Playlist 03.02.19 (8:11 pm)
A show full of experimental, challenging sounds and also soothing beauty tonight...
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9T Antiope - Nocebo (A) excerpt 1 [Purple Tape Pedigree]
9T Antiope - Nocebo (A) excerpt 2 [Purple Tape Pedigree]
9T Antiope - Nocebo (B) excerpt [Purple Tape Pedigree]
The Iranian duo 9T Antiope, who have been based in Paris for a few years now, have featured a lot on this show, individually as well as together. Last year, Nima Aghiani put out an EP called REMS on PTP aka Purple Tape Pedigree that was one of my favourite releases of the year. Now he returns with Sara Bigdeli Shamloo to deliver the second in a trilogy of 9T Antiope albums, following Isthmus, released on eilean records in 2017. It's a stunning combination of noise and beauty, spoken words and layered vocals, industrial electronic noise and Aghiani's violin. I haven't really figured out what it's about, but it's super evocative anyway!
Siavash Amini & Matt Finney - Still Remember [Opal Tapes]
Poet & spoken word artist Matt Finney has collaborated with some great artists in the ambient/post-rock/experimental world over the last for years, including composer William Ryan Fritch and Russian artist Heinali. His third album with Iranian sound artist Siavash Amini has just dropped, and it's one to treasure. Finney's contributions to each track are surprisingly brief, but utterly compelling, distorted messages from some distant place, wrapped up in Amini's sometimes distorted, sometimes crystalline, sometimes cavernous music.
Corey Fuller - Seiche (excerpt) [12k]
A US artist who has spent a lot of his life in Japan, Corey Fuller is one half of the duo Illuha and has collaborated with many artists. This new solo album, entitled Break, addresses the heavy subject matter of today's environment: "A crashing wave, the breaking dawn, an impact, the crushing of emotional spirit... the breaking of a storm." It's very beautiful, utilising piano, field recordings and electronics in a very melodic way. I wish I could have played the entire track.
Stephen Vitiello & Taylor Deupree - Second Variation [12k]
Some lovely drones, chopped and detuned samples and delays from seasoned collaborators and sound artists Stephen Vitiello and Taylor Deupree - the former with many releases solo & with other artists on 12k, the latter the guy who runs the label, and also an in-demand mastering engineer and photographer. This second variation of work originally presented in a gallery concert evolves from agitated tape samples and delays into a beautiful piece of floating drones and electric piano.
haddocks' eyes - plassans [haddocks' eyes Bandcamp]
Sydney artist haddocks' eyes is as unpredictable as as Lewis Carroll poem from which he takes his name. He's made indie guitar music, acoustic folk, krauty and postpunky experimental works, and electronically processed songs. He has a great instinct for combining the avant-garde with beautiful songwriting. This contemplative electric piano piece caught my ear this week.
Shoshana Rosenberg - A Broken Fence [Tone List]
Shoshana Rosenberg - A Gold Ring in a Pig's Snout (a response by Aviva Endean) [Tone List]
Shoshana Rosenberg - Lehitraot [Tone List]
Three tracks from Perth-based queer transexual Jewish artist Shoshana Rosenberg, who addresses on this release "the Jewish body", her body, and formulates the EP, she says, partly as "a goodbye letter to parts of me I had to abandon with haste". It's at times based on Jewish themes, which fit beautifully with her clear, emotive clarinet playing - although other tracks take full advantage of the distortion available from that instrument. In between, we heard Melbourne artist Aviva Endean's overlaid response with her own clarinet to a work from Rosenberg's previous solo release on Tone List from 2017.
Erik Friedlander - The Crucible [Erik Friedlander Bandcamp]
This piece by New York cellist / composer Erik Friedlander was originally written as a cue for a feature film, but having not made it into the final soundtrack, it now appears as the current monthly track on his Bandcamp. Starting with super-quiet Blade Runner-style high pitches, it then ventures into more orchestral soundtrack territory.
Jo David Meyer Lysne - Noen andre venter på [Hubro]
Jo David Meyer Lysne - Svalene på Årnes brygge [Hubro]
Henger i luften ("Hang in the air") is the debut from young Norwegian guitarist/composer Jo David Meyer Lysne, and while it's described as group improvisation, there's a very clear musical vision that goes through this music. As I am by now well acquainted with Norwegian jazz and improv, including artists such as Kim Myhr, the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, and music released on Hubro and Rune Grammofon, this wondrous, mostly acoustic music feels like it sits in a clear tradition. But even so, Lysne's approach is singular. The mixing, including reverbs and delays, on the opening track (the second I played tonight) is striking, as is the use of ostinato, while elsewhere on the album there are affecting solo guitar pieces and chaotic group improvisations. But everything has an open, bucolic feel which makes the album a real pleasure to listen to.
Allenheimer - Megas [Unfiled]
Teitur Magnússon - Ornamental (Allenheimer remix) [Allenheimer SoundCloud]
We heard the music of Atli Bollason as Allenheimer on the show last year after he appeared on a compilation from The Wire. It's lovely glitchy electronica from an artist who's played in bands around Reykjavik for some time. He's just released an epic remix of fellow Icelander Teitur Magnússon - sampling snippets from the original piece of folk songwriting, he turns it into an epic of disco house with breakbeat incursions. Pretty fun.
nOWt - HOOVER1 B [nOWt Recordings]
René Pawlowitz, best known as techno genius Shed, adds another alias to an ever-growing list, with two tracks of drum'n'bass-influenced techno under the name nOWt, on a 12" called HOOVER1. He's often referenced '90s rave music (there are one or two drum'n'bass tracks in the Shed discography) and it's nice hearing it bubble up here.
The Good Nothing - The Daydreamer [The Good Nothing Bandcamp]
Canberra-by-way-of-Sydney-by-way-of-Newcastle musician and academic Stephen Owen has of late mostly been releasing music via his industrial metal duo No Names, but has recently also returned to solo electronica under the name The Good Nothing. It's lovely how this ambient piece evolves slowly over its 5 minutes.
New Order - Fine time [Factory Records]
It's hard to believe, but the wonderful Technique from New Order turns 30 this year. It made a huge impression on me in high school - although it's well past New Order's initial attraction and embedding into the house/electronic scene, it represents for me a peak in terms of the melding of house and post-punk pop, and in general contains some really wonderful songs. But it starts with this gem of pure dancefloor genius.
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