbers’ piece is piano and layered violins; it’s Sarah Kemp, who plays with both Fieldhead and The Declinig Winter, whose track I’ll probably play next week!
We had a brief detour via Machinefabriek’s gorgeous remix of post-classical/folk/rock band Balmorhea, and then back to the first track on the compilation, from the reliably delightful Hauschka, with prepared piano and, I think, drum machine. Finally, Lene Charlotte Holm’s track was another highlight, and with a bit of digging (thanks Discogs!) I discovered that she’s one half of Iris to Hypnos, whose 7″ on Static Caravan was a mini-highlight of 2008.

The now-Melbourne-based Heidi Elva’s new album, lo-fi musings, should be out soon. She sent me a preview in the form of “Simple Pleasures”, a lovely dubby number that’s been in her live sets for a while. Meanwhile, John Part Timer was unable to resist a remix opportunity, and did some very juicy things to it under his kinda-dubstep alias Dark Mahoney & the Midnight Bitch. More please!

Next, we had a little mini-special on the work of Mr Owen Pallett, aka Final Fantasy. The new album is apparently set in a made-up world called Spectrum, first introduced by Owen in an EP from late 2008 called Spectrum, 14th Century. As well as a new track and one from this EP, we popped back to his debut album in 2005, and also heard an awesome number from a 7″ in Tomlab’s Alphabet series.

It seemed suitable, after the strings and melodies of Owen Pallett, to delve into the rapturous romanticism of Sebastian Krueger’s Inlets, whose debut album is out in April. Plenty of woodwind along with the band and vocals…
Melbourne’s The Boy Who Spoke Clouds played in Sydney this week, but sadly didn’t really get the word out in time. Adam Casey and cohorts bring something really unusual to the dark folk sound. His debut album is out now; we also heard an unreleased (I believe) track from 2008 with Alex Taylor on violin and Emily Williams on cello.

From Austimer in the northern suburbs of Wollongong, Russell W produces a lovely blend of hip-hop beats, electronics and acoustic sounds. Among others, he does recall Four Tet’s sound, so I took the opportunity to play a number from There Is Love In You, which I’ve found to be the least compelling Four Tet album yet — but for all that, it has its moments. I’m sure I’ll play something else from it next week, and we’ll definitely be hearing more from Russell W too.

Jaga Jazzist used to be a firm favourite of this show; their first two albums, along with solo efforts from the Horntveth brothers and remixes by original labelmate Kim Hiorthøy, were the epitomy of the post-jazz thrill; complex and nimble jazz playing with all the jump-cuts and glitches you could ask for. Their previous album was released as just “Jaga”, and dropped the jazzist tendencies for more of a prog/post-rock vibe, and didn’t really do it for me, so I’m glad they’re back with the Jazzist, if not so much with the glitchy tendencies.
When the album is released I’ll do a bit of an overview with some favourite tracks.

The Dead Sea – Bandicoot [self-released]
The Dead Sea – respire [self-released]
My Majestic Star – Hi [Hidden Shoal]
The Ghost of 29 Megacycles – Love Via Paper Planes [sound&fury]
Penelope Joy & Jasper TX – Waverly Cemetery (Sydney) [sound&fury]
Fieldhead – Open Show [Second Language]
brave timbers – Let’s Never Go Back [Second Language]
Balmorhea – Remembrance (Machinefabriek remix) [Western Vinyl/Longtime Listener]
Hauschka – Lipstick Race [Second Language]
Iris to Hypnos – Hypodermic [Static Caravan]
Lene Charlotte Holm – Tracing Echoes [Second Language]
Heidi Elva – Simple Pleasures [self-released]
Heidi Elva – Simple Pleasures (unauthorized remix by Dark Mahoney & the Midnight Bitch) [unreleased, via Part Timer]
Owen Pallett – Midnight Directives [Domino]
Final Fantasy – Blue Imelda [Blocks Recording Club]
Final Fantasy – Please Please Please [Tomlab]
Final Fantasy – Hey, Dad! [Tomlab]
Inlets – Bright Orange Air [Two Syllables] {free download from Stereogum!}
Inlets – Roots on Sidewalks [Luv Sound] {free download EP! It’s awesome, go get it.}
The Boy Who Spoke Clouds – Fill This Room [Sun Sea Sky Productions]
The Boy Who Spoke Clouds – Misgiving [unreleased]
The Boy Who Spoke Clouds – Happening [Sun Sea Sky Productions]
Russell W – Confetti [Soviet Records]
Four Tet – Sing [Domino]
Russell W – Pastel for Alum [Soviet Records]
Jaga Jazzist – Toccata [Ninja Tune]

