Playlist 31.05.20 (7:56 pm)
Given the events of the last few days, I kinda wish my whole show was like the first two songs, but I'm glad that Drew Daniel has provided something so brilliant and timely anyway. We have plenty of weird, heavy and twisted songs tonight alongside some weird sound-art old & new, and some wonderful minimal techno.
If you're in Australia and want to do something, you could donate to the Minnesota Freedom Fund, although at this point there are protests in cities all around America and people are being arrested who need help making bail - especially at a time when going to jail means high risk of COVID-19 infection. So there are other organisations like the Brooklyn Community Bail Fund are also helpful.
That said, in Australia we must not forget that we have police forces around the country that consistently target brown people over white people. Single Aboriginal women are incarcerated at horrific rates in Western Australia because they can't pay fines - donate to help Sisters Inside Inc. There've been at least 400 Aboriginal deaths in custody, zero convictions. David Dungay's last words were "I can't breathe". This stuff is sickeningly familiar.
LISTEN AGAIN for the usual emotional and cerebral sustenance... Stream on demand @ FBi, podcast here.
The Soft Pink Truth - Fuck Nazi Sympathy (Aus-Rotten cover) [The Soft Pink Truth Bandcamp]
The Soft Pink Truth - Protest and Survive (Discharge cover) (feat. Angel Deradoorian) [The Soft Pink Truth Bandcamp]
A few weeks ago I played some excerpts from what I consider to be one of the greatest albums of the year, The Soft Pink Truth's Shall We Go On Sinning So That Grace May Increase? (the link, by the way, goes to the 2-track mixed version which is different from the multi-track digital version and flows much better). Drew Daniel of Matmos is The Soft Pink Truth, and he used that album to express love and peace at at time of great anguish, anxiety and anger for the world, and particularly America. Now, just in time for the discord in America to rise once again in the face of racist, violent police and a white nationalist, kleptocratic President, Drew has released a companion album to SWGOSSTGMI?, which is much more in the format of the usual Soft Pink Truth catalogue. Am I Free To Go? sees him covering a selection of crust-punk anarcho-protest songs in various electronic stylings, breakcore, glitch techno etc, with appropriately gutteral vocals alongside some clean singing. On the last track, the anarchy gives way to the beautiful voice of Angel Deradoorian, serving as a segue into Shall We Go On Sinning..., on which she sings as well. Masterful & timely.
The album is pay what you can and profits go to the International Anti-fascist Defence Fund.
Kcin & Brendan Clark - Short bow [Focused Silence]
Kcin & Brendan Clark - An economy of ghosts [Focused Silence]
We've heard Nick Meredith's Kcin on this show a lot with his overdriven electronics and live percussion. After a collaboration on Trestle Records recently he's here again working with another Sydney muso, bassist Brendan Clark of Lisathe, Broken Mountain etc for an album on UK label Focused Silence of targeted noise, drones & crushed beats. The sound of machines & buzzing amplifiers abounds, and it's a shock (in a good way) when Clark's slow-bowed double bass makes an entry at some points.
Party Dozen - Auto Loser [GRUPO]
Party Dozen - Dead Friends [GRUPO]
More Sydney noise now, from the long-awaited (truly!) second album from Party Dozen. It's everyone's drummer & producer Jonathan Boulet and saxophonist Kirsty Tickle (also singer/songwriter as Exhibitionist). Once again the full-frontal assault of noisemaking machines and sax is the main focus, but with plenty of other electronics and varied sounds in the mix. Two ridiculously talented musicians, and let's hope our R-thingy value is low enough by November to see them perform together again around the country...
Mrs. Piss - Nobody Wants To Party With Us [Sargent House/Bandcamp]
Mrs. Piss - Knelt [Sargent House/Bandcamp]
Oathbreaker - Ease Me (Chelsea Wolfe Remix) [Deathwish Inc/Bandcamp]
On tour together, Chelsea Wolfe and drummer Jess Gowrie started new project Mrs. Piss under which they've now released possibly the heaviest stuff they've done - their love of industrial metal really comes through, but of course it's also superbly melodic and full of heartfelt emotion. The equally melodic and unusual Belgian hardcore/indie/experimental band Oathbreaker have just released new single Ease Me featuring 4 "interpretations", including JK Broadrick in Jesu mode, James Kelly's Wife and also Chelsea Wolfe, who mixes up heavy guitars and fragile piano & electronics in fine form.
