Utility FogYour weekly fix of postfolkrocktronica, dronenoise, power ambient, post-everything improv... and more? Sunday nights from 9 to 11pm on FBi Radio, 94.5 FM in Sydney, Australia. {Hey! Sign up to Utilityfoglet and get playlists emailed to you after each show!}
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Sunday, 14th of March, 2021
Playlist 14.03.21 (10:09 pm)
Folktronica, hip-hop, and experimental electronic sounds tonight, very much the core of where Utility Fog started, albeit in a contemporary way. LISTEN AGAIN to the great musical feast. Stream on demand from FBi, podcast here. Origamibiro - Zoo [Denovali/Bandcamp] Madlib - Hopprock [Rappcats/Bandcamp] Simona Zamboli - A Lightning Bolt Strikes the Mountaintop [Mille Plateaux] Kamron Saniee - Badinage [SVS Records/Bandcamp] Gantz - MAD HONEY [Gantz Bandcamp] ZULI - Bro! (Love it) [UIQ/Bandcamp] Moon Sign Gemini - 003 [Moon Sign Gemini Bandcamp] Gregory Paul Mineeff - Mood Triptych [Cosmic Leaf Records] Listen again — ~204MB
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Sunday, 9th of March, 2014
Playlist 09.03.14 (9:07 pm)
Tonight we revisited the Filthy Children collection from last week and also the wonderful Gilded from Perth. Then we hopped over to Rotterdam for a collection of some of Machinefabriek's hard-to-find shorter releases from the last few years. LISTEN AGAIN to the strums and clicks, hums and whirs. Link at bottom, stream in stereo from FBi. Kaukana - Follow The Fool (Made In Japan Remix) [Wood and Wire] Listen again — ~106MB Sunday, 12th of May, 2013
Playlist 12.05.13 (10:07 pm)
A very doomy show tonight, just as we love it! Acoustic doom, explosive reverb-drenched doom rock, post-dubstep liturgical doom drone, and maybe I'll stop inventing the genres now. Plus glitched-up ukulele and musically-twisted field recordings... LISTEN (again?) via the link at the bottom, the podcast or stream on demand in stereo at FBi! (Try out the excellent mobile streaming!) First artist tonight I've been obsessed with for a couple of weeks, and I was very glad to get the Japanese 2CD edition of Ensemble Pearl's self-titled album in the mail this week. A collective formed from Stephen O'Malley of Sunn o))), Atsuo and Michio Kurihara from Boris and William Herzog of Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter, also featuring the extreme violin talents of Eyvind Kang and Secret Chiefs 3's Timb(a) Harris... So, just a little low-key project then. And as this in-depth Quietus review states, it's not going to get the recognition it deserves, so please check it out. American-influenced doom rock and drone, with massive dub reverb on the drums, and heaps of detail. Awesome. Next up, not just a Sydney connection, but an FBi Radio connection. Paul Jebanasam is perhaps better known round here not just as dubstep producer Moving Ninja but as Farj from FBi's dubstep show Garage Pressure. He relocated to Bristol a few years ago, having already been released on DJ Pinch's Tectonic label, but he's ended up forming his own highly regarded Subtext Recordings, releasing bass-heavy post-dubstep from Emptyset, Roly Porter of Vex'd, and now himself. We continue the strings and dark drones in our next selection, and incredible 20 minute track from Norwegian cellist & producer Svarte Greiner, head of the Miasmah and one half of Deaf Center. His works as Svarte Greiner and under his own name, Erik K Skodvin, can be classed as acoustic doom (which I love), although he uses electronics and electric instruments as well. But I particularly love the carefully-recorded acoustic sounds on the first Svarte Greiner album Knive and the Erik K Skodvin Flare album - and Black Tie delivers, based for the large part around plucked and scraped cello, with some intense distortion in the middle giving way to the original ostinati. Engrossing. The Haxan Cloak is another cellist working in dark sound-art, albeit with lots more electronics. I tried to select a track from his new album featuring cello, and it's in there, if processed to not sound a lot like a cello! Noise stalwarts Wolf Eyes have a new album out with electronics at the forefront - along with Nate Young's unique vocal stylings. More from this next week I hope! Three huge forces in music meet once a year in Japan for a live concert which they then release on record. Keiji Haino, Jim O'Rourke & Oren Ambarchi's first release was true beauty, with Haino's angelic vocals, piano, drones and percussion; the second was ferocious psych rock noise. The new one combines these elements to some extent, moving even into some krautrock-ish grooves at points. umin's ukulele folktronica came to my attention via Abandom Building Records a year or two ago. He's now got a new EP out on Bad Panda, although they've neglected to collect the tracks into a set. But you can still grab them all for free, including a remix from Italy's k-conjog, another Abandon Building artist. There's more structure to these new tracks, including clattering beats on one or two tracks. It's excellent glitchy acoustic music you should get. Glitchy acoustics of a different nature appear on Michel Banabila's new release, Gardening, available now