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experimental electronica
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electric string quartet

Utility Fog


Your 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.
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Playlists are listed with artist name first, then track title and (remixer), then [record label]. Enjoy the links.

Sunday, 31st of May, 2009

Playlist 31.05.09 (11:05 pm)

Tonight we started with something utterly insane but really amazing from Rice Corpse, a trio that Sydney's Lucas Abela (head honcho of dual plover) with two incredibly talented Chinese musicians. Combining his patented sheet of glass smashed against his face to produce the most extreme distorte noise, combined with jabbing piano and jazz-punk drumming, this is unique stuff, and worth a listen. They're playing at the Annandale Hotel this coming Saturday, the 6th of June.
Playing on Friday at the Opera House on Friday night is Kronos Quartet, whose track with Ramallah Underground comes from their new album Floodplain (of which hopefully more next week). Plus we had their excellent "remix" of Nine Inch Nails from a couple of years ago.
Jon Hopkins is also playing Saturday night, as well as Sunday, ans it should be a great show.
I got hold of Kettel's new album this week, and played one nice IDM tune and one of his always excellent collaborations with cellist Sietse-Jan Weijenberg.
More from the Sweet Billy Pilgrim album, which I'm thinking is secure in the top N albums of the year for me (right up in top 5 right now). Incredible stuff, detailed glitchy production, banjos, gorgeous vocals and melodies...
Quite a few tracks from the wonderful Greg Davis tonight, including an amazing collaboration with singer/songwriter Chris Weisman, combining lovely idiosyncratic songs with Greg's varied exploratory production - it's a winner, and will no doubt be featured in the next few shows.
Arbouse Recordings have put out a double CD compilation called Musique Pour Statues-Menhirs - not surprisingly mostly ambient stuff, considering it's music about rocks ;) Greg's track is a highlight, as is Mira Calix's, which is in her recent quasi-classical style. More Also from Greg is a collaboration between three touring artists from a couple of years ago, Akron/Family + Megafaun + Greg Davis. Crazy stuff.
Finally Nicholas French has sent me a CD version of his polyfox and the union of the most ghosts album, and it's brilliant stuff, quite unlike anything else, as befits a member of Crab Smasher. Much free music is available at his SkyHut blog.
Two tracks from jasper tx's 3" CD closet ghosts from last year, which in my opinion is his best work so far - from strummed acoustic guitar to shoegazey dynamics and drone.
More drone from c.s.k.a., which is Shoeb Ahmad of hellosQuare taking Bangladeshi radio broadcasts and turning them into spectral ambience.
Carousell is one of the many aliases of Richard Skelton, who releases astonishingly beautiful limited editions on his Sustain-Release Private Press, of which I purchased about 5 CDs a couple of weeks ago. More of his music will be creeping out over the next few weeks - scraping strings, guitars and other sounds, at once ancient and folky and contemporary and droney.
Featuring the double bass of Werner Daffeldecker (I think - unfortunately Staubgold have conspired to make the credits entirely unreadable on this packaging), Ekkehard Ehlers's latest, in collaboration with Paul Wirkus, is a beautiful work of acoustic instruments and glitchy textures.
We have more from Nicola Ratti, whose album debuted on the show last week and is really growing on me.
New sound&fury artist Pefkin I know little of, but the last track on their album is fantastic, a folk song that's interrupted with arcane synthesisers...
Apse's debut album impressed many when it was re-released by ATP Recordings last year. I finally got hold of their debut EP (almost an album really) and it's awesome - postrock meets prog I guess.
Scanner's new album has crunchy beats and lovely ambience - I'm still getting a hold on it, but it's definitely very impressive. Also played a track from Githead, who Scanner plays with.
And Terminal Dusk have finally released their 4-track dubstep compilation Azure, so tonight we had Komonazmuk's remix of his St Etienne-sampling track "Love".
And finished with a remix of Underlapper, whose new album can't come soon enough (but won't be with us till early next year, sadly).

