Utility Fog

Sunday, 10th of March, 2013

Much postrocky goodness tonight, and some indietronica, electronics and post-noise techno to round things out. Yep. Dig it.

Look folks, you should never miss a 'Fog. You can always LISTEN AGAIN - there's a link at bottom, a podcast to subscribe to, or best of all you can stream on demand at FBi for the full stereo experience.

I've been a fan of Mice Parade since 1998, released on one of Fat Cat's earliest 12"s. Originally the solo project of the anagramatically-eponymous Adam Pierce, it was such a great example of the multi-tracked self-recorded musician, and fulfilled the potential of postrock as live-performed electronica (among other things), with brilliant drum'n'bass-informed live drumming, dinky keyboards, vibraphones along with acoustic guitar and myriad instruments from around the world. Adam Pierce also played with his friend Dylan Cristy in The Dylan Group, following a similar path but very much driven by the vibraphones and marimbas.
Adam also ran the label Bubble Core Records, releasing these two bands and various others, but his relationship with Fat Cat was such that a few years later he had basically become Fat Cat USA, increasing the audience for that very important label. Mice Parade lives on as both a live and recorded band with Cristy and various others, and has umpteen releases under its belt, but after widening its scope somewhat once it became a live act, it hasn't changed dramatically for years now. The new album's pretty nice but probably lacks the excitement of the early exploratory releases, so I played a few highlights from their history tonight.

Sydney's Prop were no doubt highly influenced by Adam Pierce's music, but sadly stopped before they could realise their potential, as Kim and Julian from the band formed the rather insanely successful Presets. Such is life!

So, sticking with the jazz-informed postrock or folktronica or whatever you want to call it, we have a lovely remix of Inch-time from earlier this year by Australian artist Tristan Coleman, and a track from his debut EP on Inch-time's Mystery Plays Records. There's strings and clarinets on the EP as well as jazz drums and electronic pop - a versatile and talented artist.

Back to the brilliant new Spartak single I featured last week, we heard Icarus taking it into their abstract d'n'b territory, and then Inch-time himself with a reverent version that just slightly emphasises the electronic pop elements.

The highlight remixer from that EP was Canberran Reuben Ingall, who appears tonight in more abstract form with glitchy pianos, from a split cassette with Transmissions, who works a lot with illegal sampling and collage but here turns in a great piece of doomy electronic loops an sparse beats.

As with many noise artists of late, Prurient has gravitated towards various types of acid and techno, toning down the distortion and, frankly, screaming, in favour of lush, dark synth melodies and drum machine beats. It's quite beautiful, if a little disqueting.

Autechre's new album Exai came out early digitally as per usual, a month and a bit ago, but physical hit this week, and I've been listening to it again since I received my lovely double CD pack. I actually really liked their album and, er, other album (released as an EP) from 2010. This one's a double CD (or quadrupal LP!) and to be honest I'm not convinced it needed to be. There's only one or two great tracks on the first CD, while the last 3 tracks at least are stone cold Ae genius. So, if you're sampling it, definitely don't give up early, or maybe just start with CD2 :)

Nickolas Mohanna had a droney synth album on Sydney's Preservation back in 2011, but his first and now new album on Low Point show a wider remit, albeit still pretty much on the drone tip - but with synth drones fading into contemplative bass guitar and then clanging bells on these two tracks, it's pretty varied and evocative stuff.

Mice Parade - listen hear glide dear [Fat Cat]
The Dylan Group - Bittersweet [Bubble Core Records]
Mice Parade - My Funny Friend Scott [Bubble Core Records/Fat Cat]
The Dylan Group - Towers of Dub [Bubble Core Records]
Mice Parade - satchelaise (Nights Wave EP version) [Bubble Core Records/Fat Cat]
Prop - Landing [Silent Recordings]
Inch-time - Night Falls (Tristan Coleman mix) [Mystery Plays Records]
Tristan Coleman - Good Money [Mystery Plays Records]
Spartak - Catch/Control (Icarus remix) [hellosQuare Recordings]
Spartak - Catch/Control (Inch-time remix) [hellosQuare Recordings]
Reuben Ingall - kitchen [Reuben Ingall Bandcamp]
Transmissions - Uranium Glass (Demo) [Reuben Ingall Bandcamp]
Prurient - Through The Window [Blackest Ever Black]
Autechre - deco Loc [Warp]
Autechre - YJY UX [Warp]
Nickolas Mohanna - Cascade / Down Yonder [Low Point]

Listen again — ~ 109MB

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