in an extended editiong with remixes (or new works) from Machinefabriek and others. Field recordings of gardening tools combine with subtle instrumentation and lots of processing/editing, and it's surprisingly coherent and musical. Should be no surprise from an artist of the calibre of Banabila, and his collaborators. And finally, out any minute is the new record on Editions Mego from Gordon Sharp (now Cindy/Cinder)'s cindytalk, who's been making music since the early '80s and can be found on one of the legendary This Mortal Coil records. Abandoning vocals, his Mego releases focus on the quite esoteric climes of processed glitchscapes. The new album continues on this path, although in amongst the noise and fog are some industrial beats here and there. ensemble pearl - painting on a corpse [Drag City/Daymare] Listen again — ~ 104MB
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Sunday, 7th of April, 2013
Playlist 07.04.13 (10:03 pm)
Great range of stuff tonight - shoegaze of various variants, post-classical electronica, an old electronica incarnation of The Haxan Cloak, dark drones'n'beats and more... LISTEN (AGAIN?) via the link at the bottom or the podcast, or stream on demand from FBi. I feel like I probably haven't played enough Justin K Broadrick on this show, even though he's one of my favourite music-makers. Look, I've probably played him a lot, but in proportion to how much I listen to him, and how many variegated acts he's been involved with, it feels like not enough. Tonight we hear from his metal-shoegaze project Jesu, probably nowadays what he's best known for, who put out a 7" on the Matador Singles Club last year featuring a Stranglers cover ("Duchess") and a new original, "Veiled". That vinyl release is now available digitally from the Jesu Bandcamp along with alternate versions of both tracks. The trouble with being a JKB fan is all the alternate versions, self-remixes and re-releases that float around, all of which are essential because they're often both radically different and brilliant - as is most definitely the case here. The outro, where it all changes, is fantastic in both versions. Speaking of shoegaze, I was just handed the new album by Sydney duo Fabels this week, and had to play some tracks even though the album isn't being launched until the start of May. It is in fact now available from their Bandcamp. Their shoegaze credentials are strong, as Ben Aylward was singer/guitarist in beloved Sydney shoegaze Swirl in the '90s. His partner Hiske Weijers brings a psychedelic twist and shares the singing duties. The album features many tracks from their three excellent EPs along with a few new ones including the highlight "Everything". Aussie ex-pat Leah Kardos, now living in London, is a classically-trained composer and pianist as well as an electronic musician and songwriter, and she's not afraid to combine all her influences on her albums - and indeed within tracks. Her debut album Feather Hammer was one of the highlights of 2011, and her new one is set to be the same for 2013. Featuring vocals on many tracks from Laura Wolk-Lewanowicz, who's versatile enough herself to cover the range from operatic to pop, it starts off definitely seeming in the classical camp before the electronics drop halfway through the first track. There are glitchy layers of vocals, pop songs with deliciously bent lyrics, and gorgeous piano-backed ambient electronica. Both albums are highly recommended. When Sydney's Eugene Ward started making post-r'n'b/dubstep/techno as Dro Carey, he instantly seemed to attract the attention of the cool trend-setters in the music crit scene. And he is indeed uniquely talented and deserves his spot on the world stage. For his latest release he imagined what would happen if he took the house tendencies of his alter ego Tuff Sherm out of Dro Carey, leaving bouncing breakbeats and bass with perhaps more the hip-hop influences. Very fine stuff. Aurora Borealis as The Haxan Cloak. A cellist and sound-artist, he's at home with twisted techno, drone, and arcane acoustic doom, and his new album will come out on witch-house (etc) label Tri-Angle. Meanwhile, I was very interested do discover that under a little-mentioned earlier pseudonym he released a small amount of folktronica and more light-hearted electronica as Crillix. It's quite different, and he probably considers it juvenilia, but I've been enjoying what I could find! And speaking of rare and esoteric, Autechre are not the only Warp artist, or artist in general, to release special tracks for the Japanese market (a way of convincing the Japanese to buy from local labels & stores rather than going for cheaper imported stock), but the bonus track on Beat's version of their newie is one of the best Autechre tracks I've heard in ages. Absolutely stunning. The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation is the doomy drone version of The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble, with trombone, cello, traditional rock instruments and electronics/beatmakers. They've released a number of excellent live albums, and Roadburn is the best yet, with some heavy beats dropping in halfway through a couple of