Rice Corpse - mountain [dual plover/Subjam]
Kronos Quartet - Tashweesh (with Ramallah Underground) [Nonesuch]
Jon Hopkins - Vessel [Domino]
Kettel - Pers Patrys (feat. Sietse-Jan Weijenberg, cello) [Sending Orbs]
Nine Inch Nails - Another Version of the Truth (Kronos Quartet & Enrique Gonzalez Müller)
[Interscope]
Kettel - Begging for a Herring [Sending Orbs]
Jon Hopkins - Second Sense [Just Music]
Sweet Billy Pilgrim - Kalypso [SamadhiSound]
chris weisman & greg davis - the nine times [autumn records]
rist - morning (eternal travelers remix by greg davis) [mü-nest]
Greg Davis - All things change [Arbouse Recordings]
Mira Calix - In a stony place [Arbouse Recordings]
Akron/Family + Megafaun + Greg Davis - kukatonga [self-released tour cd; from autumn records]
Akron/Family - Many Ghosts [Dead Oceans/Spunk]
polyfox and the union of the most ghosts - all the living musicians fighting over thin air [Monstera Deliciosa]
jasper tx - i'm asleep on the floor while sunbeams grace my tired head [fenêtre records]
polyfox and the union of the most ghosts - expanding ghost contained by 3 crocodiles [Monstera Deliciosa]
jasper tx - and when we die, god makes angels of us all [fenêtre records]
c.s.k.a. - morsel 1 [low point]
Carousell - Of Old Enchantments [Sustain-Release]
Ekkehard Ehlers & Paul Wirkus - Guma [Staubgold]
Nicola Ratti - White Morning [Preservation]
Pefkin - Remember the Words [sound&fury]
Apse - Balat [Acuarela]
Scanner - Sans Soleil (feat. Michael Gira, guitar) [BineMusic]
Githead - Darkest Star [Swim~]
Komonazmuk - Love (Remix) [Terminal Dusk]
Underlapper - Meanderthal (Cleptoclectics remix) [Feral Media]


Sunday, 24th of May, 2009

Playlist 24.05.09 (11:10 pm)

Tonight there was so much to get through that quite a bit is going to have to wait till next week. So it goes!

Note: pimmon’s album launch is happening at the Bon Marche Studio @UTS on Friday June 19. I tell you this because the only way you'll get in is by emailing hello@preservation.com.au beforehand - there are no tickets on the door. Facebook event here. The very wonderful Chris Abrahams supports, along with new artist Emily McDaniel.
But to skip back to the start, we had something really special from Lucky Dragons, from a new 7" (which incidentally comes with a download code, always good). Fabulous strummy banjo and electronics.
Then a couple of tracks from the fabulous soccer Committee / Machinefabriek "remixes and covers" album redrawn.
Jim O'Rourke (whose personal web involvement seems nil, hence the Wikipedia link) finds his amazing glitch album from 2001 remastered and re-released by Editions Mego. He unearthed a whole second album to go into the deal, so of course I had to grab a copy. The original album is an absolute classic that was a regular in my CD player back at the time, and the 2nd CD certainly lives up to the high standards set.
Following our pimmon, we have another Preservation release, from Italy's Nicola Ratti. In the post-Talk Talk tradition of quietly detailed postrock, there's a lot of subtle beauty in there.
We have another track from last week's Adam Trainer album - piano and guitar and processing - and then some high grade noise from John Wiese & C. Spencer Yeh, in their second collaboration.
Another collaboration follows, the much-hyped Burial/Four Tet 12", something Mr Hebden told me about back in June 2007, for the record :) There followed a bunch of dubsteppy tunes, from the (relatively) up-tempo Pinch, through the wonderful aXXo, the heavy beats/bass (on this track) of iTAL tEK and Jamie Vex'd’s new wonky hip-hop sound.
I haven't played enough of the Two Fingers album, quality grime (of a sort) from Amon Tobin & Doubleclick, so I played my favourite Sway lyric (well, ok, one of...)
Shannon O'Neill’s Alias Frequencies has been (re-)releasing Buttress O'Kneel’s amazing mashup/breakcore albums, and you must go and download them (all free of course, as in "information wants to be...") right now! She's done a swathe of astounding FourPlay remixes that I hope to release in some form soon!
Calming down with some real pop afterwards: a couple of tracks from the dulcet voice and slightly demented mind of Fredo Viola, another piece of genius from Grizzly Bear, and then the (re-)discovery of the year, Sweet Billy Pilgrim. Their remix of David Sylvian from a couple of years ago prompted me to look into the band, but it was only earlier this year that Sylvian finally released their debut album, and I only really settled into it this week. Gorgeous glitchy textures, samples, instruments and highly talented songwriting - not one to let slip by!
In between two Sweet Billy Pilgrim tracks, Seaworthy snuck in. He's sneaking in to FBi on Tuesday to talk to Eliza Sarlos on her amazing show Unputdownable - don't miss it!
sound&fury have now released The Disambiguation of Anonymeye, combining finger-picking guitar, classic synths and laptop processing. Tonight's track is one of any number of highlights.
Still finding new delights in the Psuche album, required listening, and we finished with more demented indie rock(?) from Aleks & the Ramps.

