Utility Fog

Sunday, 18th of December, 2016

Howdy.
Couple of big specials tonight, plus some really awesome local music.

LISTEN AGAIN! Stream on demand at FBi, podcast right here.

The return of Sydney experimental popsters Megastick Fanfare starts us up tonight with some very energetic drumming and indie-meets-hardcore songwriting. Sadly while it's been 3 years since their last EP, it's going to be a while before their next release too. Hopefully the sporadic joy & genius will still happen, eventually...

Next up, a fantastic new EP from Melbourne drummer and educator Maria Moles, whose solo work as Mondo Flockard is firmly based around drums and percussion, but also incorporates electronics and other instruments. The three tracks on her new EP are experimental in form but beautifully constructed and entirely engaging.

Tonight we have a pretty substantial interview with Haley Fohr aka Circuit des Yeux. I discovered Fohr as an artist when she supported black metal band (and Thrill Jockey bandmates) Liturgy at a little venue in Paris. Her massive baritone voice and beautiful guitar, performed with her hair over her face in a kind of ritual fashion, absolutely blew me away. So when I was invited to interview her to promote her performance at St Stephen's church in Sydney for Sydney Festival, I jumped at the chance. Fohr is a remarkable artist, having graduated from messy, noisy early experiments to inspired songwriting, full string arrangements, and more controlled audio experimentation - including a strange little concept album that came out this year. The performance in January should be fantastic, and I recommend heading along.

And tonight's other big special is on the early music of Keith Fullerton Whitman, beloved modular synth obsessive, early electronic music obsessive, purveyor of experimental music and more (he was also the infamous, encyclopedically-knowledeable record reviewer, week in, week out, for Forced Exposure in the early years)...
For some time, he was best known as Hrvatski, making absolutely insane, complex, fucked up jungle & breakcore mixed with samples of contemporary classical, electronics and jazz, and some of his own playing no doubt. A lot of that early stuff is now surfacing via his DAT ERA project on Bandcamp, in which a different DAT from 1996 to 2002 is digitized and made available each month, complete with scans of the original DAT cover. It's the kind of insane self-documentation (and, it has to be said, a little of the self-mythologising) that Keith always liked to engage in. The first release on his Reckankreuzungsklankewerkzeuge was a "compilation" called Attention: Cats with a whole slew of ridiculously-named artists (some apparently punk bands, some solo artists or DJs), all of whom eventually turned out to be Keith - even DJ Hekla, who made some brilliant mixes of jungle/drum'n'bass/electronica and released one 7" on Planet Mu before Hrvatski even did, I think. One of the only real other people to appear on RKK was Keith's brother Brian, as Blitter. It's so great having an excuse to hear all this stuff again - including alternate versions, tracks only previously available in 128k mp3s from the long-list mp3.com (one of the first music-uploading sites for musicians), and entirely unreleased material. I'll be following along each month and occasionally dropping a few more tunes, I'm sure.

megastick fanfare - reprise [megastick fanfare bandcamp]
megastick fanfare - deathbomb of life [megastick fanfare bandcamp]
Mondo Flockard - dance if there are seven [Tone List]
Jackie Lynn - Bright Lights [Thrill Jockey]
Jackie Lynn - 0 [Thrill Jockey]
...interview with Haley Fohr aka Circuit des Yeux (and Jackie Lynn)...
Circuit des Yeux - Calling Song [De Stijl/Circuit des Yeux Bandcamp]
Circuit des Yeux - 3311 [De Stijl/Circuit des Yeux Bandcamp]
...interview with Haley Fohr aka Circuit des Yeux...
Circuit des Yeux - Lithonia [Thrill Jockey]
Circuit des Yeux - Dream of TV [Thrill Jockey]
Hrvatski (as Sick) - Steaktippin' [Reckankreuzungsklankewerkzeuge]
Blitter & Hrvatski - Nuclear Cats Get New Home [Lucky Kitchen/Keith Fullerton Whitman Bandcamp]
Hrvatski - Apostle (2) [Reckankreuzungsklankewerkzeuge, DAT version from Keith Fullerton Whitman Bandcamp]
Hrvatski - Routine Exercise [Reckankreuzungsklankewerkzeuge, DAT version from Keith Fullerton Whitman Bandcamp]
Hrvatski - Kochen Raum [Tonschacht, DAT version from Keith Fullerton Whitman Bandcamp]
Hrvatski - Insect Digestion Melancholy [Klangkrieg, extended DAT version from Keith Fullerton Whitman Bandcamp]
Hrvatski - la cathedral [Lucky Kitchen]
God Is My Co-Pilot - We Signify (Hrvatski Remix) [Dark Beloved Cloud, various DAT versions now available at Keith Fullerton Whitman Bandcamp]
Keith Fullerton Whitman - Variations For Oud & Synthesizer - Version abrégé (2) [no label, self-released 7"]

Listen again — ~189MB

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