Listen again — ~ 168MB

Sunday, 17th of January, 2010

OK… bummer. No listening again to tonight’s show, cool though it was, because the logging software seems to have broken, so it wasn’t recorded.
We’ll make sure it’s back by next week! Post in the comments to tell me how sad you are.

Owen Pallett is no longer Final Fantasy. Fair enough. His new album is wonderful, and still wonderfully geeky. Augmented with orchestra, dabbling in electronics, this album might be his best yet.
William Ryan Fritch is another amazing multi-instrumentalist. He is “The Skyrider Band” in the next track’s Sole & The Skyrider Band, producing amazing layered hip-hop, but the free EP under his own name showcases his cello and heaps of other instruments, as well as vocals (although not on the tracks I played tonight).
Sole’s work with Fritch has been uniformly superb. I picked up their Plastique (mini-)album in the US in November, but didn’t hear about this precursor EP until afterwards. You can grab it for free, like quite a lot of stuff I played tonight (see links in playlist!)
We had a bunch of stuff tonight from, and related to The Elysian Quartet. Their self-released EP features improvisations stitched together on computer by their viola player Vincent.
Back in 2004 they recorded the first string quartet by Gabriel Prokofiev — yes, related to the famous Sergei, whose Romeo & Juliet has been unknowingly sampled by many a hip-hop artist. We heard Prokofiev’s own “Hip-Hop” mix of movement 1.
The quartet’s cellist Laura Moody has a solo EP out, in which she sings, beat-boxes (well… sortof) and plays cello. Pretty amazing stuff. And two of the others are Geese, who have done a number of awesome remixes lately, including one released early this year of Hot Chip.

From England we moved back to Australia, for a collaboration between Part Timer and Heidi Elva (who has recently moved to Part Timer’s adopted home of Melbourne). These two fit together hand-in-glove, and we can only hope there are more of these collaborations and they get released soon.
Late last year John Part Timer released an EP as scissors and sellotape on the boutique cotton goods label. It sold out in about 10 seconds, but he kindly sent me a copy, complete with the stunning packaging. And on the day I received his parcel from Melbourne, an email turned up with another as-yet-unreleased track, this time a lovely remix of Czech band gurun gurun, to come out later this year.
From Melbourne to Perth, with a couple of shoegazey tracks. First off with luscious cello, My Majestic Star. I’ll certainly be playing more from them next week – it’s a varied album, albeit mainly in the shoegaze area.
The Ghost of 29 Megacycles used to be Greg Thaw solo, but for their debut album, it’s a trio. Lovely vocals and drones on sound&fury.

Next up, the first track to be taken from LOAF’s Explorers’ Club series. Check out the link — it’s gonna be awesome, and the first one lives up to all expectations. Peter Broderick’s track is a superb concoction of piano, guitar, drums & cello.
Zelienople give us some of their minimalist dreampop/postrock. I need to explore this band a lot more!
And then Sweet Billy Pilgrim’s contribution to the aforementioned Explorers’ Club – banjo-led postrockfolk, since you were asking for a genre.
Keeping it folky, we have a sneak preview of Sam Amidon’s new album – clearly it’s going to be amazing. A re-tooled folk song not unlike the incredible folk adaptation he sang on Nico Muhly’s latest album.
I was reminded a little of the Appalachian folk adaptations by Brian Harnetty, and thence to The Books, whose delightful live show I witnessed earlier tonight.

We then headed back to William Ryan Fritch (OMG the cello playing) and then a remix of him with Sole by none other than b.fleischmann. Then we had to hop back to Sydney for an excellent percussion-and-spoken-samples jam from Dane Frankcom, after which Mr Fleischmann serenaded us with an extract from 2003’s “Take your time” — the glitchy pianos and Christof Kurzmann’s vocals in the last 10 minutes or so. Still a wonderful track (45 minutes long in total).