Lucky Dragons - honeycomb house parts 1-3 [Atelier Ciseaux]
soccer Committee / Machinefabriek - magpie (covered by the puddle parade) [Machinefabriek]
soccer Committee / Machinefabriek - landslide (mark templeton remix) [Machinefabriek]
Jim O'Rourke - i'm happy [Editions Mego]
Jim O'Rourke - let's take it again from the top [Editions Mego]
pimmon - Evil Household Ceremony [Preservation]
Nicola Ratti - ...and Fireworks [Preservation]
Adam Trainer - Cabrini Green [hellosQuare]
John Wiese & C. Spencer Yeh - Stettinius [dronedisco]
Burial/Four Tet - Wolf Cub [Text]
Pinch - Attack of the Giant Killer Robot Spiders! [Planet µ]
aXXo - No Idlers [Killtone]
iTAL tEK - Massive Error [Planet µ]
Jamie Vex'd - Saturn's Reply [Planet µ]
Two Fingers feat. Sway - Jewels and Gems [Ninja Tune]
Buttress O'Kneel - HeartBooty [via Alias Frequencies]
Buttress O'Kneel - Paragon Humanoid [via Alias Frequencies]
Buttress O'Kneel - Imagination [via Alias Frequencies]
fredo viola - death of a son [because]
Grizzly Bear - About Face [Warp]
fredo viola - ether [Please Do Something] {download, possibly no longer available}
Sweet Billy Pilgrim - Here It Begins [SamadhiSound]
Seaworthy - Ammunition 1 [12k]
Sweet Billy Pilgrim - Truth Only Smiles [SamadhiSound]
Anonymeye - If At First You Don't Secede... [sound&fury]
Psuche - Tell Tell [Two Bright Lakes]
Aleks & the Ramps - Amputee Pilot [through Stomp]


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Sunday, 17th of May, 2009

Playlist 17.05.09 (11:11 pm)

