Started tonight with some drum'n'bass. It used to be my One True Genre. Gimme chopped-up beats at 170+ bpm and I'd be happy. These days the party anthem style of the mainstream of d'n'b isn't very interesting, and we're so post-drill'n'bass that there's hardly anyone even making breakcore anymore. No matter — the d'n'b scene has been getting more interesting itself again over the last couple of years, with a nice and technical minimalist sound creeping in. dBridge's Exit Records is one source of great contemporary d'n'b, and at the very end of last year New Zealand artist Consequence released a very interesting and deep album — albeit only about half what I'd call drum'n'bass. There's a number of ambient tracks, and some halfstep things which aren't exactly (post-)dubstep but…

Meanwhile, we also had some decidedly upbeat and just adorable tracks from Luke Vibert's Plug, resurrected apparently from DAT tapes from the mid-'90s and released to our great pleasure by the mighty Ninja Tune this month. Everything we need is here — the classic breaks chopped up, punchy basslines, hilarious and effective vocal samples. Pure genius.

Next up we have a date with Balkan Vinyl. Full credit here, John McCaffrey aka Part Timer prodded me to go listen to the brilliant AGT Rave Cru track, and its "is it hardcore circa '92 or halfstep circa yesterday?" sound had me hooked. The label, run by idm/electro duo Posthuman, focuses at least as much on acid house, electro and techno, but has some very fine idm and breaks stuff at its disposal too. I've heard idm from Point B before, but in his remix of Kansas City Prophets we get very fine Bass music. The exclusive Plaid is so perfect Plaid it hurts, and LJ Kruzer takes the label bosses themselves into lovely glitchy ambient beats territory.
All this from 2010's colour-based EPs. More please!

Quick detour to Sydney as I realised I needed to commemorate the very sad end of Ghoul. One can only hope the members will go on to bigger and better things – one of Sydney's most talented and inventive ensembles.

The aforementioned Part Timer pops up next with a UFog exclusive (for now) — a remix of UK's Northerner to appear on a remix disc from Home Assembly Music in the near future. It's subtle and quiet, with some loping rhythms that surprisingly morph into something clicky and 4/4 and then fade off again. And from his scissors and sellotape alter-ego, some tasty and tasteful piano loops and delays.

Seth Chrisman's Aetherdrift, Do You Copy is the latest release from Sydney's Flaming Pines label, and the most field recording-heavy yet. I've never really been sold on field recordings as such, but particularly on "LR", the mournful guitar chords lend deeper meaning to the disembodied sounds (for me).

From the archives, this week I also found a 2010 release from A Setting Sun, who I discovered last year as Sun Hammer, making heavy, crunchy Bass music without (predominantly) the beats. This EP features a brilliant lineup of remixers, and we heard spangled majesty from Italy's Giueseppe Ielasi and then heavy doom duo Nadja apparently admitting they (sometimes) make post-rock :)

Last year we heard two amazing and huge free download compilations from Futuresequence. This year they branch into single-artist releases with a mini-album from Radere, with well-produced drone. Snarly noises are always welcome here. I'm delving into his back catalogue now.

If you've exhausted your UFog listening sometime this week and want some mind-expanding sounds, please allow Kevin Purdy to offer your KOSMIC DAZE, a krautrock/psych folk mix, impeccably programmed. In it I heard Matching Mole and knew I had to play some Robert Wyatt tonight. He's one of my favourite singers, has with his wift Alfreda Benge an amazing ear for incisive lyrics, and has created some of the most beautiful, bizarre and inspiring music of the last 4 decades.

Alexander Tucker has been a name to watch in psychedelic multi-instrumental songwriting over the last 7 years or so. His duo Imbogodom takes things into considerably weirder territory with tape experiments and esoteric sounds, but keeps a songwriting component on each release.

And just to go into full folk freak-out mode, we ended tonight with over half an hour of ex-Cerberus Shoal/Fire on Fire family band Big Blood. It's Americana through a very warped looking glass, with the post-punk-prog experimentalism of Cerberus Shoal and the high-pitched wail of Colleen Kinsella aka Asian Mae. It's really a duo with Caleb Mulkerin, but often credited as a kind of virtual quartet with their alter egos. And nobody could cover Can in such a perfect yet totally unexpected fashion.

All Big Blood releases are available for free download through Free Music Archive, so check their stuff out there, but you should go and support them at their Etsy store.

Consequence – Magda Trench [Exit Records]
Consequence – Soul Sees Spirit [Exit Records]
Plug – Come On My Skeleton [Ninja Tune]
Plug – Mind Bending [Ninja Tune]
Consequence – Untitled Dream [Exit Records]
Plug – Back On Time [Ninja Tune]
AGT Rave Cru – You Shop We Drop [Balkan Vinyl]
Kansas City Prophets – Navigator (Point B remix) [Balkan Vinyl]
Plaid – Fum [Balkan Vinyl]
Posthuman – The Ottawa Object (LJ Kruzer remix) [Balkan Vinyl]
Ghoul – 3 Mark [Speak n Spell]
Northerner – To Where? (Part Timer Remix) [Home Assembly Music] {forthcoming}
scissors and sellotape – Personal trainers [Facture]
Seth Chrisman – LR [Flaming Pines]
Giueseppe Ielasi vs A Setting Sun – Flower Garden of Doom [Moodgadget Records]
Nadja vs A Setting Sun – Solaris Ocean (Skipping Post Rock Mix) [Moodgadget Records]
Radere – I'll Make You Quiet [Futuresequence]
Matching Mole – Gloria Gloom / God Song [CBS] {to be re-released shortly through Esoteric}
Robert Wyatt – Sea Song [Virgin, re-released Domino]
Imbogodom – Rubbings [Thrill Jockey]
Imbogodom – Slate Grey Light [Thrill Jockey]
Big Blood – Creepin' Crazy Time [Don't Trust The Ruin]
Big Blood – Vitamin C [Don't Trust The Ruin]
Big Blood – Got Wings? [Don't Trust The Ruin]
Big Blood – The Sound And The Sea [Don't Trust The Ruin]
Big Blood – Run [Phase!]

Listen again — ~ 160MB

We started with a track from Markus Mehr, whose new album is made up of two almost-half-hour pieces, one of which I did in fact play later on. This, however, is from 2010 and is glitchy ambient of a much more sensible length.

Next up, very very exciting to hear news of a new Clark album coming out soon. This track can be download for the cost of giving them your email address here, and it's vintage Clark – energetic warm melodic synths and idm beats. Can't wait for the album!

Speaking of vintage, Luke Vibert's Plug project was what he released his early, brilliant forays into drum'n'bass under. Since then we've had Amen Andrews, for more raucous ragga jungle, and regular d'n'b numbers from Wagon Christ and eponymous releases, but Plug is where the greatest genius lies — detailed rhythm juggling, crazy sample juxtaposition, and his incredible talent for melody. So it's a huge pleasure to have a whole new album's worth of vintage Plug — all the tracks date from the original Plug era of the mid-'90s. Also played Vibert's intense remix of Nine Inch Nails, and one of my favourite Plug tunes from back in the day.

