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Sunday, 26th of June, 2011
Playlist 26.06.11 (11:20 pm)
Hiya peeps! Lots of great sounds tonight, including the beautiful For Nihon compilation from Unseen Music, the new Brian Eno, and heaps more. We start tonight with the For Nihon compilation, which Peter Broderick just mentioned yesterday on his blog will have raised some $31k in donations to the Japan Earthquake Relief Fund. Just on Saturday, I noticed Busdriver tweeting something about Radiohead on his Twitter, and followed the link to find a ridiculous but ridiculously cool mashup where the 'driver raps over and edits the 'head's "Bloom" from King of Limbs. Sydney neo-soul proponent Guerre has promos of his new album out now, but I'm still digging the Darker My Love Remixes free download release, and this week we heard Melbourne's Naminé with a nice post-dubstep take. Enormous highlight of another strong week of new releases is the new album, finally, from Kangding Ray. Released on the mighty raster-noton (run by alva noto of whom more later), it's a swooping, encompassing album of minimal but detailed electronic beats, synths and distortion, with occasional vocals. I say distortion, because at times it sneaks towards a beat-oriented version of Ben Frost’s waves of growling machines. I played a couple more tracks from this later, but in the meantime we heard from some other masterful sinewave distortion courtesy of emptyset, whose follow-up to 2009's self-titled debut is out now too. This leans even more towards the noise aspect than the compelling, regimented beats of their first outing, but still has plenty of that techno impetus to it, especially on the first track I played. We also had a reminder of their amazing first album. After some more kangding ray, it's time for something gorgeous from the latest collaboration between alva noto + ryuichi sakamoto — all lowercase as the music requires. Sakamoto's piano playing is legendary, and here he and Alva Noto play off each other in perfect sympathy. Quite wondrous. Strings feature all over David Sylvian’s new album, which still has a lot of life in it as far as UFog-land goes! Tonight's track features renowned Australian free improv cellist Michael Moser all over it. Two Melbourne violin-loop acts follow: the indie thrills of Wintercoats and then something almost dub-pop from The Twoks. I'm still caning the ridiculous(ly fun) Akron/Family remix bonanza <bmbz>, which is now available from what I can only assume is Akron/Family's own Bandcamp. HIGHLY recommended for insane processed rock noise glory. Also rather over-the-top is the four track, 45-minute album from Brisbane's restream. No track is less than 10 minutes long, and each is electronic shoegaze with overdriven guitars and extended song structures. It's wonderful listening that could go on forever. I was rather unimpressed by last year's debut on the Warp from the legendary Brian Eno. He's always had his moments, some undeniably classic, but often tends towards the insipid, and I found the best bits from last year were the obvious Jon Hopkins moments. This time round he's teamed up with poet Rick Holland, and somehow the inspiration of the lyrics and working with various vocalists has brought out the best in Eno. There are some quite head-nod-worthy beats, some true glitchy cut-up bits, and just some great settings of the words. Nice one, Brian! Moving on from Eno's Warp excursions, it's time for some dark and complex drum'n'bass beats courtesy of maestro Paradox. I was surprised to see he's still putting out albums, and he tends to scatter slower breakbeat tracks through the d'n'b, but his programming is just top-notch. Ending with a bunch of Aussie music. Melbourne's in.del.able followed me on Soundcloud last week, and probably doesn't expect to be played on the radio, but I enjoyed this sketch of gamelan-like instruments and digital effects and samples. Finally, another Melbourne electronic artist from Enig'matik: Circuit Bent does the glitch-hop thing in fine form. Deru - Days Then... (Japan Version) [Unseen Music] Listen again — ~ 221MB
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Sunday, 19th of June, 2011
Playlist 19.06.11 (11:12 pm)