The new track from Sydney’s Alpen bodes extremely well for his new album. It’s actually Danny Jumpertz, one of the two people behind New Weird Australia, not to mention Feral Media… Alpen’s guitar riffs reminded me that I wanted to play Retribution Gospel Choir, the rockier side project of Alan Sparhawk from Low. His usual beautiful songwriting in a different context.
Then we’re back with Owen Pallett for two more cuts from his album. In between, another New Weird Australia track, this one from Melbourne’s Automating, whose processed field recording is engaging and just a little scary :)

Owen Pallett – Keep The Dog Quiet [Domino]
William Ryan Fritch – the snow rusted the earth [Asthmatic Kitty] {free Christmas EP! Download here]
Sole & The Skyrider Band – cutoffmoon [Sole One/Fake Four] {free download EP from here!}
the elysian quartet – untitled track 3 from self-released EP [self-released]
Gabriel Prokofiev – String Quartet No. 1, performed by the Elysian Quartet (Gabriel Prokofiev “Hip-Hop mix” of First Movement) [Nonclassical]
Laura Moody – They’re Saying It’s Over [self-released]
Hot Chip – One Pure Thought (remixed by Geese) [EMI]
part timer w/ heidi elva – as-yet untitled track [direct from part timer]
scissors and sellotape – untitled track 7 [cotton goods]
gurun gurun – ano uta (part timer remix) [unreleased, courtesy part timer]
My Majestic Star – Stranger [Hidden Shoal]
The Ghost of 29 Megacycles – The Cold Light of Silence [sound&fury]
Peter Broderick – Robbie’s Song [Lo Alternative Frequencies]
Zelienople – All I Want Is Calm [Type]
Sweet Billy Pilgrim – Amina [Lo Alternative Frequencies]
Sam Amidon – How Come That Blood [Bedroom Community] {free download via Pitchfork!}
Brian Harnetty – i’ll cross the briny ocean, i’ll cross the deep blue sea [Atavistic]
The Books – the future, wouldn’t that be nice? [Tomlab]
William Ryan Fritch – cotton wamth on sore, chafed hands [Asthmatic Kitty] {free Christmas EP! Download here]
Sole & The Skyrider Band – black (b.fleischmann remix) [Sole One/Fake Four] {free download EP from here!}
Dane Frankcom – Word Tone [self-released/demo?]
b.fleischmann – Take your time (extract – last 9-10 minutes) [Morr Music]
Alpen – A Meditation on Flight [New Weird Australia] {of course it’s another free download, follow the NWA link}
Retribution Gospel Choir – Hide It Away [Sub Pop] {free download from Stereogum}
Owen Pallett – Flare Gun [Domino]
Automating – When Use Becomes Abuse [New Weird Australia] {free download, follow the NWA link}
Owen Pallett – What Do You Think Will Happen Now? [Domino]

Sunday, 10th of January, 2010

Well. Tonight’s show is primarily based around music that will be coming up this week for Sydney Festival – well, a few of the things coming up, which I’m self-indulgently stringing out into nearly a whole show (see bottom for LISTEN AGAIN link – not including all the overtime stuff!).
But we start with some pretty new music (and new pretty music), from Brooklyn’s Daniel Lopatin aka Oneohtrix Point Never, who takes analog synth nostalgia to a new level on his double CD album Rifts. Ohio’s Emeralds are doing something else, also ostensibly in the noise field, with beautiful nostalgic mostly electronic music.

Then the bulk of the show: our Sydney Festival specials. Severed Heads’ importance to Australian and international music can’t be overstressed. We heard material going back pretty early, with tape loop experiments, early amazingly-prescient techno (like, ultra-early: 1982), and some of Tom Ellard’s exquisitely understated and brilliant pop songs.

Next up: John Cale, whose importance doesn’t even need to be stressed by the likes of me. My selections were, I guess, nothing more than a little essay in John Cale’s importance to me, and why not?

That said, The Books are probably one of the most important bands for me in the last decade, at least. Featuring my instrument, the cello, and a wonderfully gregarious approach to music-making, with digital cut-ups commingling with Appalachian folk and more… They’re the perfect Utility Fog band…

SydFest are doing well, because Grizzly Bear are undoubtedly another of the most important recent bands for me, along with Dan Rossen’s other project, Department of Eagles. I tried to play a number of unusual and different related tracks tonight (and we had a couple of rare Books tunes as well earlier).