the long tracks. I believe there's a new TKDE album later this year, which is something to look forward to. And keeping the "road" theme, as well as numbered tracks, Sydney's beloved afxjim has released the R.O.A.D. EP at his Bandcamp to tide us over till a new album later this year. Similar in feel to his album, it's a sort of gentle folktronica and postrock, with samples and tape loops, guitars and drums - very melodic and just a delight to listen to. Keeping the Sydney connection, next up we had a long-awaited collaboration between Italian drone-meister Fabio Orsi & Sydney's own pimmon. It's definitely easy to hear both of their signatures in these long drone tracks. Beautiful stuff. And finally, Greg from Underlapper alterted me to a new project for Matthew Mehlan from Skeletons, Uumans. It harkens back to the solo days of Skeletons, much more electronic, with his instantly-recognizable vocals and general weirdness. Available in cassette form and with various t-shirt alternatives if you're thataway inclined! Jesu - Veiled [Matador/Jesu Bandcamp] Listen again — ~ 102MB
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Sunday, 29th of July, 2012
Playlist 29.07.12 (11:19 pm)
HE'S BAAAAAACK! After a month in Europe and Hong Kong, I've got a suitcaseful of loot to play you over the coming weeks. Only got back early on Saturday morning and haven't had a chance to listen to a lot yet, but here we go... So LISTEN AGAIN, and rest assured On demand streaming, the podcast and download (see bottom of post) aren't going anywhere! Started with a huge special on a very special band: Sweet Billy Pilgrim. Tim Elsenburg & co have been making folk- & electronic-tinged indie pop for some years, and I first heard of them via their exquisite remix of a David Sylvian track. It was great to discover that their own music is no less beautiful, and for all that it's centred around lyrical melodicism, it never loses its experimental edge — even on the latest, probably most accessible album. We follow them with a heap of tunes from Ninja Tune duo Grasscut, who are reminiscent to me of early Tunng's evocation of a dark, arcane English folk through a glitchy electronic lens. The last track on their second album features Robert Wyatt prominently, an appropriate guest. And along with their own vocals, we have sampled singing from crackly old 78 records. Both albums are strongly recommended. Next, we find ourselves back in Australia. Melbourne's Peter Knight, jazz musician, composer, electronic musician, has written music for a theatre piece called Pin Drop which is on at the Performance Space from the 1st to the 4th of August - this Wednesday to Saturday. Check out the link! Also on Saturday the 4th, the fantastic Fabels are launching their second EP at a possibly secret venue in Marrickville - check out their Facebook for details. With folk, electronic production and shoegaze in the mix, Hiske Weijers and Ben Aylward (the latter of legendary Sydney indie/shoegaze band Swirl) play with a drum machine in place of a drummer, and should put on a great show. Moving west into the Blue Mountains we join Broken Chip, this alias now firmly hosting the ambient/drone side of Martyn Palmer's output, with Option Command for his beats. His new album Into The Diamond is available now from his Bandcamp and will bring a bit of glittery, bubbly calm into your day. You need it! Also from the same region, Comatone has recently sent around some rare and unreleased tracks to Special People™, so tonight we heard a heavy bit of beat-trickery originally released on a breakcore compilation a few years ago. Keeping with the heavy, we're off with emptyset next, from a 12" (and download release) of remixes of tracks from their Demiurge album. Already their Bass/techno sound has focused further on the noise aspect rather than the beats. Roly Porter (late of industrial dubstep legends Vex'd) has taken a similar journey, and here brings both droning noise and jackhammering beats. Very, very fine. Cristian Vogel has also journeyed around ultra-technical beats and synth soundtracks for years, and it's great to have a new album of beats from him. They're somewhat Bass-influenced, both head-nodding and mind-massaging. Berlin's Carsten Nicolai aka alva noto (somehow his moniker suits the lower case) has featured plenty on these pages, and it's great hearing his minimalist take on Björk from one of the recent Biophilia remix EPs. The fabulous Matthew Herbert has remixed her Icelandic majesty a number of times before, and turns in no less than three remixes on his EP. All great, too. I came across Memotone via The Wire's latest Wire Tapper cover CD, and was intrigued enough to go and find his EP on Bandcamp. Thoroughly contemporary electro-acoustic/folktronic sounds with a bit of a Bass influence in there too. Looking forward to checking out his other stuff now I'm back from overseas... Also with the folktronica, the wonderful Origamibiro have finally released their Shakkei Remixes album, which is most excellent. There are some great names on the list, including Plaid and the Upward Arrows incarnation of UFog regular Part Timer. And Bad Panda have a few of the remixes plus an exclusive track as free downloads! Sweet Billy Pilgrim - Joyful Reunion [Luxor Purchase through EMI] Listen again — ~ 159MB
