Utility Fog

Sunday, 14th of March, 2010

Hello folks! If you want to LISTEN AGAIN, link's at the bottom. Note: listening again is in mono. Sorry, just how it comes.

Appropriation was the theme of SNATM, so you get yourselve some interesting sampling in the first track! Er, yes, it's my band, but remixed by the amazing Melbourne artist Buttress O'Kneel - who gave us an amazing 5 (FIVE) amazing remixes, at least some of which will be on a forthcoming remix album...

We heard a couple of tracks tonight from Spartak’s just-released new album Verona, out now on English label Low Point. Stunning stuff as ever from Shoeb & Evan, on this first track playing dual prepared guitars, panned left and right.

South African "zef" group Die Antwoord have taken the interwebs by storm over the last few months. Their website's pretty amazing, as are the videos you can watch there, and I've been listening to the album recently and thinking that stripped of all the image and hype it's just great music and great Afrikaans/English rapping. So, enjoy (strong language btw...)

Brazilian singer Cibelle stole our hearts and minds a few years ago with her album The Shine of Dried Electric Leaves, partly produced by Mike Lindsay of Tunng, and the "Noite de Carnaval" single with Matthew Herbert remixes. This new track, courtesy of Pitchfork, is the first from what sounds like a fabulous new album, with none of the electronic adventurism abandoned. Love the dubstep bass pumping away in there...

Funckarma have been exploring dubstep sounds for a while now, as an influence in their releases and in particular on their Dubstoned series of EPs. The third one has just dropped, on 12” and digitally, and the 12” comes with a free download of WAV files of the whole thing plus two bonus tracks (also included in the digital release). Although none of this is exactly dubstep, the influence is strongly there, and these boys are two of my favourite electronica producers of the last decade (1999 was their first EP). So... brilliant stuff.
Later on we heard a lovely remix of an old track by L'usine...

Next up the absolute kings of electronica Autechre with a remix from back in 1998 of drum'n'bass artist Lexis — extraordinary melding of styles. Couple of beauties from the new Autechre album too.
And then another classic from around 1998, from holosud — a due made up of Mouse on Mars associates FX Randomiz and Schlammpeitziger. It's the sort of stuff that could only come out of the a-musik label in the mid-late '90s.

...And Tunng. Well, I had my doubts about how they'd fare post-Sam Genders, and on the whole I think they're confirmed. Mike Lindsay is a wonderful producer but they're somehow quite a bit more generic here. The one track I played from their new album is a real beauty, no doubt, but most of the rest doesn't really bear multiple listens. Nice Dntel remix on the UK indie stores bonus CD though...

Couple more remixes from the seemingly ultra-busy classically-trained Mr Son Lux. An alternative mix of one of the My Brightest Diamond tracks we found him remixing a few weeks ago, and a pretty special version of a Why? song from Eskimo Snow.

dakota suite’s remix album, which I featured a couple of tracks from last week, is still going strong - it's a gorgeous piece of work. Hauschka prepared-pianos it up very nicely, and Machinefabriek is all delicate and sensitive.

Also, new Fieldhead this week. First short track is courtesy of new label nóthings66, whose duskscape not seen compilation features an interesting mélange of electronic and other styles, including the aforementioned L'usine remix of Funckarma (an old track but welcome).
But our Fieldhead also appears on a (seemingly already sold out) split/combined EP with Static Caravan artist Iris to Hypnos, each remixing two of the other's tracks. Got quite a response from these tunes tonight, so it's a shame if it's gone. Check the label website and potentially pester Norman Records (link to sold-out item).

Second Spartak outing for tonight features the angelic vocals of Lucrecia Perez. Go and buy this CD, peoples! PayPal link on their MySpazz, or find an online retailer (there are plenty).

Tonight we also have available the third installment in the LOAF Explorers' Club, with a new band from Montreal called Oen Sujet. It's... intriguing stuff. A little bit pop, somewhat electronic, a tad experimental.

Further electronic dalliances are rounded out with a New Weird Australian tune from near Sydney by The Atlas Room. Freaky and freakin' great.

Then, finally, Yellow Swans’ final album graces our ears, with a submerged (almost subliminal) beat and loads of gorgeous noise. Two tracks from this album, with a long droney and somewhat noisy track from ex-pat Aussie Robert Curgenven, who's on these shores for a while. Look out for an interview in May, when he's also playing in Sydney. I'll let y'all know.

After the second Yellow Swans tune, an uplifting number from the new The Besnard Lakes. I'm absolutely caning this album at home, as well as their two previous ones. I wanted to play "Like The Ocean, Like The Innocent" again (see last week) because it rocks my world, but Olga gets to sing lead on this one, and like I said, totally uplifting. YAY.

FourPlay String Quartet - Bollyrock (Buttress O'Kneel Temptation of the Key remix) [unreleased]
Spartak - Morning Prayer [Low Point]
Die Antwoord - Fish Paste [unreleased, but they've just signed to Interscope!]
Cibelle - Man From Mars [Crammed Discs] {download from Pitchfork}
Funckarma - Solaz Flair [eat concrete]
Funckarma - Nays of dight [Ad Noiseam]
Funckarma - Moor [eat concrete]
Lexis - Hypnotise (Autechre slow mix) [Certificate 18]
Autechre - see on see [Warp]
Autechre - known(1) [Warp]
holosud - alaune [a-musik]
tunng - with whiskey [Full Time Hobby]
tunng - bricks (dntel remix) [Full Time Hobby]
Why? - These Hands (Son Lux remix) [Anticon]
My Brightest Diamond - The Diamond (Son Lux Alternate mix) [Asthmatic Kitty] {unreleased mix available from RCRDLBL} {and sampling I wish I could remember what! Prokofiev? Tchaikovsky?}
dakota suite - a quietly gathering tragedy (hauschka remix) [karaoke kalk]
Fieldhead - Almost Everything There is to Know [nóthings66]
dakota suite - one day without harming you (machinefabriek remix) [karaoke kalk]
Iris to Hypnos - Stele 31 (Fieldhead Remix) [Static Caravan]
Fieldhead - Document 1 (Iris to Hypnos Until Ripples Fade Remix) [Static Caravan]
Spartak - Second-Half Clouded (feat. Lucrecia Perez) [Low Point]
Oen Sujet - Circled, Centred [L-O-A-F]
L'usine - Fog (original version by Funckarma) [nóthings66]
The Atlas Room - Iris [New Weird Australia] {download the latest free comp now!}
Yellow Swans - Foiled [Type]
ex - Largo Capriccioso [LINE]
Yellow Swans - Limited Space [Type]
The Besnard Lakes - Albatross [Jagjaguwar]

Listen again — ~ 178MB

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