Speaking of drum'n'bass roots, English duo Icarus began around about when these Plug tracks came out, with some forward-looking, incredibly-programmed d'n'b. They've never let the drum'n'bass pulse disappear from their music, but have become increasingly interested in electro-acoustic music, 20th century electronic composition, and folktronic techniques. They are therefore one of those groups that personify so much of what Utility Fog is about… and do it so well!
The new Icarus album, released on the 6th of February, is something else, though. It really is… something else. Read up on it at their Fake Fish Distribution page, but in summary, what it is is a limited digital release of 1,000 unique editions. The music you download when you purchase it will your very special version of the album. Icarus carefully prepared their software so that the 8 tracks on the album each varied according to a number of parameters — so while certain aspects of drum programming and melody/harmonic movement stay the same, all sorts of features of the tracks can change. Most tracks remain within about half a minute of each other's lengths across the albums, but even when two versions are the same, the trajectory they take can change. It's fascinating and frankly amazing that they made it work, but it really is a very fine album regardless of all this — and if you heard someone else's version you'd know it instantly, even if (as with two performances by any regular band) there would be subtle differences which would surprise and delight you…

Icarus have also done their fair share of remixes (including a stellar Four Tet one which introduced a whole new audience to them). It's bizarre to find them dealing with the distinctive rapping of Chuck D, but here he is, working with London audio-visual collective Eclectic Method. You can see the unhinged video for their remix via the link below.
Sydney is very lucky now to have Icarus' Ollie Bown in residence. He's actually been based in Australia for a while, previously in Melbourne, and we hear him tonight remixing Melbourne dronesters Infinite Decimals (whose finite decimal track titles always disturb me a little).
The duo (both together and separately) also collaborate a lot with improvisers, and this month sees the release on their own Not Applicable imprint of an album of live performances with trumpeter Tom Arthurs and clarinettist Lothar Ohlmeier. If a limited edition of unique variant albums wasn't enough, this live collaboration has its own special level of kookiness, because neither Ollie nor Sam (under his Isambard Khroustaliov alias) were present at these shows. They were present in the form of their software proxies, reactive programs that manage to improvise with the live musicians. Again it's pretty bizarre that this works, but it does.

I've previously discussed the beautiful idea Sydney's Hinterlandt had of asking local musician friends to remix his work — but providing only tiny building blocks, so that the pieces created would be entirely new works. It's true that the resulting album isn't particularly cohesive, but it has a ridiculously high hitrate of great tracks, and there's no doubt that his original work, a highly eclectic ode to travel and resettlement, had an impact on all the tracks. Broken Chip’s contribution is one of many beautiful ambient works he created last year.

And so we get to a big collaboration project for the start of the year. From the Mouth of the Sun is Kansas multi-instrumentalist (and significantly, cellist) Aaron Martin and Swedish drone master Dag Rosenqvist (up until recently Jasper TX), and it follows the latter's patient, evolving drone structures, but with gorgeous cello-scapes and acoustic sounds. They're a perfect fit for each other. I'll give the album a better listen when I have the physical copy, but Experimedia will give you an immediate download if you pre-order it right now!
Also a perfect fit is the powerful experimental minimalism of Danny Saul on the remix, who really ought to release some more music himself.

And so in droney minimalism we return to our opening artist, Markus Mehr. I sometimes find the ambient sounds on Perth's Hidden Shoal to be a bit too, well, "ambient", but Mehr creates floating, grumbling and sometimes crashing soundscapes that never stop moving despite their stretched-out nature. The 26 minutes of "Komo" take one beautiful string loop and ride it through waves of different effects, later adding semi-indistinct spoken samples and gloriously extreme distorted noise. In a different context entirely, from last year's remix album by Danish heavy postrock band Salli Lunn, Mehr produces a glitchy, crunchy piece of post-industrial rock.

As far as "noisy" goes, you can't really go past C. Spencer Yeh and his Burning Star Core, which has sometimes been him solo, and sometimes a supergroup of like-minded noise and psychedelic musicians. Just this past week on his Dronedisco SoundCloud he's made available two unreleased sets of tracks. One dates from 2002 and is some of the earliest music we've heard from him — not as noisy and brash, synth and drum machine based pieces which nevertheless have their own charm. The other is from 2008 and features the greatest psych-noise line-up of BxC the band. The piece I played tonight isn't the craziest, but shows the total freedom that the group was able to operate in. Amazing music that I hope isn't forgotten in a few years' time.

I've been on a bit of a Rune Grammofon tip lately, partly because the wonderful quirky alog had a new album out late last year, partly because Jenny Hval's album was easily one of my favourites of 2011, and partly because I've been finally discovering the wonders of experimental jazz group Supersilent.
alog take mainly acoustic samples, chop them up and reframe them into constantly surprising new shapes, from quasi-techno to newly-discovered folk forms. They're quixotic and endlessly engrossing. As well as a track from their new album, we had one from a recent Rune Grammofon compilation in which they briefly reimagine themselves as a trashy indie rock group.
Supersilent make entirely improvised music with trumpet, drums (in their earlier incarnation) and various electronic sound generators. They can range from all-out free jazz cacophany to heavy rock to stunningly gorgeous post-jazz rivaling the delicatness of late-period Talk Talk. Their albums are consecutively numbered, with the tracks numbered therein, so we heard 6.2 from 6, which I feel is the best in a truly stellar catalogue.

We finished with two local lads. Limetipe is released on FBi's own Chris Hancock's Frequency Lab label, and takes the usual woozy hip-hop template into a slightly dubbier, heavier direction. Really nice. And from about a year ago, still sadly one of the most recent tracks from Katoomba's Comatone — scrabbling almost-drum'n'bass beats and glittering production.

Markus Mehr – Softwar [Hidden Shoal]
Clark – Com Touch [Warp]
Plug – Flight 78 [Ninja Tune]
Nine Inch Nails – The Perfect Drug (Plug remix) [Nothing/Interscope]
Plug – Snapping Fuss [Law & Auder] {also released as "Natural Suction" on his Musipal album on Ninja Tune (under the Wagon Christ moniker)}
Icarus – MD Skillz [Not Applicable]
Icarus – Dumptruck Cannibals [Not Applicable]
Chuck D / Eclectic Method – Outta Sight (Icarus remix) [Eclectic Method] {check out the insane video here}
Infinite Decimals – 2.54421781 (Ollie Bown remix) [available from their SoundCloud]
Tom Arthurs / Lothar Ohlmeier / Isambard Khroustaliov – NK, Berlin (from Long Division) [Not Applicable]
Broken Chip – Particle Motion [Feral Media] {free download from Bandcamp!}
From the Mouth of the Sun – Color Loss [Experimedia]
From the Mouth of the Sun – Pools of Rust (Danny Saul remix) [Experimedia] {free download from SoundCloud}
Markus Mehr – Komo [Hidden Shoal]
Salli Lunn – Parachutes Forever (Markus Mehr remix) [Hidden Shoal]
Burning Star Core – BxCPrac4-19-08-4 [available from BxC SoundCloud]
Burning Star Core – Bodies Turn Cold [available from BxC SoundCloud]
alog – my card is 7 [Rune Grammofon]
alog – the mountaineer [Rune Grammofon]
Supersilent – 6.2 [Rune Grammofon]
Limetipe – Ten Blades [The Frequency Lab]
Comatone – Lamplit Screenprint [Comatone SoundCloud]

Listen again — ~ 160MB

I haven't been writing up the "best of 2011" posts, mainly because it's exhausting, and also because I am shortly going to do a big best-of post. So tonight I'll talk mainly about the new stuff.