Fuse Box City - Shine On [Weeping Prophet Records]
New London band Fuse Box City are here with their second single, anticipating debut album Shipwreckers, released on July 31st. Rachel Kenedy's blissful shoegazey vocals give way to spoken word, electronic beats and glitches. It's the kind of rock/electronic fusion that could've happened in the early '90s, and it's interesting (and welcome!) to hear it now. Looking forward to the album.
Dolphins of Venice - Dark Ivor [DataDoor/Bandcamp]
Here's another of Adelaide IDM maestro Tim Koch's new collaborations, this one with the excellent US IDM/ambient producer Adrien75. Dolphins of Venice insist on writing all their titles in extreme emoji, but the album title is Insect Spread. The music is full of glitchy beats, buried vocals, and blissful shoegazey textures.
Bec Plexus - mirror image [New Amsterdam Records/Bandcamp]
Bec Plexus - think out loud [New Amsterdam Records/Bandcamp]
Amsterdam-based singer Bec Plexus released her new album Sticklip in collaboration with New York neoclassical label New Amsterdam Records a couple of months ago. A lot of the tracks (including the second one tonight) are produced with Melbourne composer/post-punk synth legend David Chesworth, and most tracks find her working with various other composer/lyricists - the first tonight is from Pascal Le Boeuf, the second by Molly Joyce. There's a general air of sarcastic remove to these tracks, but also a viciously talented musicianship. This is not music for the faint-hearted, and one should expect the unexpected.
Marion Cousin & Kaumwald - La loba parda [Les Disques du Festival Permanent]
Marion Cousin & Gaspar Claus - Ametleret abundós [Les Disques du Festival Permanent]
Marion Cousin & Kaumwald - Las bodas de Inesilla y el Brillante [Les Disques du Festival Permanent]
The first album by French singer Marion Cousin to explore the Iberian Peninsula was made with cellist Gaspar Claus in 2016 and explored work songs from Minorca and Majorca. For her second in this open-ended series, she moves to a remote region of Spain called Estremadura, and works with experimental electronic duo Kaumwald, made up of Clément Vercelletto and Ernest Bergez aka Sourdure. The result, on both albums, is an extraordinary, hypnotic take on folk musics, freely updated and extemporised.
Marion Cousin - Confinuum #10 'Agustina y Gloria' [Murailles Music/Bandcamp]
Jean-Brice Godet ft Achille - Confinuum #18 [Murailles Music/Bandcamp]
One more track from Marion Cousin, here solo on a compilation from self-described iconoclastic French label Murailles Music, whose Confinuum asks artists to take over one from another in a series of tracks, which turned out to be beautiful and challenging in turn. Experimental artist Jean-Brice Godet's contribution appears a lot further down the line, with tape manipulation and queasy piano.
Beatriz Ferreyra - Echos [ROOM40/Bandcamp]
Beatriz Ferreyra - Deux dents dehors [Persistence of Sound]
Bernard Parmegiani - Dedans-dehors (part 1) [Ina-GRM]
Active since the 1960s, Argentine composer Beatriz Ferreyra is still making music now, and has (luckily for us) just had a couple of new releases of her works come out. A couple of months back, ROOM40 put out a 12" called Echos+ which collected the incredible 1978 work "Echos" heard tonight alongside another vocal-derived work from 1987 and one using percussion sounds from 2007. "Echos" chops and inter-layers the voice of her niece, who tragically died in a car crash, and forms a gorgeous and joyful tribute. And now, perhaps coincidentally, new musique concrète-focused UK label Persistence of Sound has released Huellas entreveradas ("Interspersed footsteps") with works as recent as 2018. "Deux dents dehors" from 2007 is a punning tribute (literally meaning "two teeth outdoors") to her colleague, the great Bernard Parmegiani, written for his birthday. The piece referenced, Dedans-dehors, actually translates as "inside-outside" of course, and it's lovely to be able to play the first part: composed in 1977, it's extraordinarily contemporary-sounding electronic work.
Panasonic - Zoviet France Remix [Sähkö]
An incredbile find here; Finnish label Sähkö were apparently sent remixes of the great Pan Sonic by :zoviet*france: (as it's usually styled) and Muslimgauze in 1996 (so long ago that they were still called Panasonic!) and for some reason they were set aside and never released. Which is insane because they're fantastic. Like, so so good. I tried to play as much as I could tonight of the blissful 13-minute take by :zoviet*france:, with a pulsing techno beat and fluttering waves of choral sounds. No idea what the source is, but this is ambient techno of a less dark & industrial nature than I'd expect from :zoviet*france:, but I'm not an expert on their music (I should probably correct this sometime soon!) The other two tracks are vintage Muslimgauze, as is to be expected.
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