Good evening... Starting with the pop tonight!
Awesome to have the proper CD edition (rather than badly-ripped pirated edition) of Grizzly Bear's new album Veckatimest available in stores now. I played two tracks from the new album plus a couple from their first album & remix album. Plus an awesome b-side from Andrew Bird's fairly hard-to-find new single.
And the flipside to the Menomena track from last week.
New discovery Banjo or Freakout is an Italian musician living in London and making extremely eclectic music. He's made a name out of doing covers of unexpected songs, which I'll have to seek out for you for next week, but these tracks range from glitchy indie to shoegazey noisepop.
Also on the experimental pop tip are Melbourne's awesome Psuche, whose album has lived up to expectations as pretty much unlike anything else out there at the moment. In a good way :)
Then we took a sudden turn for the wonky, with Jamie Vex'd’s new 12" and another amazing tune from San Francisco's Eskmo, followed by some more Bay Area dubstep courtesy of Ripple & The Antiserum (very heavy it was too). FBi's Sunsets album of the week from Martyn has me in two minds - I'm not entirely convinced by the tempos and moods, but he's definitely a great producer.
Two more dubsteppy tunes - nice and dark from iTAL tEK, and a surprise entry from Animals on Wheels, who started off in the drill'n'bass world and moved into electro-acoustic and ambient works, but does a great job of dubstep here. He's got a new 12" out which I'll be playing in a couple of weeks - can't wait!
Somehow HTRK's dirgepunk comes nicely out of the dubby sludge, after which a beautiful piece of electronic shoegaze from Hoof & Antler, who are playing at Dirty Shirlow's this Friday night.
soccer Committee & Machinefabriek put out a wonderful collaborative album last year with Mariska Baar's singing and songwriting and Rutger Zuydervelt's amazing sound design/production. Easily album of the week this week is the beautiful remix album redrawn, from which I took two tracks.
In between I played a lovely track from Melbourne's Felicity Mangan, the first for tonight from hellosQuare's series of 3" CDs featuring hand-sewn felt sleeves.
Then we had the stunning Burning Star Core track from Tiny Mix TapesDarfur compilation (a repeat from last week), and also took the awesomely bizarre Balroynigress track from that compilation.
Trying to wrap my head around the new Black Dice album - not sure I'm that fond of it! Still, "Glazin" is a fun ridiculous track.
Heaps more hellosQuare music: Portland musician Strategy has an 18-minute piece of improvised dubby ambience - it's really beautiful, but I was only able to play the last 10-11 minutes. And Perth's Adam Trainer makes a return to UFog's hallways with a lovely shoegazey and noisy piece - more next week!
To round out the show, another piece of perfect Americana from Fire on Fire, a track from Aleks & the Ramps's new album (FBi's album of the week! I haven't had a chance to listen properly yet though), and the final hellosQuare 3", which is Cleptoclectics being his usual oblique sampladelic self. Fans of Prefuse 73 should enjoy.
Finally, I managed to sneak in another track from Minus the Bear's remix album, with a heavy glitchy piece from Plan B. Nice.

Grizzly Bear - Southern Point [Warp]
Andrew Bird - Sectionate City [Bella Union]
Grizzly Bear - Don't Ask (Final Fantasy version) [Kanine]
Grizzly Bear - Deep Sea Diver [Kanine]
Grizzly Bear - Foreground [Warp]
Menomena - Posh Isolation [Polyvinyl]
Banjo or Freakout - 72 (Everything Fast) [rcrdlbl]
Psuche - Ulfhenden [Two Bright Lakes]
Banjo or Freakout - The Week Before [Half Machine Records]
Psuche - Upskirt [Two Bright Lakes]
Jamie Vex'd - In System Travel [Planet µ]
Eskmo - San Francisco (The Rhythm) [Ancestor Media]
Ripple & The Antiserum - Blaze It [Full Melt Records]
Martyn - Little Things [3042]
iTAL tEK - Massive Error [Planet µ]
Animals on Wheels - Coping [Acroplane]
HTRK - Ha [BLAST First (petite)]
Hoof & Antler - My Name Is Bryan Brown, Don't Throw Your Spears At Me [demo]
soccer Committee / Machinefabriek - for i am distant (taylor deupree remix) [Machinefabriek]
Felicity Mangan - track 1 from Half Finished World [hellosQuare]
soccer Committee / Machinefabriek - a reversion to thole (lawrence english remix) [Machinefabriek]
Burning Star Core - Incurable Beauty of the Master's Demise [Tiny Mix Tapes]
Black Dice - Glazin [Paw Tracks/Mistletone]
Balroynigress - Dress the Ship in Black [Tiny Mix Tapes]
Strategy - Sines of Life [hellosQuare]
Adam Trainer - Come Back: I'll Change [hellosQuare]
Fire on Fire - Squeeze Box [Young God Records]
Aleks & the Ramps - Boy Meets Ghost [through Stomp]
Cleptoclectics - golden fleecing [hellosQuare]
Minus the Bear - The Fix (Plan B remix) [Suicide Squeeze]


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Sunday, 10th of May, 2009

Playlist 10.05.09 (11:06 pm)