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Sunday, 22nd of April, 2012
Playlist 22.04.12 (11:10 pm)
Tonight, folktronica, drone, postpunk, dubstep and breakcore all rub shoulders... so, just a normal show then. Our first track was inspired by seeing the clip for "Freedom '90" on Rage's 25th birthday special on Saturday night. I'm not (too) embarrassed to say I love the song, but I love Robert Lippok & Caroline Thorpe's cover even more so, from the amazing Recovery compilation, released a few years ago on a boxset of ten 7" records... Last week's highlight, the new psych-folk album by Mike Wexler, featured again tonight. We also heard again the folktronic sounds of Italy's K-Conjog and France's Chapelier Fou. The first new release this week is a corker from Sydney's Karoshi, streaming on Bandcamp at the moment. They've been doing lovely folktronic stuff for a few years now, and have perfected their sound for this latest release - punchy drums, glitchy effects and lovely melodies. I'm sometimes a bit cynical about 14tracks, the weekly digital mixtape of tracks from Boomkat, which is after all an exercise in selling us something. But then, that's what the music business is aobut, and they do have pretty good taste, as we hear in this week's selection of footwork-influenced electronica. Russian-American Slava Balsanov's track samples what sounds like a kora, and then dives into blissful textures and shuffling beats — a great find for the Software label. And Throwing Snow takes things in a more ravey direction in that not-really-jungle way of juke. Sydney kids MAKING have all the signs of being the next big thing in instrumental dance-rock, and their new single (free from Bandcamp) rocks that signature guitar sound. The two remixes are nicely contrasting, and local sax/computer experimentalist Ben Carey pulls their track apart, to make a glitching, building crescendo of drone. Just in this week is the 2nd Hidden Landscapes compilation from the (mostly) netlabel Audio Gourmet. Featuring a well-selected bunch of drone/post-classical/thingy artists, as often is the case, the highlights come from artists who are unknown to me. Norway's Pjusk have a new album coming out soon on 12k, and here contribute a delicate ambient piece along the lines of the classic em:t releases of the '90s. Rudi Arapahoe is more in a post-classical vein, with wispy female vocals in the mix. Fabio Orsi gives us one of his amazing long drones with pounding drums in the amusingly-titled "the new year is over (nope)" (there's a matching "the new year is over (yep)" track on the album). Also from last week, we have another track from laptop power trio Fenn O'Berg's stunning latest album, and the wondrous 12-minute finale to Machinefabriek's brilliant Colour Tones, plus both sides of his Ontrafelde tonen 7" — choral samples (creating a similar effect to the voices in Jurgen Knieper's "Cathedral of Books" on the Wings of Desire soundtrack, for the trainspotters!) and then more abstract sounds on the b-side: scary creaking, submerged vocals, scraping... And also another track from his very fine collaboration with Steve Roden. To almost finish, we jump to two new releases on the Ad Noiseam label. The fourth album from Larvae sees him moving further away from the heavy dubby beats, using guitar and electronics for a not-quite-shoegazey sound. But there are still some pretty great glitchy beats and occasional dubstep influence surfacing. It's really great stuff. And finally, keeping the beats in the drum'n'bass direction, we have something from the new Squarepusher. To be honest I'm finding it hard to get really enthused about this. Sure, he's come back to the electronic side of things, and the beats are a slightly nastier (dubstep-influenced) side of drill'n'bass, but it lacks much of the melodic and fun aspect of his earlier stuff. Maybe he's trying too hard to be darker here. The jury's still out on this (although compared to the crazy prog-jazz-kitchen-sink of the last few albums, it's a welcome return...) Robert Lippok & Caroline Thorpe - Freedom! [Fractured Recordings] {Yup, George Michael cover!} Listen again — ~ 158MB
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Sunday, 15th of April, 2012
Playlist 15.04.12 (11:14 pm)
Psych-folk! Folktronica! An interview with Brett from Margins! Go see them this Saturday (21st) at Hellen Rose Lab, 17 Waterloo St Surry Hills — a cool gallery space. Should be a mighty fine gig. I'm new to Mike Wexler, and his new album has left me gobsmacked all week. It's understated psych folk, songs in odd scales, harmonies changing direction halfway through melodies, unusual time signatures — but none of it screaming out at you. It features members of the free improv scene like Nate Wooley, but isn't really challenging listening. Just great. Also on the folky, or more country, end of the spectrum is Sydney's The Singing Skies aka Kell from Moonmilk. He enlists Seaworthy here to do a remix, and it's truly spellbinding, with scratchy violin over guitar and vocals... And from last