Utility Fog

Sunday, 23rd of August, 2009

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

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

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

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

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