I started with some ancient music, but a new recording. Taraf de Haïdouks & Kočani Orkestar are two wonderful gypsy bands from eastern Europe — Taraf are a much-loved band of Romanian gypsies featuring violins, piano accordions, double bass, guitars and cimbalom, who, gypsy-style, have toured the world for many years with their incredible shows, after which they are guaranteed to be found outside the venue continuing to ply their trade, playing brilliantly while passing around the hat. Kočani are slightly younger, a brass band who now have a few even younger musicians who seem to know their jazz and Cuban music too. They have a fantastic groove, but can also play beautiful ballads with sustained notes and virtuosic melodicism. When the two groups team up together it's a true gypsy supergroup, and their show at the Enmore Theatre on Thursday was spectacular.

Goth-Trad is Japan's original dubstep maestro, very much a mainstay in the central UK scene now, and his new album is an instant winner. The beats are a bit more towards the 4/4 and a bit faster now, and with a whole album to play with, he's able to slip in some less dancefloor-oriented, quite complex pieces as well.

Next newie is from The Boats, beloved folktronic act descended from Hood via The Remote Viewer… Their new album is made up of four 10 minute tracks, each a little journey in itself — the one we heard tonight moved from shoegazey ambience into a electronic minimalist featuring regular collaborator Danny Norbury on cello, and then a striking switch with minor synth chords and a beat dropping for the last 3rd. It's an album worth immersing yourself in.

I unfortunately only received the "new" album from Ekca Liena as I was piecing together the best-of-2011 shows, so I've only just gotten around to playing it. It's actually a 2008 release, re-released in 2011 with a bonus disc of remixes and covers. The album proper is tremendous, the equal of 2011 favourites by Simon Scott and Damian Valles, and similar in scope: broadly based around the drone/ambient sound world, but with plenty of postrock and electronic elements. The bonus disc does not disappoint, and we'll be hearing more from it in coming weeks. Tonight I chose Nick Hudson's second version, adding vocals to an originally instrumental track, while keeping the chord structure and, remarkably, the feel of the original.

Sydney improvising string quartet The Noise are playing a gig in the beautiful surrounds of Warehouse 15 on Cockatoo Island this Wednesday (Facebook event here). They're quite happy making abstract improvisations, but also descriptive pieces, such as tonight's "Moths".

Another Sydney act with a classical connection, Mannheim Rocket makes Bass music with (usually unrecognizable) samples from classical music. He's playing with two other Sydney electronic acts at a gallery space called The Newsagency on Enmore Rd on Friday the 27th – Facebook event here.

As well as a couple of the Sydney Festival acts coming up this week, and some more highlights from 2011, I played two tracks from days of yore, as I've had the luxury of listening through some older stuff while new releases die down over this period. I had a stack of compilations playlisted up, and came across some tunes from 1996 that deserved airplay. From the second of Kevin Martin's amazing Macro Dub Infection 2CD compilations, Ice (featuring both Martin and his ex-Napalm Death bandmate Justin K Broadrick) are pitted against Palace (aka Will Oldham of course), in that perfect crossover realm of heavy, noisy dub beats and howling yet delicate country vocals. And two relatively unknown artists Ragga + The Pylon King pair up for the second in Lo Recordings' legendary compilation series, entitled Collaborations.

Taraf de Haïdouks & Kočani Orkestar – Talk To Me, Duʂo [Crammed Discs]
Goth-Trad – Man In The Maze [P-Vine/Deep Medi]
Goth-Trad – Strangers [P-Vine/Deep Medi]
downliners sekt – negative green [free download from d-sekt.com]
downliners sekt – hockey nights in canada [free download from d-sekt.com]
y0t0 – Uriarra Crossing Mirror Condensation (Downliners Sekt remix) [fac-ture]
The Boats – The Ballad For Achievement [12k]
Ekca Liena – Fire Emerging From Mist [Dead Pilot]
Ekca Liena – Reverse Erasing (Cover Two by Nick Hudson) [Dead Pilot]
Ekca Liena – Reverse Erasing [Dead Pilot]
The Magic I.D. – Mambo [Staubgold]
The Noise – Moths [self-released]
Scissors and Sellotape – A simple 'I know how you feel' [Facture]
vieo abiungo – while the others sleep (part timer’s upbeat remix) [Lost Tribe Sound] {unreleased, Utility Fog exclusive!}
Luke Killen – Scamper Ashore [available from SoundCloud]
Mannheim Rocket – Opperdorff [unreleased]
kangding ray – Mojave [raster-noton]
the fun years – Cornelia Amygdaloid [Ghostly International]
Sole & the SkyRider Band – We Will Not Be Moved (feat. Ceschi & Noah23) [Fake Four/Equinox Records]
Sole & the SkyRider Band – Infanticide (feat. Alexandrah of Solillaquists of Sound) [Fake Four]
Ice vs Palace – More Brother (Inbred Version) [Virgin]
Ragga + The Pylon King – St Christophers dream (mask mix) [Lo Recordings]
Julianna Barwick – Prizewinning [Asthmatic Kitty/Mistletone]
Sam Amidon – Rain And Snow [Bedroom Community]
Seekae – Go [Rice is Nice]
Seekae – 3 [Rice is Nice]

