Utility Fog

Sunday, 18th of April, 2010

Some very special stuff tonight from artists familiar and totally new. LISTEN AGAIN, see link at bottom.

Starting with an interesting outsider artist of sorts, a singer-songwriter of tremendous talent working in a charming lo-fi way which perfectly suits his songs. Chris Weisman had a collaborative album with Greg Davis on Davis' autumn records last year(? or the year before) which showcased Weisman's songwriting in an even more experimental context. These songs are wonderful. Enjoy!

A discussion of Dennis Potter's amazing postmodern TV series The Singing Detective (beware the American remake in from 2003 or thereabouts!) prompted me to pull out the soundtrack, from which I took a genius track from Duke Ellington & his Orchestra — classic swing jazz as it should be done!

Next up, first of a few tunes I will have played tonight by Sam Amidon, whose album I declared to be the album of the week last week, and then proceeded to only get to one track! It wasn't the feature album, m'kay, just the amazing release of the week, and it is wonderful, American folk musics — I'm hearing Appalachian in there — filtered through a modern sensibility with wonderful arrangements, but still a real folk authenticity.
So we have him, and also a track of Nico Muhly’s with Amidon singing & playing banjo.

In between, some gorgeous drone (of a sort) from UFog favourite Ian D Hawgood. He does "drone" in a really organic and acoustic way, mixing in field recordings, and making pieces which, like the works of Machinefabriek and Jasper TX go in surprising directions... Highly recommended.

The folk of Sam Amidon moves into the passionate alt.hip-hop of B. Dolan, whose Alias-produced album Falling House Sunken City is a masterpiece, hands-down. This is a relatively low-key number, to fit in with the surroundings, but later on we'll get to the real meat. Political lyrics, full-on delivery, and brilliant beats.

Melbourne's otouto put out their debut album Pip recently and are in Sydney to launch it this Friday. They're playing at the Sando (Newtown's Sandringham Hotel) with Seja and Ghoul, and it should be a great night (unfortunately clashing somewhat with the Pimmon show I'll be mentioning shortly - but maybe one can make it to both!)
I hope there are some pots and pans among the percussion.

Of Blondes I know little but they are part of this synth-based noise and dance scene that's springing up, and they made the wonderful choice of getting Oneohtrix Point Never to remix a track. Lovely lovely. Can't wait for his new album due in the next month or so.

And our very own Pimmon, who has been soaking in these sounds from cassette releases galore over the last year or so, has put out a cassette of his own synth-psych. It's pure heaven, and he's playing this Friday in Sydney — no excuse, 6:30pm start, great line-up, you have to go. This is Refraction #2 for 2010. MySpace event here, Facebook event here.

Oh, and the track I played was nearly 12 minutes long, but this Emeralds tune that followed it was about 18 minutes - and totally worth it, kids! More synthesisers taking us on a trip into... er, the afterlife?

It was soooo tempting to play one of the longer pieces from this Ambarchi / O'Rourke / Haino album (a collaboration between three greats if ever there was one). But given that they're 25 and 31 minutes, I thought we'd better stick with the one that's a very radio-friendly 3:44. With Jim O'Rourke on piano, Keiji Haino on vocals mainly, and Oren on guitar, it's a splendid sound.

Two new tracks from Crab Smasher tonight. The first is from a shortly forthcoming cassette release on Grant Crabsmasher's Monstera Deliciosa, and it's one of the most beautiful things they've created - not far from the Pimmon & Emeralds stuff above, even. The second is a lovely piece from their recent 3” on CURT.

Always nice to receive new unknown music, especially from Oz. Melbourne's Trjaeu make a nice form of mostly-instrumental post-rock, with fun rhythms and a warm sound.

Meanwhile, London's Three Trapped Tigers are doing their take on a live version of IDM, effectively. Crunchy messed-up beats, keyboards and bass. They are very good at this, and should be going places anytime now.
These two were a nice fit, if different, so we had another track by each :)

And then two hard-hitting tracks from B. Dolan. Seriously fantastic beats here from Alias.

The latest Glaswegian purple dubstep hero seems to be Rudi Zygadlo, and he has a single on Planet µ with multi-tracked vocals and woop-woop basslines. Cool.

And Perth's Carl Fox takes a bit of a dubstep turn near the end of his little bit of indietronica. His self-released album has some delightful bedroomtronic production.

And thence we return to the home-produced sounds of Chris Weisman, with looped percussion and guitar, and lovely vocals. The guy has such an amazing pop sensiblity.
More also from Ian D Hawgood — such weird and lovely percussion bubbling up in the middle of this one! And Chris Weisman's last track for the evening is dedicated to Morton Feldman! How weird...

Final artist of the evening, with two tracks comes courtesy of the estimable Mr John Part Timer, late of Melbourne, Australia, who informed me this week that I had to listen to the music of his UK buddy James, aka Jazzy Jones Is Nano. His music is a pretty astounding blend of Autechre-style beat-meddling and in this case some well-considered orchestral sampling. This guy needs to be released!

Chris Weisman - working on my skateboarding [autumn records]
The Jungle Band (Duke Ellington & his Orchestra) - Rockin' in Rhythm [(from The Singing Detective soundtrack, sourcing label info when I get home!)]
Sam Amidon - Red [Bedroom Community]
Ian D Hawgood - Inland River Valley [Humming Conch]
Nico Muhly - The Only Tune III - The Only Tune (feat. Sam Amidon) [Bedroom Community]
Sam Amidon - I See The Sign [Bedroom Community]
B. Dolan - Marvin [Strange Famous]
otouto - W. Hillier [Two Bright Lakes]
Blondes - Moondance (Oneohtrix Point Never Sundial Mix) [Merok] {download from Pitchfork}
Pimmon - Steered In Smash Ascent [Stunned Records]
Emeralds - Passing Away [Hanson]
Ambarchi / O'Rourke / Haino - Tima Formosa 2 [Black Truffle/CCA Kitakyushu]
Crab Smasher - digging a hole in a dried up lake [Monstera Deliciosa]
Crab Smasher - Say Good Morning and You're Dead [CURT] {buy the 3” from CURT & download it from Bandcamp!}
Trjaeu - Room Rhythms [self-released]
Three Trapped Tigers - 10 [Blood and Biscuits]
Trjaeu - Mindsapattern [self-released]
Three Trapped Tigers - 12 [Blood and Biscuits]
B. Dolan - Economy of Words (Bail it Out) [Strange Famous]
B. Dolan - The Reptilian Agenda [Strange Famous]
Rudi Zygadlo - Resealable Frienship [Planet µ] {download from FACT Magazine}
Carl Fox - Sunny Day [self-released]
Chris Weisman - be and [autumn records]
Ian D Hawgood - No Clouds [Humming Conch]
Chris Weisman - morty's rugs [autumn records]
Jazzy Jones Is Nano - and... always remember to always listen... [unreleased]
Jazzy Jones Is Nano - Tender Minded (involuntary sins) [unreleased]

Listen again — ~ 172MB

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