Some new and exclusive music tonight, from world-folk to dubstep to live drum'n'bass... Amazing album from Ryan Teague starts tonight's show, on the beautifully-packaged Sonic Pieces label. After some orchestral classical music with ambient electronics on the Type label, it's interesting to hear his approach here, which features crystalline acoustic guitar, played fingerstyle, with some very tasteful/tasty production and occasional e-bow and vocals. It's highly effective, and if it's strong on first listen, it's still a grower. I'll be coming back to this one frequently. I'm very lucky to have to have an exclusive tonight — some tracks from the forthcoming Vieo Abiungo album and the world is still yawning, via Lost Tribe Sound. As with his previous album, William Ryan Fritch produces a sumptuous mix of instruments (all played by him) in a world-folk mélange — but I think if anything he's more successful at pulling it together here, and there are a few melodic sections which are just breathtaking. Manyfingers' 3ef impression takes us into almost-drum'n'bass territory, so it's time to hear from London's Three Trapped Tigers, who've done a great line in live Squarepusher impressions, but also like their rock riffs. It's math rock meets live drill'n'bass drumming, and surprisingly raucous and rocky on the whole on their new album. I had to play one track from the first of their three EPs as well. More next week, fun stuff. From there, we head into heavy bass territory via the excellent dubstep label Deep Medi, whose three Deep Medi Releases volumes I recently picked up on CD. Japan's Goth-Trad has insanely awesome beats and drum fills on "Law", while Finnish duo Clouds bring in some female vocals from Tiiu along with a lighter touch. Silkie’s album on Deep Medi is one of my favourite single-artist dubstep album of all time (OF ALL TIME), and I can't wait for City Limits Volume 2, which drops any minute. Love the extravagance of the bassline and keys on "Planet X". We also heard from Antlerland last week, and this time round it's a very demented bedroom drum'n'bass tune. All good fun. Finally I've gotten around to playing some of the "Bleak Metal" brought to us by New Weird Australia — their latest compilation. We started with Brisbane's Axxonn, screeching digital noise giving way to huge layers of distortion. What makes it special are the regular chord changes - it's not just a humungous static drone by any means. And with the guitars, let's go now to Matt Christensen, best known for his band Zelienople. Solo he keeps the lo-fi (but well-produced) vibes, with heartfelt songs and simple but unique arrangements. Zelienople deserve wider recognition than I think they've received, and I hope this album can also get some traction despite being on the relatively obscure (but totally awesome) UK label Under The Spire. Somehow the feeling coming from Matt Christensen's songs pushed me into Julianna Barwick next. Her layered vocals, I must admit, at first didn't quite appeal to me, but by the time I was starting to keep hitting the skip button, I heard a couple of exquisite songs near the end of her LP which make me want to give the whole album a much fairer go. Admittedly the vocal harmonies here are less extravagant, and there's room for a bit of bass guitar impetus too. We follow with two tracks from a lost masterpiece, an early release (from 2006) by Geoff Mullen, who works at Keith Fullerton Whitman’s legendary online experimental experimental music emporium Mimaroglu Music Sales. Keith released this album, thrtysxtrllnmnfstns, on a short-lived (beautifully-packaged) label, and still seems to have a few copies left (see label link below). It's genius — Mullen plays pristinely-recorded acoustic & electric guitar and banjo, and then sets it in dialogue with very noisy electronic machines. Also a genius at juxtaposition is David Sylvian, whose new album I can't get enough of. The title track concludes tonight's show with more ravishing strings, with Sylvian's vocals somehow pressing on in a weirdly-unrelated key, until twice an enthralling bass note and harmonies bring everything into focus. Masterful. Ryan Teague - White Nights [Sonic Pieces] Listen again — ~ 164MB
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Sunday, 12th of June, 2011
Playlist 12.06.11 (11:10 pm)
Well hello there. Nice of you to join me. Pull up a seat/bean bag/piece of mattress. I started with the most accessible number from David Sylvian’s new album, Died in the Wool | Manafon Variations. It's an incredible achievement from a master, with sumptuous yet adventurous string arrangements, guest spots (as previously) from luminaries of the improv and experimental electronic worlds, and Sylvian's viscous vocals. We followed it with the opening track from the debut solo album by Canadian folk/tronic artist Matthew Maaskant, a version of the traditional song "Katie Cruel" which manages to stay faithful to the most familiar version by Karen Dalton (still stunning, played afterwards) while rendering it with electronic instrumentation and a small nod near the end to the violin that blesses Dalton's version. Another of the albums of the year comes from jenny hval. Her folk-influenced songs are arranged by her with some of Norway's top improvisers and sound artists, to create experimental songs ranging from sound poetry to gothic rock. I also played an amazing track from her previous album, under the name Rockettothesky. Back to Sylvian, I played what I think is the standout track on the album, with quasi-classical strings in dialogue