week, Tasmania's Spheres bring a doomier, heavier track. And then it's into an interview with Brett from Melbourne instrumental rock band Margins. They're touring to release their new album Divide — see top of post. The track from their first album has some wicked guitar tapping. After some more from Mr Wexler, it's into the somewhat folktronic sounds of Dictaphone. Clarinet and violin drive the sound, with tuned percussion in the mix along with, I'm guessing, subtle electronics and beats — and a wonderful vocal on the last track. This is amazing stuff, beautifully packaged on Sonic Pieces. Another amazing find this week is Sweden's Esbjörn Svensson Trio (e.s.t). Recalling The Bad Plus a tiny bit (they're a melodic jazz piano trio), and folks like 3ofmillions and Triosk (not to mention Alister Spence) in their combining of piano jazz with electronics, they make some beautiful sounds. I'll have to play more next week. Also popping up from last week is Perth's Kynan Tan, whose album rætina is highly recommended. The minimalist glitch beats and processed Fender Rhodes are joined on one track here by vocals as well. Next we travel to France, with an artist who only recently graced our shores (and I missed him, more's the pity) — Chapelier Fou is released on the awesome French label Ici D'Ailleurs and mixes looped and/or fully arranged violin with crunchy beats. I'd love to see how he does it live. As well as some added cello (at least) on some tracks, the album features labelmate Matt Elliott aka Mr Third Eye Foundation on the last track, sounding particularly mellifluous. Italy's K-Conjog also mixes violin in with his folktronic beats and cut-ups. This is folktronica just how I enjoy it, and you should check it out too, on Abandon Building Records, who released the latest Origamibiro in the US, among some other great releases (see what else I've played of theirs). It's been a great year for Machinefabriek, who's concentrating on perfectly-formed sound art/installation pieces more than longform drones. His disc with another installation artist, Steve Roden, rewards close listening, with what I think of as "foley" recordings (perhaps field recordings, perhaps meticulously-prepared sound pieces) rubbing up against musical passages on various instruments. Similarly with the new solo Machinefabriek , one of his best works I feel. On the same label that brought us the Steve Roden collaboration come Minus Pilots. It's electric bass through various delay pedals and four-track tape recorder, and they aptly describe it thus: "all our recordings are designed for listening through headphones while gazing at the stars..." Indeed. And finally, the mighty laptop improv trio Fenn O'Berg are back with a new live album on Editions Mego, In Hell. It feels like their best yet, or at least since the first batch, and reminds me bizarrely of a slightly more experimental Future Sound of London. Anything goes, with orchestral loops, crackly synths and even some live (I think) electric guitar. Highly, highly recommended. Mike Wexler - Pariah [Mexican Summer] Listen again — ~ 156MB
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Sunday, 8th of January, 2012
Playlist 08.01.12 - Best of 2011 Part 3 (10:15 pm)
Bringing you more of the best music from 2011 tonight... Tom Hall - Before Being [Complicated Dance Steps] Listen again — ~ 161MB
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Sunday, 11th of December, 2011
Playlist 11.12.11 (10:12 pm)
Good evening! Still with the new music and we're well into December... It's been a pretty good year! 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). A Setting Sun - Cosmic Trigger Pt. 2 [available from Bandcamp] Listen again — ~ 153MB
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Sunday, 4th of December, 2011
Playlist 04.12.11 (10:19 pm)
Gosh, the year's almost over! I've been going through some 2011 releases, and it's been pretty awesome... 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. Origamibiro - Dismantle Piece [Denizen/Abandon Building Recordings] Listen again — ~ 152MB
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Labels and artists!We'd love you to send promo/demo CDs or vinyl to:Peter Hollo - Utility Fog FBi Radio PO Box 1962 Strawberry Hills NSW 2012 AUSTRALIA email: utilityfog at frogworth dot com bsky Mastodon Utility Fog teeters on the cusp between acoustic and electronic, organic and digital. Constantly changing and rearranging, this aural cloud of nanotech consumes genres and spits them out in new forms. Whether cataloguing the jungle resurgence, tracking the ups and downs of noise and drone, or unearthing the remnants of glitch and folktronica, all is contextualised within artist & genre histories for a fulfilling sonic journey. Since all these genre names are already pretty ridiculous, we thought we'd coin a new one. So "postfolkrocktronica" it is. Wear it. We got tasty rss2 or atom feeds - get Utility Fog playlists in your favourite RSS reader/aggregator. There's also a dedicated podcast feed. Click here to subscribe in iTunes. Archives of all previous playlists and entries are available:
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