Who knows where the time goes? Not me... but here we are.
And with that... MUSIC! We started with some great drone/minimalism from young Sydney artist Euguene Ward, with his first release under the Maitreya Kali name. Should be a sign of much goodness to come.
Some really compelling sounds from Battlesnake followed - Melbourne improv trio. Hopefully this gets a real release soon, but meanwhile it's promo-only.
Finally, Melbourne's HTRK have their Marry Me Tonight album out. Crunchy drone-rock of the highest calibre, produced by Rowland S. Howard!
aXXo are two well-known Leeds musicians who I'm pretty sure I'm not meant to tell you the identities of. Their take on dubstep is absolutely awesome - dark and dubby. Compulsory listening. In between their two tracks, we had Dutch drum'n'bass duo Black Sun Empire gone dubstep, something grimey that turned up as Various Production's latest download (head to their site and sign up for the email list!), and more awesome drone-step (hm, sorry, genreriffic) from Fieldhead.
We have Soundmurderer actually "Toned Down" on his new EP - nice melodic IDM, albeit with fun drill'n'bass beats - and more (excellent) classic IDM sounds from Wisp, now finding a very suitable home at Rephlex.
I played two new Cathode tracks from his beautiful Sparkle Plenty - one more electronica-oriented, and one featuring awesome processed piano and other instruments. Also had one older track, a lovely piece of shoegazey electronica with guitars.
And dntel's early works got another look-in.
We also had three tracks from Finnish artist Hannu, whose music also sparkles plenty. The new (CD) album follows a download-only EP, and it's in some ways typical Finnish stuff - myserious reverb, really weird sonic juxtapositions, Japanese influence, irridescent beauty. Highly recommended.
The "new" Menomena track tonight is from a 7" on Polyvinyl (complete with free download of the two tracks) - but the tunes are actually from the sessions for their first album (from 2003). Awesome all the same. Also on 7" is the gorgeous b-side from the wonderful St. Vincent's new single, and we also took a track from the new album.
Discovered today in Paint It Black (one of King St/Enmore Rd Newtown's many unique and adventurous record stores) is Minus the Bear's 2007 remix album Interpretaciones del oso, and how awesome is it... I'll be playing more next week. As well as tonight's tracks, there's remixes by Alias, Fog, and any number of artists I don't know but whose tracks are great. I love remix albums, and so should you.
More live 65daysofstatic - the album comes with a DVD to prove what a stunning live band they are, hoo boy!
Meanwhile, two excellent compilations for this week. Tiny Mix Tapes have put out a compilation called Darfur, and you can (SHOULD) get it here - 100% of the profits go to the International Rescue Committee's Sudanese campaign, and anyway it's an awesome comp. Why? can do no wrong, as proven here, and Burning Star Core, well what can I say? Beautiful track from a visionary artist.
Meanwhile, a couple of months back 2ser's Sideways Through Sound put out a double CD comp, and tonight's two tracks are just a small sampling of the amazing sounds on offer - an exclusive Heidi Elva track and an epic and possibly exclusive tune from Melbourne's The Boy Who Spoke Clouds, with chugging strings and occasional wailing vocals.
Finally, Aussie label Hidden Shoal offer up another great release from a relatively unknown (to me) artist, this time Italian post-rock band HC-B, whose widescreen sounds a replete with fantastic string arrangements and more, raising them easily above the standard guitarriffic post-rock fare.

Maitreya Kali - Kallucinations [CURT]
Battlesnake - 1.1 [advance promo]
HTRK - Fascinator [BLAST First (petite)]
HTRK - Hate Rock Trio [Fire]
aXXo - Pritti Myce [Killtone]
Black Sun Empire - Cold Crysis [Shadows of the Empire]
Friendship - Punish You [Various email list download]
Fieldhead - I'm Fond of Maps [direct from artist]
aXXo - Thugg Step Empress [Killtone]
Soundmurderer - 8th stage [WéMè Records]
Wisp - Summoner's Hollow [Rephlex]
Cathode - Piper Alpha [Expanding]
Cathode - known undersirables [555 Records of Leeds]
dntel - ender [Phtalo/Plug Research]
Cathode - Without Memory or Desire [Expanding]
Hannu - Lauttasaari [Kesh]
Hannu - worms in my piano [Osaka]
Hannu - hyyris [Kesh]
Menomena - Tung Track [Polyvinyl]
St. Vincent - Bicycle [4AD]
Minus the Bear - the pig war (O, Hunter mix) [Suicide Squeeze]
St. Vincent - The Strangers [4AD]
Minus the Bear - Fulfill the Dream (Old Italy remix by Tyondai Braxton) [Suicide Squeeze]
65daysofstatic - 65 doesn't understand you [Monotreme]
Why? - Eskimo Snow (Sock Hop version) [Tiny Mix Tapes]
Heidi Elva - Monday [Sideways Through Sound]
Burning Star Core - Incurable Beauty of the Master's Demise [Tiny Mix Tapes]
The Boy Who Spoke Clouds - Armour [Sideways Through Sound]
HC-B - Black [Hidden Shoal]