Listen again — ~ 164MB

Tom Hall – Before Being [Complicated Dance Steps]
Telafonica – I Can Hear There's A Peace In The Dark [4-4-2music/available from Bandcamp]
Telafonica – Heartbeatings For Those With Heartbeats (Joe Hardy Version) [available from Bandcamp]
I'lls' – Take Higher Ground [available from Bandcamp]
Bleeding Heart Narrative – Shoals [Brainlove Records]
Petrels – Canute [Tartaruga]
Bracken – The Fifty [flau]
Hood – guess my age [Domino]
Hood – hymn to the hill [Domino]
Karsten Pflum – Dansk notebook center [Hymen]
Enduser & Karsten Pflum – A Little While [Ad Noiseam]
Enduser – Retribution [Ad Noiseam]
Fanu – Jupiter 2011 (featuring Mineral) [Lightless]
Jarboe & Sweet Meat and Love Cult – Ode to V (Enduser version) [Ad Noiseam]
Deaf Center – New Beginning (Tidal Darkness) [Type]
The Haxan Cloak – Raven's Lament [Aurora Borealis]
Jasper TX – White Birds [Fang Bomb]
Gareth Davis & Machinefabriek – My Funny Valentine [Brian Records] {also available from Machinefabriek Bandcamp}
Machinefabriek – Brokstuk 7 [Machinefabriek]
Machinefabriek – Sol Sketch 4 [Machinefabriek]
Leah Kardos – Remnant 2 [available from her Bandcamp]
Leah Kardos – Apology [available from her Bandcamp]
Peter Knight & Dung Nguyen – Autumn Music [Parenthèses Records]
Broken Chip – Path to the sea [Flaming Pines]
Option Command – Ellie Can Dance [King Deluxe]
James Brewster – Landfall / Crumbling Spires [Make Mine Music]
Chris Weisman – Music In The Line [autumn records]
Chris Weisman – Contact High [autumn records]
Origamibiro – Dismantle Piece [Denizen/Abandon Building Recordings]
Origamibiro – Quad Time (Juxta Phona Remix) [Denizen/Abandon Building Recordings] {free download remix EP}

Listen again — ~ 161MB

LISTEN AGAIN via the usual channels, including easy linky at bottom, podcast, and of course on demand streaming.
Also check out Part 1 of Utility Fog's Best of 2011 here.
Part 3 coming next week! For serious.

Zammuto – Harlequin (working version) [released to, then deleted from, his SoundCloud]
Zammuto – Idiom Wind [Make Mine Records]
Skeletons – L'il Rich [Shinyoko/Crammed]
Skeletons – Barack Obama Blues [Shinyoko/Crammed]
vieo abiungo – drowsy salted morning (benoît pioulard remix) [Lost Tribe Sound]
vieo abiungo – and the world is still yawning [Lost Tribe Sound]
vieo abiungo – why dogs mimic sirens [Lost Tribe Sound] {forthcoming — support the Kickstarter campaign for a beautiful CD/DVD set here!}
vieo abiungo – suffocating skin [Lost Tribe Sound] {via the Lost Tribe Sound mailing list…}
vieo abiungo – still and tepid pools (sun hammer remix) [Lost Tribe Sound]
James Blake – I Never Learnt To Share (Sun Hammer Remix) [unofficial, download from Soundcloud]
Sun Hammer – Tonningsen Bus Stop II [Future Sequence] {from SEQUENCE1, also free on Bandcamp}
Borealis – Skyhall [Future Sequence] {from SEQUENCE2 – free on Bandcamp!}
Machinedrum – Sacred Frequency [Planet µ]
Sepalcure – Eternally Yrs [Hotflush]
Machinedrum – Alarmaa [Lucky Me]
Silkie – Taxi Mi Get [Deep Medi]
Kryptic Minds – Depth of Field [Black Box]
Emika – Count Backwards (Kryptic Minds remix) [Ninja Tune]
Emika – Credit Theme [Ninja Tune]
King Midas Sound – Tears (Kiki Hitomi Revoice) [Hyperdub]
King Midas Sound – Come And Behold (Green Gartside Revoice) [Hyperdub]
Robag Wruhme – Pnom Gobal [Pampa]
Lego Feet – excerpt from Part 2 [SKAM]
Gescom – Seventh Ace Deuce (excerpt) [Skull Snap]
Autechre – 6852 [free with ATP event ticket]
Objekt – The Goose That Got Away [Objekt]
Radiohead – Bloom (Objekt Rmx) [Ticker Tape/XL Recordings]
Radiohead – Little By Little (Caribou Rmx) [Ticker Tape/XL Recordings]
Hauschka – Ping [Fat Cat]
Anonymeye – Meritocracy [Someone Good]
plaid – at last [Warp]

Listen again — ~ 167MB

Let's just say… this is a lot of my favourite stuff, with more coming. I'll do a write-up in a general "best of 2011" post soon I hope, rather than writing up these episodes!

jenny hval – blood flight [Rune Grammofon]
jenny hval – portrait of the young girl as an artist [Rune Grammofon]
Laura Arkana met Peter Broderick – Souvenirs [Hush Records]
Laura Arkana met Peter Broderick – Het Vuilnis [Hush Records]
ensemble – Things I Forget [FatCat]
ensemble – Envies d'Avalanches [FatCat]
Colin Stetson – Home [Constellation]
Colin Stetson – Fear of the unknown and the blazing sun (feat. Laurie Anderson and Shara Worden) [Constellation]
My Brightest Diamond – In The Beginning [Asthmatic Kitty]
My Brightest Diamond – Be Brave (Alternate version with Son Lux) [Asthmatic Kitty]
Son Lux – Leave The Riches [anticon.]
13&god – its own sun [Alien Transistor/Anticon]
13&god – janu are [Alien Transistor/Anticon]
Underlapper – elephant shoe [hellosQuare/Feral Media]
Collarbones – Kill Off The Vowels [Two Bright Lakes]
Collarbones – Closer [Two Bright Lakes]
Thomas William – by proxy / history shock [This Thing] {free download release!}
Pimmon – düülbludgers [Room40]
Fabio Orsi – Full Metal Flat [Preservation]
Fabio Orsi – Naked Trance [Preservation]
Geese – Tundra Bean [self-released, see Geese Bandcamp]
Autistici – Bed of Powdered Glass [Home Normal]
Autistici – Religion of Water and Air [Home Normal]
David Sylvian – Snow White In Appalachia [Samadhi Sound]
Nils Frahm – More [Erased Tapes]
Nils Frahm – Familiar [Erased Tapes]
Simon Scott – AC Waters [Miasmah]
Simon Scott – Betty [Miasmah]
Grails – Future Primitive [Temporary Residence]

Listen again — ~ 159MB

Our first track tonight is a taste of things to come — one of the bonus Hood tracks on the boxset that were started sometime in 2005 and finishedin September 2011. I guess it's too much to hope that the Adams brothers are going to go back into the studio to record something more together again… Much more on Hood later on though!

Last night (Saturday) in Sydney saw the launch of the much-awaited (by a select few anyway) collaborative album between Sydney's Thomas William and Scissor Lock. The two of them set up their laptops, mini-mixing desks, pedals and microphones facing each other, and proceed to output dense washes of sound and vocal loops. The beats of Thomas William are absent, but his samples still pulsate as they would if they were there. Marcus Whale's signature vocal loops are there, along with lots of processing, and it all somehow comes together. Great to have this on CD, courtesy of New Weird Australia's New Editions series.

The Haxan Cloak has had a great debut year, with an amazing album of deep scraping cello and percussion, and it's great that this highly limited vinyl EP is now available digitally. Two long tracks of arcane techno, deep and mysterious.