with the vocal, accompanied by bass tones and electronic textures. Wonderful. Also, I think, a contender for the top few albums (I realise we're not quite halfway through the year) is Jasper TX’s latest, The Black Sun Transmissions. It lives up to its title, darkly beautiful, mysterious and surprising. This ain't your momma's drone music anymore. There's strings, piano and creaking, crashing field recordings — pretty thrilling listening. Canberra's Spartak are up in Sydney this Friday to play at the always impeccable Sound Series at Hardware Gallery in Enmore. Faced with my favourite tracks being 9 & 12 minutes from their more recent album & EP, I opted for a brilliant older track. They're unbeatable live — definitely a gig not to be missed. And another stellar album this week, what's going on? Efrim Manuel Menuck is a central force behind two of Montreal's Constellation label's most renowned bands — Godspeed You Black Emperor and A Silver Mt. Zion. His first solo album has just been released, with some of his most personal lyrics, and his usual no-prisoners approach to arrangements. A bluesy song will get taken over by over-compressed drums; lyrics will only come in halfway through a 9-minute song; and then there'll be a 4-minute interlude of sampled, effected strings or organ. It's pretty awesome. Back to Australia, and a local artist much loved by the kidz for his vocal looping skills and his tumblr full of r'n'b cut-ups and ambient snippets... Guerre, aka Lavurn Lee. I have no idea whether Salt Creek Coyotes exist, but this remix takes him into something akin to Fleet Foxes folky territory, to most excellent effect. The remix EP is a free download in the lead-up to his debut album being released. Speaking of "free remixes" of a sort, late last year and early this year the devilish members of Akron/Family decided to leak a couple of different versions of their up-coming album to the torrent sites — turning their folk rock into mashed up noise and drone. It was pretty insane and a whole lot of fun. For Record Store Day they released a 2LP set of the best of these fake albums, including a lot of tracks I hadn't come across (I'm not convinced that more than two of them actually found their way out into the public). I quite honestly love this much more than their latest album — a lot of the leaked versions seemed like presets from a Native Instruments effect or two slathered over the top of the tracks, but on this release you can see the thought that's gone into these remixes, despite the witch house and internet slang and ridiculous fake "feat." artists. Norman Records still have some copies if you're keen, and they come with a digital download code too. Back with Matthew Maaskant, we have a local connection via Sydney's DJ Semper-Fi on the remix, taking him into shoegazey territory. Recommended. While he's an ex-pat for now, based in New York, Feral Media’s own Danny Jumpertz aka Alpen will always be a Sydneysider too. One of the earliest supporters of Utility Fog, he's been responsible for releasing some of the best local acts, and it's great to have something new from him - with electric guitar, nice basslines and great beats. For some reason tonight I just had to play one of my favourite idm tracks of all time, from the first official release by Boards of Canada. So there you go! Down to Albury, we have a new release from Antlerland, who has joined the Bandcamp generation. Using ancient tracker programs (still, I suspect), he creates music with scant regard for taste or trends, which can only be a good thing. There's an even more drum'n'bassy track in there that I'll hopefully get to next week, but I love the harmonies as this track unfolds. Still caning the new Jason Forrest. I played three tracks tonight, including the more drum'n'bassy/breakcore track, a beautiful piano'n'field recordings number, and "Crime of the Century". Jason seems to need to sample Supertramp on basically every second release, and this time it's a humdinger, from the Crime of the Century album, it's the epic, earnest, slightly nonsensical "Rudy" (seriously, the lyric is stupendously ridiculous and occasionally grammatically unforgivable). The riffs are chopped up, and bits of piano and strings surface here and there. Listen to the original here. Guiltily. Saul Williams continues to write his pop-edged conscious rap and poetry — as earnest as they come, but highly engaging and listenable. There are a few out-and-out highlights on Volcanic Sunlight, for sure. Another touring artist next — Belgium's Pascal Schumacher Quartet. It's very approachable fully-composed jazz; sometimes it veers uncomfortably close to direct pastiche of The Bad Plus; they're one of my favourite bands, but it's weird hearing their schtick from another group. Still, it's very lovely, and the vibes/glockenspiel add a different dimension. Penultimately, we return to Jasper TX, and the first track from the new album, designed to shock and awe. Gorgeously-recorded and reproduced, this is first class sound art. David Sylvian - If I Should Dare (for N.O.) [Samadhi Sound] Listen again — ~ 157MB
