Playlist 17.02.19 (8:11 pm)
Ranging across Persian classical and sound-art, electronica, industrial and more tonight...
LISTEN AGAIN, because not listening again is not a fate you wish to contemplate. Stream on demand through FBi, podcast here...
Saba Alizadeh - Greetings to Earthfire [Karlrecords]
Saba Alizadeh - Colors Wove Me In Teheran [Karlrecords]
Saba Alizadeh - Would You Remember Me [Karlrecords]
Tehran-based musician Saba Alizadeh is a master at the Iranian spike fiddle kamancheh, and we hear the haunting sounds of this instrument through his new album for Berlin label Karlrecords - but it's not long before the focus drifts elsewhere into twinkling ambient, field recordings, processed vocals and more. It's a beautiful album, and by and large timeless - it could almost be a forward-thinking '80s ambient album (understanding the Orientalist tendencies of '80s "fourth world" music), or anytime between then and now, although the production qualities are up-to-the-minute. Yet another addition to the thriving experimental music scene from Iran.
Sunken Foal - How Much is a Lot and How Long is Lately? [Countersunk]
Sunken Foal - Charles Dance [Countersunk]
Irish electronic producer Dunk Murphy, one half of Planet μ alumni Ambulance, has been making emotive, technically proficient electronic music for approaching 2 decades now, and notably often used acoustic sounds - piano, banjo, acoustic guitars etc. His new EP Ribbon Works Vol.1 features multitracked arrangements on what he calls a ribbon synthesiser. That's where those swooping glissandi come from, lovely slides between chords, and they add another layer of organic, life-like nature to his music. An underrated producer who you should get into in general.
Croatian Amor - Dark Cut (ft. Jonnine Standish) [Posh Isolation/Bandcamp]
Croatian Amor - An Angel Gets His Wings Clipped (ft. Soho Rezanejad) [ALTER Bandcamp]
Croatian Amor - In Alarm Light (ft. Soho Rezanejad) [Posh Isolation/Bandcamp]
Croatian Amor - Point Reflex Blue [Posh Isolation/Bandcamp]
Danish producer Loke Rahbek records under various names (including his own) as well as being part of various groups in the noise/electronic/rock spectrum (and being kept busy as one half of the team behind the Posh Isolation label), but his most consistent moniker is Croatian Amor. His previous album Love Means Taking Action featured uncredited vocals from Danish-Iranian singer Soho Rezanejad, who appears on the new album Isa as well, alongside various other guests including Aussie singer Jonnine Standish of HTRK. Even on ostensibly instrumental tracks like the last one I featured, processed, pitch-shifted vocal samples appear. Communication and art are themes across his work, and probably more than ever here, in a very strange and beguiling work which is a more than worthy successor to Love Means Taking Action.
Vacant Lake - Did you [Vacant Lake Bandcamp]
Karoshi - Reanimate me [Karoshi Bandcamp]
Vacant Lake - Carry On [Vacant Lake Bandcamp]
Vacant Lake - Atomised [Vacant Lake Bandcamp]
Vacant Lake - Listen out [Vacant Lake Bandcamp]
Vacant Lake - Ready [Vacant Lake Bandcamp]
Sydney producer Beres Jackson first came to the attention of this show and FBi under the moniker of Karoshi, sometimes a band, sometimes a solo project, doing glitchy folktronica and electronica, occasionally with vocals. It was always fun and complex stuff. But then in 2012 Jackson came out with his first EP under a new name, definitely solo, as Vacant Lake. Around the same time, I think, he relocated to Berlin, and late last year he launched a full album as Vacant Lake. This project is darker and lusher, leaning towards techno at times but also making use of hip-hop beats and dubby textures. We also heard tracks from the first two Vacant Lake EPs, which are very much in keeping with the lovely new album.
Eli Keszler - Enter the Bristle Strum [Shelter Press]
A nice encore to his incredible album Stadium from last year, Empire finds experimental New York percussionist Eli Keszler in even more chilled mode - tuned percussion and other instruments producing jazzy melodies under which disjointed, detailed rhythms are laid. Like the album before it, it recalls a lot of '90s electronic music, twisted through a jazz lens into an alien organic form.
Belief Defect - Deliverance (Telefon Tel Aviv Dub) [Raster]
Belief Defect - Unnatural Instinct [Raster]
Belief Defect - The Conduit [Raster]
Belief Defect - Disembarking Horizon [Raster]
Belief Defect - Disembarking Horizon (Alessandro Cortini Version) [Raster]
Featuring two longtime members of the US experimental electronic scene, Moe Espinosa aka Drumcell and Luis Flores, originally from Mexico and seasoned techno producer as well, Belief Defect is a deep, bassy fusion of techno, idm and industrial music. It certainly wears its industrial influences on its sleeve, and it's no surprise to see Alessandro Cortini, electronic luminary and sometime Nine Inch Nails member, contributing a remix on their first remix EP. OF course, Telefon Tel Aviv's Joshua Eustis also has a long history with NIN by now. I'm sad that I missed Belief Defect's debut album Decadent Yet Depraved in 2017, on the still newly-split Raster label, but I'm glad that at least I've caught up now!
Fanu - 12-bit [Straight Up Breakbeat]
Finnish producer Fanu has been a stalwart of the drum'n'bass scene for years now, lovingly cultivating junglist tendencies, all styles of drum'n'bass, and also as an aside other sorts of breakbeat and hip-hop under the name FatGyver. He's had an excellent DJ mix podcast which has introduced me to lots of great drum'n'bass over the years, and also puts out some nice production tips on his website from time to time. Lately he hasn't been as prolific, perhaps concentrating more on production and mastering jobs, so it's nice to hear some fantastic beat juggling on a new 12" for the Straight Up Breakbeat label to finish our show tonight.
Listen again — ~203MB
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