As a massive fan of his noise/psych outfit Burning Star Core, I'm very excited about the new solo album from C. Spencer Yeh. While BxC was often Yeh solo anyway, this is the first album (as opposed to many EPs and other sundry releases) that he's put his own name to, and perhaps it is a more personal statement. Many tracks are just entitled "Drone" or "Vocal", or "Two Guitars", leaving the sounds to speak for themselves. While the drones are indubitably what they are, the vocal pieces are cut up to extreme levels — none of his frequent gutteral groaning — and later on some more noisy elements do come through. For an album where everything's broken down to its constituent elements, it's an absorbing listen.

The wonderful Icelandic label Bedroom Community] ring in the end of the year with their second Yule compilation (see here), which is a free download with any purchase from their online store at the moment. Exclusive remixes and new music, albeit mixed into one track (I downloaded the FLAC and split it up, because that's how I roll).
DanishBelgian artist Montauk in February delicately edits Daníel Bjarnason, Scanner keeps the spirit of the Ben Frost piece while putting his own "stomp" onto it, and Valgeir Sigurðsson is icily Scandinavian in between.

Next up, Peter Broderick. Before playing a couple of tracks from his rather amazing and slightly disturbing soundtrack Music for Confluence, I played his entry into the 2CD set Satie et les nouveaux jeunes, from French label Arbouse. It's a pretty impressive collection of names, all interpreting or taking influence from Erik Satie. As a lover of his music, I can say that some people "get" him better than others, so as expected there are some pedestrian efforts, and also some real gems. Sad I only got to one track tonight.
Meanwhile, Peter has been getting a bit of work doing documentary soundtracks, and from the sounds of it, this one is rather disturbing. His music is sympathetic and beautiful, with a few undercurrents of disquiet represented through studio edits and effects, and some pretty passionate violin playing.

A few others before our big special tonight.
Sole and the SkyRider Band have just released The Challenger EP digitally as a companion to their excellent Hello Cruel World album of earlier this year. With some high quality guests, they continue the surprisingly mainstream-hip-hop-friendly production of the album, with Sole's fiery delivery.

With Vladislav Delay you know what you're going to get — dubby textures with stop-start, broken beats and deep electronic sounds. Another perfectly-suited raster-noton release, in a rather awesome couple of years for the label.

I hope to have the most recent album for Daniel Mackenzie's Ekca Liena for you shortly, but meanwhile he sent me this single track, which shows the breadth of his production — too detailed to really be drone, perhaps, although that's where this sound is headed. Very fine.

German indietronic artist Teamforest has enlisted some quality help for his latest EP, including Melbourne's own Sympático, but tonight I couldn't resist the opportunity to head back towards Hood via the bizarre bracken remix. Both Adams brothers from Hood contribute remixes, but here Chris goes from wonky hip-hop with vocoder, through strummy guitar and his own vocals, and out the other side.

So… Hood. It's hard to know where to start with this most Utility Fog of bands. If anyone embodies postfolkrocktronica it's them. And no surprise, I've been obsessed with them for well over a decade. As I said on air, I was familiar with two electronic side-projects well before I really knew who Hood were. In 1997, completely immersed in idm via the likes of the Warp and Skam labels, I came across Downpour’s Windstorms Broken Microphones EP. Sampled female vocals, swathes of noise, mega-distorted chopped-up amen breaks — this was heaven. It was the beginnings of breakcore, and Chris Adams (Hood's main songwriter and vocalist) was there. Only a couple of years later did I realise the connection with Hood, and start to gather what an important group they were.
Then in 1999, I was on tour in the UK and found my way to Pelicanneck in Affleck's Palace, a crazy marketplace in a multi-story building. As I browsed through electronica and postrock, my ears were constantly turning to the record they were spinning — minimal electronics, clicky beats, morose loops. I bought it on spec, and it was the debut self-titled album from The Remote Viewer, on the legendary 555 Recordings of Leeds. Once again, it was some time before I connected The Remote Viewer with Hood, and still later before I could work out when Andrew Johnson & Craig Tattersal actually left the band. Their other duo, the indietronica, non-instrumental The Famous Boyfriend, certainly existed simultaneously with Hood, although their best work was also released post-split.

So my Hood story goes sideways and backwards from these masterful electronic releases, back through to their earliest punky indie days, tape noise experiments, their work with Matt Elliott in Bristol and with Richard Formby and Choque Hosein in Leeds, their numerous works of genius relegated to b-sides and highly limited EPs, and then through their albums and EPs on Domino. They synthesised all their influences into something incredibly special, with live drumming rubbing up against glitchy drum programming, samples and drones mixed in with jangly guitars, mournful violin and clarinet with muffled vocals, bizarre and bizarrely successful collaborations with the iconic anticon rappers, short experimental tracks, long immersive tracks (no less experimental), true indiepop gems and sometimes almost impenetrable vocal meanderings.

Their influences were many and venerable, from Robert Wyatt through late Talk Talk, Bark Psychosis, Disco Inferno, Third Eye Foundation and many more, and their influence on many younger bands immeasurable, but there's never been anyone like them, and long may they keep making music — separately at least, assuming "Hood is finished", really, 6 years on now.

Hood – hymn to the hill [Domino]
Thomas William vs Scissor Lock – Jewelz [New Weird Australia]
The Haxan Cloak – Hounfour (Temple) [Aurora Borealis]
C. Spencer Yeh – Drone (track 1) [Intansitive Recordings]
C. Spencer Yeh – Voice (track 2) [Intansitive Recordings]
C. Spencer Yeh – Au Revoir… [Intansitive Recordings]
Daníel Bjarnason – Spindrift (Montauk in February remix) [Bedroom Community] {from the free download compilation Yule 2011, available with any purchase from the Bedroom Community shop right now!}
Valgeir Sigurðsson – Flesh and Wine and Firewood [Bedroom Community] {from the free download compilation Yule 2011, available with any purchase from the Bedroom Community shop right now!}
Ben Frost – Stomp (Scanner remix) [Bedroom Community] {from the free download compilation Yule 2011, available with any purchase from the Bedroom Community shop right now!}
Peter Broderick – Les trois valses distinguées du précieux dégouté 2 [Arbouse]
Peter Broderick – in the valley itself [Erased Tapes]
Peter Broderick – the person of interest [Erased Tapes]
Sole and the SkyRider Band – Infanticide (feat. Alexandrah of Solillaquists of Sound) [Fake Four]
Vladislav Delay – Henki [raster-noton]
Ekca Liena – Skate [direct from artist]
Teamforest – leave the north, head southwards (bracken remix) [Tarkovsky Green]
Hood – She's caught in sunshine [555 Recordings of Flagstaff, AZ]
Hood – I've forgotten how to live [555 Recordings of Leeds]
Downpour – Torrential Rain [Drop Beat]
Hood – Your Ambient Voice [Domino]
Hood – Houses Tilting Towards The Sea [Domino]
The Remote Viewer – untitled 04 from first album [555 Recordings of Leeds]
The Famous Boyfriend – i woke up this morning and remembered what you'd done [555 Recordings of Leeds]
Hood – Home Is Where It Hurts [Domino]
Hood – They removed all trace that anything had ever happened here (feat. doseone and Why?) [Domino]
Hood – Painting the Town Dead [Domino]
Hood – Over the land, over the sea. [Domino]
Hood – the lost you [Domino]
Hood – winter politics [self released/Domino]
Hood – guess my age [Domino]

Listen again — ~ 221MB {sorry it's bigger this time, forgot to do that thing y'know?}

We've heard Jay Bodley's music on this show a fair bit as Sun Hammer — poised, thoughtful drone with lots of bass. He's suggested (I'm paraphrasing) that it's like dubstep without the beats (or at least mostly without beats). As A Setting Sun he's got a similar aesthetic at play, but it's more into the ambient territory. Don't worry though, there's still plenty of Bass in there, and some generous helpings of growling noise.