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Sunday, 5th of June, 2011
Playlist 05.06.11 (11:04 pm)
It's come round again, that time of the week... That hallowed hour. Starting with Here We Go Magic, from his/their new January EP, and one of his catchiest songs since 2005's Fangela. "Mirror Me" is also a great song, with a nice crunchy drum machine beat. Another hugely talented artist with a singular vision is polyfox and the union of the most ghosts, hailing from somewhere north of Sydney. Scrumptious lo-fi delights, hugely recommended. And wow, Nick Zammuto from The Books has renewed his solo project, and he's so excited he called his first released track "YAY". It's lots of fun, in his usual (by now) style of pulsating vocal treatments and percussion... A couple of years back, sound artists Stephen Vitiello + Machinefabriek collaborated on a project called Box Music, in which they sent each other boxes of non-musical objects, to turn into a collaborative musical work. They have a new release of two live recordings, their first meeting in person — plus a rather lovely remix by Ezekiel Honig. Also new are some EPs from those heroes of the IDM world, Funckarma. Their Automotive project sees them incorporating acoustic instrumentation (or the sounds thereof) into their production, and I think this new EP succeeds better than they have in the past. In particular "Klezmer" ain't yo' Yiddische mama's Eastern European Jewish music, but it uses clarinet & violin (probably) playing discernable klezmer scales, but very much in the Funckarma musical idiom. Back to Australia now for a highly impressive compilation on Byron Bay-based label Enig'matik Records. Check it out at the link. From Melbourne we have Mind Tree, and then one half of same as MindBuffer — two different approaches to drill'n'bass meets glitch-hop, incredibly intricate, exciting stuff. Then one track from Katoomba-based Elliot, wonky hip-hop on Sydney's Frequency Lab, and back to Enig'matik with Mr Bill’s dubsteppy glitch-hop and something again a bit more drill'n'bassy from Sensient. Another big, big 2CD comp from an important label in the English post-dubstep scene, Hessle Audio, home of early releases from James Blake and Untold. We heard a dubstep tune from stalwart D1, and then something like early '90s pre-jungle hardcore from Ramadanman, lots of fun! Fabulous return this week from 13&god, the collaboration between German indietronic legends The Notwist and Anticon mainstays Themselves. We've got vocals from both Doseone and Maruks Acher, guitars and real drums combined with Jel's amazing MPC sampling genius. The album's way better than the last Notwist or, I daresay, Themselves efforts. And this brings us to the incredible sounds of Geese. I've been waiting for this for some time, since hearing their remixes of Jon Hopkins and Hot Chip, and have known their work as half of the Elysian Quartet for even longer. They're very adept at extended techniques and melodic beauty with violin & viola, and also willing to try whatever it takes in the studio for remixy goodness. And then, back to Jenny Hval, and her previous incarnation as Rockettothesky. It's a shame I've had such full shows that it's taken me a while to get back to this - I think her new album Viscera is one of the albums of the year, and I intend to play her much more. Rockettothesky already saw her moving into some quite experimental territory along with the classic gutsy folky songwriting. The new album enlists her Norwegian compatriots Deathprod and some other experimental musicians to take it to the next level - deeply thought-out musical landscapes, big gothic rock-outs in the midst of sound-art and brilliant vocal performances. You need to check it out. Finally, the most post-rockin' piece on the solo album from David Evans, drummer in Melbourne postrock band This Is Your Captain Speaking. It's a really great track, which I suspect I'll be revisiting in the next few weeks! Here We Go Magic - Hands in the Sky [Secretly Canadian] Listen again — ~ 240MB {show ran for 3"13'}
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Saturday, 4th of June, 2011
Liquid Electric Playlist - 03.06.11 (12:04 am)
G'day! Tonight I'm filling in for the fabulous Andrew Maxam aka Loopsnake for his Liquid Electric show on FBi. Karsten Pflum - Nemo Loon Part III [Ad Noiseam] Listen again — ~ 199MB
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email: utilityfog at frogworth dot com 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. Now available: free "Live on Utility Fog" downloads! 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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