Utility Fog

Sunday, 10th of October, 2010

What an auspicious date!
While we here at UFog Towers are not numerologically inclined (numbers are fascinating but they're just numbers), surely on 10/10/10 the least you could do is go off and Like Utility Fog on Facebook! You'll get reminders, little explosions of musical fandom, and more...
LISTEN AGAIN to tonight's show via the link at the bottom of the playlist.

Big special on the music of M.Gira and his reformed Swans tonight, along with the band he formed after the death of the Swans (and before their rebirth), Angels of Light. From the noisest band in the world, he went on to create a whole new interest in a revived folk music from the late '90s, discovered (for his label Young God) artists like Devendra Banhart, Akron/Family and others, and nurtured the careers of artists like James Blackshaw and Lisa Germano.
I dove back into the Swans catalogue, starting in the early '80s with some dark and dirge-like punk snarl, then through amazing sound experiments and gorgeous (if sometimes forbidding) folk with Angels of Light, back to the raucous and passionate noise of the Swans.

Before that, I played the entire 25+ minutes of the closing track from Sufjan Stevens’ wonderful new album Age of Adz, an epic song featuring massed vocals, glitchy samples, extreme auto-tune, strumming guitars, all with cohesive melodic and lyrical content — pure genius.

More genius, inspired by (and briefly sampling from) the Swans, comes from Ben Frost. I couldn't resist playing this before breaking out the song it samples and starting on the big journey.

And after the Swans-fest, I played one Young God artist, the pitch-perfect Americana of Fire on Fire. Most of this group used to play in the amazing Portland, Maine group Cerberus Shoal, one of the most creative and adventurous groups the USA has produced, and I've just heard they have a new (albeit technically old) album out through a Japanese label, which I hope to bring to you in a few weeks' time.

Folk from a different vein follows, from Ólöf Arnalds, who eschews the grandeur of much of the music we hear from Iceland, in favour of delicate acoustic guitar and vocals — along with some harp-like sounds and strings. With her new album just out, I finally got hold of the first, from which I have been obsessed for some time with the song "Í Nýju Húsi". I'm very glad, because there's some beautiful stuff there, although the new album is a true stunner.

Another little special, albeit a bit more low-key, celebrating the release of a new Mice Parade album. I've been a fan since the first Adam Pierce solo album, back when the anagram of his name made more sense :) For a while now they've been a band, and a formidable live act, and that energy translates into the albums. There's nothing that new here in their sound, but the songs are strong and there's heaps of energy, and I just love what they do, regardless.

Mice Parade represent a strain of postrock that I wish was able to exert more of an influence, but I fear that that genre name is now basically Mogwai/MONO/Explosions In The Sky-style LOUDsoftLOUD riffs and no melodies. I still like to think of it as a genre that's interest in sound, studio techniques, and pouring of genres into other genres.
Sydney's Grün (who used to be Greenland and named their album in acknowledgement of that) are vaguely in the more familiar postrock terrain, but with piano/keyboards frequently to the fore, and a great melodic sensibility, they've turned in a top class postrock album that'll be getting spins for quite a while yet. Get hold of the album while it comes with a bonus copy of their old EP.

Originally from Adelaide, Inch-time has been based in London for some time, and releases his new album on his own new label, Mystery Plays Records. As the curator of the Teaism compilation from a little while back he's got good cred for forming a label, but he's also an absolutely top-notch producer, and has been since his very first EP of charming and mysterious folktronica got endless amounts of airplay on the 'Fog.
In a month or so there'll be a remix album added to this disc, but for now we have lovely warm minimal housey sounds to content ourselves with.

And back in Sydney, lessons in time finally gets his album out in Australia. A member of Telafonica, he ramps up the indietronica here, with little of the techno elements of his parent band. In fact a lot of the songs are remarkably low-key, and he has a dab hand at sounding shambolic yet well-crafted. This song is particularly nice in the way it breaks down a number of times and barely manages to pick up the pieces.

The very last song on tonight's show (actually I went overtime a fair bit) comes from one of the best releases of the week. You'll be hearing plenty more from anbb round here. Alva Noto and Blixa Bargeld seem to be a perfect combination, with Bargeld's history in industrial music and Noto's razor-sharp digital production creating a monster. I'm not sure I'm convinced by the cover of Harry Nilsson's "One", but I could get used to it. This opening track starts with the most unnervingly elongated screaming, but is vindicated as it turns into a beautiful and simple (sortof!) song by the end.

Swans - Inside Madeline [Young God]
Sufjan Stevens - Impossible Soul [Asthmatic Kitty]
Ben Frost - Stomp [Bedroom Community]
Swans - Red Sheet [Young God]
Swans - Coward [Young God]
Swans - I Am The Sun [Young God]
Angels of Light - Fragment / Praise Your Name [Young God]
Angels of Light - My True Body [Young God]
Angels of Light - Palisades [Young God]
Angels of Light - Not Here/Not Now [Young God]
Swans - No Words/No Thoughts [Young God]
Swans - Look At Me Go (excerpt) [Young God]
Fire on Fire - Assanine Race [Young God]
Ólöf Arnalds - Vinkonur [One Little Indian]
Ólöf Arnalds - Í Nýju Húsi [12 Tonar/One Little Indian]
Ólöf Arnalds - Ævagömul Orkuþula [12 Tonar/One Little Indian]
Ólöf Arnalds - Madrid [One Little Indian]
Mice Parade - In Between Times [Fat Cat]
Mice Parade - My Funny Friend Scott [Bubble Core Records]
Mice Parade - milton road (my skull with flowers remix by Kim Hiorthøy) [Fat Cat]
Mice Parade - Old Hat [Fat Cat]
Grün - common seabirds [Laughing Outlaw Records]
Inch-time - Videograms [Mystery Plays Records]
lessons in time - Wait One More Week [forthesakeofthesong/4-4-2 music]
anbb - fall [raster noton]

Listen again — ~ 213MB

2 Responses to “Playlist 10.10.10”

1. andrew lorien Says:
   October 12th, 2010 at 4:02 pm

   hey next week, can you play the mice parade song at 45rpm for us?

2. Peter Says:
   October 12th, 2010 at 4:04 pm

   Hm... If I still have the 12” then perhaps I could do that!