We've also heard Valence Drakes quite a lot on this show under the name MusSck, but he seems to have reverted to the easier-to-pronounce Valence Drakes lately. Impeccably-produced atmospheric glitch-hop, whatever he calls himself.

Finally I can play you the new Necks record. It's been out overseas for a month or two now, and I've been sitting on it as I didn't want to play it till it was available here. It's that rarer breed of Necks album, with more than one track! In fact, with two tracks weighing in at just over 21 minutes each, it's surprisingly short for a Necks album, but it's quality vs quantity — the first track dives in almost right away with a driving rhythm that never lets up, but this one starts with gorgeous piano patterns and gradually grows with breakbeats, bowed double bass and layers, while Tim Whitten's production keeps the scribbly piano shining through above it all.

It's also exciting to have the new alog record, which I had to order from Rune Grammofon in Norway as nobody else has got it in yet. Turns out it didn't take that long or cost that much to get it direct. Alog are a fascinating duo who take everyday sounds and naïve musical elements and piece everything together digitally. They can sound very electronic or strangely acoustic, and they suit Utility Fog down to a tee. We heard a couple of quite rhythmic tracks, one in fact basically consisting of awkwardly cut-up drums.

Speaking of rhythmic, it's not an adjective we generally associate with Machinefabriek nowadays, but for a free download (see below) that appeared this week, he's taken his keen ear for sound design and wrapped it around some gently pulsating, mysterious sounds. I had it on repeat for some time after downloading it.

And thence we get to German postrock and minimal electronic figure Robert Lippok, whose latest sounds fit snugly into raster-noton. All electronic sounds, lots of movement, and strangely funky.

Puzahki brings us the first of many tonight from the Hinterlandt-curated compilation Through The Motions (click the link as it's a free download!). Jochen Hinterlandt presented the artists with short snippets of sounds from his track "Motion", from which they created an impressively diverse and high-quality collection of tunes. From Brisbane, Puzahki tones down his frenetic breakbeat of yore, but pumps up the bass for a fantastic track. Later we have awesome ambient waves from Broken Chip, motorik techno from Telafonica and strange, grainy hip-hop from AFXJIM.

From Finland, Fanu is a new producer to me, but has in fact been making drum'n'bass for a good 5 years or more. His new album follows the Paradox model of mixing drum'n'bass with breakbeat at other tempos, including some dubstep, but it's the complex drum'n'bass programming that's particularly irresistible. Very impressive.

Further excitement tonight as we have a rare new tune from Adelaide's Tim Koch, doyen of Australian idm, thanks to Japanese label Mizukage Records — and it's on one of their regular free download compilations! Very pretty electronica as we've come to expect from him. From the same comp we also heard the beats of UK's Arctic Sunrise.

Ensemble Economique is the solo project of Brian Pyle of psychedelic improv group Starving Weirdos, in which he creates arcane sound journeys. His latest offering on Dekorder takes a fairly percussive direction, and indeed on the first cut tonight we have almost jazzy drums, whereas elsewhere they tend towards the more tribal. This record's a grower — it may well end up very high in the best-of list this year…

Sydney stalwart Kevin Purdy has been threatening to put out an ambient album for some years, and it's finally finished, and coming out on vinyl next year. We had a sneak preview tonight, with something edging towards the Aphex Twin Selected Ambient Works direction with its gentle beats, whereas much of this album is even more "ambient", if that makes sense.

Michał Jacaszek is a Polish composer/producer who's been creating his electronic-yet-classical works for some years, and now finds himself on the influential Ghostly International label. It's not simply classical pastiche; in fact it's something else — as much electronic drone, with some contemporary sounding distorted noise here and there, strongly informed by 20th century classical and indeed baroque music. A heady mix.

I've only just discovered Julia Holter, as the blogs start spruiking her forthcoming second album. Chalk that up to her first release being vinyl only, in the physical world, but luckily there's a digital version for me. Classically trained, seemingly with a love of bizarre juxtapositions and indirect song structures, Holter creates a fascinating amalgam of field recordings, experimental sound art, '80s nostalgia and songwriting. I'm not sure it's quite album of the year material, but it's very good, and I'll certainly be snapping up her next one as soon as I can.

Along with the new sounds, we did have a few re-appearances tonight. The wonderful Cokiyu remix album was represented by both Tokyo Bloodworm (sounding more electronic than they have recently) and Vieo Abiungo (sounding as lush and world-music-y as ever).
Meanwhile, another take from Origamibiro's amazing Shakkei album features more violin, cut-up folktronic sounds and loping beats.
And to close, another piece of wonky beats from the lovely Mr Monk Fly.

A Setting Sun – Cosmic Trigger Pt. 2 [available from Bandcamp]
Valence Drakes – Sky Open To Those Who Have Wings [Bedroom Research] {get it from Bandcamp}
Valence Drakes – One Winged Angel [Bedroom Research] {get it from Bandcamp}
Sun Hammer – Underscore [available from Bandcamp]
The Necks – Daylights [Fish of Milk/ReR]
alog – the mountaineer [Rune Grammofon]
Machinefabriek – Danse des Loops [Viral Radio] {free download from SoundCloud!}
Robert Lippok – sugarcubes [raster-noton]
Puzahki – Motion Sickness [Feral Media] {free download from Bandcamp!}
Fanu – Pilvien Päällä [Lightless]
Tim Koch – parallarap [Mizukage Records]
Ensemble Economique – To Feel The Night As It Really Is [Dekorder]
Arctic Sunrise – Chi-Ee-I-Su (The Chase) [Mizukage Records]
Fanu – Jupiter 2011 (featuring Mineral) [Lightless]
Telafonica – Kosmische Bewegung [Feral Media] {free download from Bandcamp!}
Purdy – Mountains Dreaming [Soft Records]
Broken Chip – Particle Motion [Feral Media] {free download from Bandcamp!}
Jacaszek – Evening Strains To Be Time's Vast [Ghostly International]
Julia Holter – Tragedy Finale [Leaving Records]
Cokiyu – Little Waves (Tokyo Bloodworm remix) [flau]
Cokiyu – Gloomy (Vieo Abiungo remix) [flau]
Robert Lippok – nycycle [raster-noton]
alog – the weatherman [Rune Grammofon]
Origamibiro – Ballerina Platform Shoes [Denizen/Abandon Building Recordings]
AFXJIM – Mouth In Motion [Feral Media] {free download from Bandcamp!}
Monk Fly – Happier Times To Come My Love [Frequency Lab]

Listen again — ~ 153MB

We'll get to Origamibiro later, but it's a marvellous album. After an introductory piece from him/them, we had the 21-minute journey that is the opening track from the new He Can Jog release (mini-album? EP?) on the Home Normal-affiliated Nomadic Kids Republic. A fair bit of his recent work has been more drone-based, but the drones here meld into more rhythmic sections, then subtle beats and folktronic effects, and vocals here and there. Very lovely.