And finally (for the Festival), Patrick Watson’s début album Close to Paradise was a revelation when it came out in 2006; it won Canada’s Polaris Music Prize, a surprising accolade for a quite experimental (or at least non-mainstream) release. His 2009 album Wooden Arms was an equally beautiful blend of songwriting, post-classical and jazz, along with bits of electronica and experimental touches.
Our Allnighter fell through at the last minute tonight, so I had to hold the fort till about 1:45am. We got a bit of a bonus, therefore, and I played a few more Aussie tracks.

Sydney musician Eve Klein’s Textile Audio project has been a long time coming. Operatically trained, Klein has been working on this mix of classical music (including her operatic vocals) and electronica for well over 5 years if I’m right. The results here are very impressive.
From Melbourne, Tantrums give us a great fun piece of electronica – their album this year will be another to look out for.
Both these tracks are downloadable for free from New Weird Australia.

From Sydney’s Frequency Lab comes another download comp (not free), and we heard Sydney artist Edseven doing a nice wonky number.

And finally, the new single from Pikelet, in anticipation of her new album Stem, out in February. I cannot wait – Evelyn is one of Australia’s musical gems.

Oneohtrix Point Never – Grief and Repetition [No Fun Productions]
Oneohtrix Point Never – Russian Mind [No Fun Productions]
Emeralds – Geode [Wagon/Gneiss Things]
Severed Heads – Anthem 82 [Vinyl on Demand]
Severed Heads – Somehow Pain/Always Randy [Vinyl on Demand]
Severed Heads – 4.W.D. [Ink Records, now available direct thru Sevcom]
Severed Heads – Sydney Quads & the Megascope Space Probe [Ink Records, now available direct thru Sevcom]
Severed Heads – Big Car Intro/Big Car [Volition, now available direct thru Sevcom]
Severed Heads – First Steps [Volition, now available direct thru Sevcom]
Severed Heads – Golden Height/I’m Your Antidote [Volition, now available direct thru Sevcom]
HEY FOLKS! Utility Fog cross-FBi information blirt! Download a 51-minute Severed Heads special from New Weird Australia with Tom Ellard interviewed and more of this awesome music to listen to!
The Velvet Underground – Heroin [Verve]
John Cale – Paris 1919 [Reprise]
John Cale – Fear Is A Man’s Best Friend [Island Records]
John Cale – Heartbreak Hotel [Island Records]
John Cale – Heartbreak Hotel (solo live) [Hannibal]
John Cale – The Soul of Carmen Miranda [Hannibal]
Brian Eno/John Cale – Lay My Love [Hannibal]
The Books – motherless bastard [Tomlab]
The Books – the lemon of pink [Tomlab]
The Books – the lemon of pink [Tomlab] {yes, track 1 and then track 2!}
The Books – there is no there [Tomlab]
The Books – vogt dig for kloppervok [Tomlab]
The Books – Three Day Night [self-released]
The Books – 8 Frame [self-released]
Department of Eagles – Sailing By Night [Melodic]
Grizzly Bear – Deep Sea Diver [Kanine Records]
Grizzly Bear – Don’t Ask (Final Fantasy remix) [Kanine Records]
Grizzly Bear – Owner of a Lonely Heart [audraglint] {Cover, of course, of Yes}
Dan Rossen – Graceland [from some mp3 blog somewhere, I'm sure...] {Cover, you’ll have noticed, of Paul Simon}
Dan Rossen – Too Little Too Late [download from La Blogoteque or the Grizzly Bear blog] {cover, you will probably have no idea, of JoJo…}
Grizzly Bear – Little Brother [Warp]
Department of Eagles – Deadly Disclosure/Balmy Night [taken from their http://www.myspace.com/deptofeagles a couple of years ago...]
Patrick Watson – Down at the beach [Secret City Records]
Patrick Watson – Daydreamer [Secret City Records]
Patrick Watson – Where the wild things are [Secret City Records]
Textile Audio – Some Kind of Mininova [New Weird Australia]
Tantrums – Beat The Happy Pavement [New Weird Australia]
Edseven – Pigeon Clap [Frequency Lab]
Pikelet – Weakest Link [Chapter Music]

Listen again — ~ 198MB