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Sunday, 3rd of May, 2009

Playlist 03.05.09 (11:18 pm)

Good evening! Amazing Americana to start with tonight! The Fire on Fire album is a truly brilliant collection of songs across the whole folk spectrum.
Summary tonight is going to be a bit more of a summary than it has been lately. Akron/Family's new album is excellent as always, and I'm sure it'll be getting a few more spins on the show.
Years' album is going to be fantastic. This track is available from the Arts & Crafts site. On the same label, some lovely post-classical postrock from Bell Orchestre.
Patrick Watson's new album is a beauty, and we had an instrumental and a vocal piece from it. interesting production, amazing playing.
Later on, a number of tracks from artists who were playing on Saturday night in Sydney: Seaworthy launched his beautiful new album 1987, and Brisbane/Hobart's Tom Hall played at the same gig. Down the road, Brisbane outfit Mr. Maps played their first Sydney show, while Underlapper sadly played their last gig until the end of the year or start of 2010 - but hopefully their brilliant new album will be finished and released around then too!
Also a couple of tracks from The Declining Winter's tour EP that you can get if you're quick from their MySpace, one of which tracks for some reason reminded me of Peter Gabriel's Passion, so we got a track from that incredible soundtrack (from 1989), and we also had a bonus unreleased Part Timer remix of The Declining Winter...
Oh, and Monk Fly is launching his new EP on Friday at Civic Underground (cnr Goulburn & Pitt Sts in the city), with some great guests, should be a great gig.

Speaking of gigs, my alter-ego Raven is going to be doing a cello/laptop/loop-pedal set on Saturday night at Dirty Shirlows (one of Marrickville's many warehouse spaces that have popped up in the last couple of years). Cleptoclectics is playing too, so it won't be all bad :) It's the launch of Maitreya Kali's 3" on the CURT label. Come along!

Fire on Fire - The Orchard [Young God Records]
Cerberus Shoal - Pie For The President [Monotreme]
Fire on Fire - Toknight [Young God Records]
Akron/Family - Many Ghosts [Dead Oceans]
Bell Orchestre - Bucephalus Bouncing Ball [Arts & Crafts]
Aphex Twin - Bucephalus Bouncing Ball [Warp Records]
Years - Are You Unloved? [Arts & Crafts]
Bell Orchestre - Icicles/Bicycles [Arts & Crafts]
Jon Hopkins - The Wider Sun / Vessel [Domino]
Patrick Watson - Down at the beach [Secret City Records]
DM Stith - Fire of Birds [Asthmatic Kitty]
Patrick Watson - Beijing [Secret City Records]
Ghoul - Jakob [self-released]
Lessons in Time - The light broke [4-4-2 music]
Seaworthy - Ammunition 5 [12k]
Tom Hall - The story of Awe Resonare [Nightrider Records]
Mr. Maps - Your Heels in Sand, Soul in Pursuit (Lights version) [lofly]
Underlapper - Little Tapioca (Part Timer remix) [Feral Media]
The Dead Sea - Bandicoots [self-released]
the declining winter - drenched [self-released tour ep]
Peter Gabriel - Of These, Hope [Real World/Virgin]
Quinta - In America [Tartaruga]
the declining winter - i don't really want to be alone (vocal) [self-released tour ep]
Fieldhead - This Train is a Rainbow [direct from artist]
Monk Fly - Thank You [Frequency Lab]
the declining winter - (unknown track) dark mahoney & the midnight bitch's griming winter [direct from Part Timer]
dntel - mini [Phtalo/Plug Research]
Robert Logan - Ultraflux [Slowfoot]
65daysofstatic - Await Rescue [Monotreme]


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