Second Language have just released the follow-up to last year's Music & Migration comp, once again raising money for BirdLife International. The list of contributors is fantastic, as was the last one, and includes Sydney's own Sophie Hutchings. But before we heard her contribution (featuring some wordless vocals in the mix), we started off with Dollboy's contribution, sounding susprisingly like Robert Wyatt, with piano and gradually more lush instrumentation, plus birdsong.

We find our way to Sophie Hutchings via her "remix" (or cover really) of Finnish artist Ous Mal, of tracks from his first album on Preservation. The Preservation posse have been asked to remix his tracks for a special compilation called Ous Mal is dead, commemorating the fact that he is discarding that moniker in favour of Nuojuva for his album next year. There are some very special interpretations here, and it's only available direct from the label.

Back to Music & Migration, we hear from UFog favourite of days of yore, James Brewster, whose recent album this year was perhaps just far enough into esoteric to not make the splash it should have — but to these ears an amazing amalgam of classical, folk and experimental electronic. His track on this comp manages to mix all of that into a little over 3 minutes…

It's been a turbulent year for Monk Fly, with successes for his Frequency Lab label, losses of relatives and the birth of his first child. This all comes out in his Odes EP, excellent emotion-laden wonky beats.

Remixing Maps and Diagrams, Part Timer gets his post-dubstep on with the first official release under his Dark Mahoney moniker. And he's also remixing Cokiyu as Scissors and Sellotape on her wonderful Your Thorn Remixes release, coming very soon from flau.

We jump straight in with two more tracks from there, killer remixes both from flau boss aus and idm/folktronica legend Opiate. So many more to play you next week too!

And then it's time to get back to Origamibiro. Although he's joined by Andrew Tytherleigh on a few tracks, Origamibiro is mostly the folktronic project of Tom Hill, who used to be half of celebrated idm duo Wauvenfold. As we heard, Wauvenfold could chop up beats with the best of them. Many years later came the first Origamibiro album, surprising us all with wonderful glitchy acoustic guitars, reminiscent of the heyday of folktronica. The new album is another step forward, both in compositional construction and production, incorporating layered violin with the electronics. It's pretty marvellous. I think I used that word before.

I played a gorgeous track from (still) the last Alister Spence Trio album because they're playing at 505 this Wednesday. First class contemporary jazz atmospherics.

On a totally different tip, making make hard-hitting punky rock, with a focus on rhythm and dynamics, and very little vocals. Haven't heard rock this good since Ohana.

Another change of gear brings us to cellist Theresa Wong, teaming up with Carla Kihlstedt to bring us a suite of cello, violin and vocal songs based around Goya's etchings on "The Disasters of War". The Unlearning features so many tracks it can be hard to get one's head around, but it sits in a similar genre to Kihlstedt's own songwriting work — adventurous and experimental but melodic music using strings for rhythm, harmony, texture and melody. In the declamatory, often political bent of the lyrics I hear a little of Dagmar Krause and Art Bears.

From here we segue via cello back into Ous Mal with a lugubrious inerpretation from Aaron Martin, and then a typical droning, chittering remix from Pimmon. Recommended.

Telafonica's new album is certainly a stayer, and happily jumps around many genres, from drone to indietronica to guitar based songs. I also took the opportunity to reprise a favourite indietronic song of theirs from a few years back.

Sydney's got a bit of a post-r'n'b beats scene springing up, to no small amount nurtured by a couple of blogs: Life Aquatic and East To West. The former is apparently releasing a 7" from Albatross shortly, from which we took a very pretty number and then finished with the remix by the internationally-celebrated (by Boomkat at least) Dro Carey.
In between, the floating vocal samples and frenetic sped-up 2step beats of Sepalcure, dancefloor creation of Machinedrum and Praveen.

Origamibiro – Dismantle Piece [Denizen/Abandon Building Recordings]
He Can Jog – Gather / Burn/ Echo [Nomadic Kids Republic]
Dollboy – Birds in my Mouth [Second Language]
Ous Mal – Marraskuu (Marraskewered by Sophie Hutchings) [Preservation]
Sophie Hutchings – Between Two Hills [Second Language]
James Brewster – Dissent en route [Second Language]
Monk Fly – Watching You Watch Him Pass Away [Frequency Lab]
Maps and Diagrams – Jupiter Incidental (Dark Mahoney Remix) [Sutemos]
Cokiyu – Textured Clouds (Scissors and Sellotape Remix) [flau]
Cokiyu – Gloomy Monday (aus remix) [flau]
Cokiyu – Round In Fog (Opiate Rework) [flau]
Origamibiro – Quad Time and the Genius of the Crowd [Denizen/Abandon Building Recordings]
Wauvenfold – Clip (clopt) [Wichita Recordings]
Origamibiro – noshi [Expanding Records]
Origamibiro – Impressions of Footfall [Denizen/Abandon Building Recordings]
Alister Spence Trio – neon and rain [Rufus Records]
making – Partial / AB [available from Bandcamp]
Theresa Wong with Carla Kihlstedt – Candlehat [Tzadik]
Theresa Wong with Carla Kihlstedt – What Courage! [Tzadik]
Theresa Wong with Carla Kihlstedt – We Shall See [Tzadik]
Ous Mal – Tuulensuoja (at breath's end) by Aaron Martin [Preservation]
Ous Mal – Marraskuu (Pimmon's Shallow Grave mix) [Preservation]
Telafonica – I Can Hear There's A Peace In The Dark [4-4-2music/available from Bandcamp]
Telafonica – Nothing Ventured [4-4-2music/available from Bandcamp]
Albatross – Casper's Theme [Life Aquatic]
Sepalcure – Eternally Yrs [Hotflush]
Albatross – Casper's Theme (Dro Carey remix) [Life Aquatic]

Listen again — ~ 152MB

Tonight was a night of epic tunes, especially at the start. Sydney's Telafonica have graced us with their new album, after a slew of excellent remix singles (with more to come), so finally we hear the original versions of these songs. And "Viceroy" is an incredible almost-quarter-hour of sound, essentially an extended crescendo, with a very long drone intro, tribal drumming, and layered vocals.
You should check this album out, as well as the remix EPs at Telafonica's Bandcamp.

Well, as far as insanely long tracks go, Kate Bush has it down pat on her surprise new album. It's been years, and it's really been more than a decade since I've paid attention to a Kate Bush album – for shame! This new one has been garnering comparisons to Talk Talk, among other things, and for once the comparisons are apt. Repetitive piano figures, emphasis on silence and gaps between phrases, jazzy drums — and Bush's quirkiness as well as her melodicness. The track I played reminds me equally of Joni Mitchell, Tori Amos (obviously hugely influenced herself by both Kate Bush and Joni Mitchell), and Talk Talk. I'm sure I'll take another from the album next week!
Following, I had to play a favourite pair of tracks from the legendary Hounds of Love album, just to remind us that she's always been an experimentalist. We segue from a song about making love to a snowman into "Under Ice", but thing get even creepier with "Waking The Witch" — chopped up vocals, pitch shifting, drum machines, all pretty extreme for mid-'90s pop.

But who's interested in charmingly insane English geniuses when we have so much great Sydney music? Let's head back home, starting with the lovely Mr Oliver Tank. Just as I'd gotten a little sick of GetUp's self-congratulation, they go and make a beautiful ad which everybody should take a look at. And not only that, it's soundtracked by this very pretty piece of folktronica.

Two of the performers from Saturday's Postfolkrocktronica Picnic team up next, with Option Command taking Underlapper's very postrockin' "Choking Ibis" and turning it into a piece of quite floaty electronica.

And then to Brisbane. Holly from East to West was raving about this song by Outerwaves this week, and it's pretty sweet. And it features the kid who learnt to ride a bike. We've all been there.

Back in 2006 I received an amazing disc of glitchy electronics from Brisbane artist David Loose aka Hydatid. In particular "Wave Function Analysis" from the Studies in Particle Motion album is a gorgeous work that's stayed with me, and his collaborative project Orchid Beach from that year yielded some lovely pieces as well.
But give or take some bits & pieces, it's not until now that we have a new album from Hydatid, and it's very fine stuff — less granular processing, more subtle beats and textures. You'll be hearing quite a bit from this in the next while (although we're almost at year-summation time! Wow!)

Partially from Melbourne (as well as SF and NYC), Beaten By Them have two albums behind them of adventurous postrock including cello and electronics. Their new EP leans heavily on the electronic side of things, and it really suits them.

I've focused on Autistici in some past shows, and I do believe he's doing some of the best work in electro-acoustic music at the moment. It's understated stuff, but with incredible attention to detail. He's not afraid to insert clicky beats or even veer more towards electronica, but equally he can create long drone pieces or build pieces around field recordings. His new album on Home Normal is as good as you'd expect, with the production values always associated with the label too. Highly recommended.

Another label associated with high quality is Sydney's own Preservation. Finnish artist Ous Mal released an album of folk-influenced ambient hip-hop on the label, and is now abandoning the name in favour of Nuojuva for his next album. To herald the change, Preservation are releasing a very limited-run remix CDR with many of the leading lights of the label — including Aaron Martin, Pimmon, Sophie Hutchings, Seaworthy, and Motion Sickness of Time Travel, whose characteristically mysterious take we heard tonight.
The remix disc is available only direct from the label.

Embarrassingly, I'm only just coming round to Grouper. Her very lo-fi indie pop has tended to skate under my radar, and I didn't find myself sympathetic to it in the past. But "She Loves Me That Way" is a stone cold gem of a tune, and I thank the denizens of my Twitter feed for convincing me I had to hear it this week.

But I did mention Aaron Martin, and to segue from Grouper, Liz Harris' releases often come out on that most exclusive and lo-fi of media, the cassette (frequently on her own Yellowelectric label). Aaron's latest remix album comes as a cassette too, with pretty special packaging, along with a download code), and features some luminaries doing their takes on his music (see the tracklisting!) Tonight we hear Tokyo Bloodworm turn in some of their best work.

We creep back into beats courtesy of Teebs, and the harp playing of Flying Lotus collaborator Rebekah Raff. Quite a beauty from a very satisfying downtempo release on FlyLo's Brainfeeder label.

Further into the dancefloor, Radiohead discovered themselves with some overflow remixes after the double CD set came out, and we're fortunate they were up for releasing them, because Jamie xx has taken his pretty ambient mix and fleshed it out into a dreamy house number. The vocal refrain and shoegazey chords are glorious.

I've always got time for Robag Wruhme, who was one half of one of my favourite German IDM groups, Beefcake. As Robag he's tended to work in the (minimal) house world, not really my territory, but he has a deft touch and as we hear here, the Aphex Twin still looms large…
But also for some reason — perhaps just the tempo and the 4/4 beat — I couldn't help but think of New Order's classic Technique album, which features many a classic, including tonight's outing. Yes please.

Last week we were introduced to the work of Jesse Somfay as Borealis by Future Sequence and their enormous and superb free download comp SEQUENCE2. This week we get to hear another track under that name as well — both feature soaring vocal layers and driving beats. Shoegazy techno.

And we finish with another SEQUENCE2 track, the opener from electronica stalwart Maps and Diagrams. Really nice folktronic stuff.

Telafonica – Viceroy [4-4-2music/available from Bandcamp]
Kate Bush – Misty [Fish People]
Kate Bush – Under Ice / Waking The Witch [EMI]
Oliver Tank – Last Night I Heard Everything in Slow Motion [yes please]
Underlapper – Choking Ibis (Option Command Chip Stealing remix) [Feral Media] {download for a limited time at SoundCloud}
Outerwaves – Big Cats [via East to West blog]
Hydatid – That Breakthrough Moment [download through last.fm]
Hydatid – Wave Function Analysis [self-released?]
Orchid Beach – Dolphins Do What? [coincidentally the one track you can get for free from last.fm]
Hydatid – Prog-relution [download through last.fm]
Beaten By Them – Damp Sky 3 [self-released]
Autistici – Religion of Water and Air [Home Normal]
Autistici – Bed of Powdered Glass [Home Normal]
Ous Mal – Merilaulu (Motion Sickness of Time Travel's Mortem Obire mix) [Preservation]
Grouper – She Loves Me That Way [Yellowelectric]
Aaron Martin – Tokyo Bloodworm: Making Rope Out of Eyelashes [False]
Teebs – Verbena Tea with Rebekah Raff [Brainfeeder]
Radiohead – Bloom (Jamie xx Rework Part 3) [Ticker Tape]
Robag Wruhme – Donnerkuppel [Kompakt]
New Order – Vanishing point [Factory Records]
Borealis – Wandering Atrial [Origami Sound]
Borealis – Skyhall [Future Sequence] {from SEQUENCE2 – free on Bandcamp!}
Maps and Diagrams – Domane [Future Sequence] {from SEQUENCE2 – free on Bandcamp!}

Listen again — ~ 86MB (only 64bit m4a from stream tonight sorry!)