Utility Fog

Monday, 3rd of July, 2023

This week saw the release of some beautiful guitar-led, experimental singer-songwriter stuff - leftfield indie folk, perhaps, and we also have de/reconstructed English folk, de/reconstructed Brazilian samba stylings, trailblazing '80s experimental cello-pop, trip-hop and other beats, post-industrial, instrumental shoegaze and post-classical piano & guitar. This has been your genres of the week.

LISTEN AGAIN, when you get time. Stream on demand from FBi, podcast here.

Freda D'Souza - The Love Song of J Alfreda D'Souza [demo records/Crossness Records/Freda D'Souza Bandcamp]
Freda D'Souza - Windowledge [demo records/Crossness Records/Freda D'Souza Bandcamp]
I'm very grateful to the brilliant & adventurous singer-songwriter/producer Ana Rita de Melo Alves, aka Anrimeal, for sending me this stunning new EP from fellow London-based musician Freda D'Souza, which Ana has co-released on her own demo records in conjunction with friends Crossness Records. D'Souza plays free improv, does experimental performance-arty stuff, and even fronts a black metal band, but the music here is a collection of sumptuous songs which owe as much to Jenny Hval as the obvious Joni Mitchell, Linda Perhacs and perhaps Kate Bush comparisons. The smart lyrics are perhaps best embodied by the wistful but slyly humorous "The Love Song of J Alfreda D'Souza", with its references to T.S. Eliot ("Do I dare? Do I dare?"), echoing the paralyzing anxiety of growing old, albeit from a more youthful perspective. As Alves' label name may suggest, these are demos or derive from them, but D'Souza's vocal performances are so rich and confident that one can't pretend these are in any way incomplete. Still, the idea of using demo recordings to capture a particular feeling, a space or a time, is something a lot of creators will connect with.

soccer Committee - No Turn To Harm [morc tapes/Bandcamp/soccer Committee Bandcamp]
soccer Committee & machinefabriek - high jacked drone 1 (by andrea belfi) [Machinefabriek Bandcamp]
soccer Committee - Reaching [morc tapes/Bandcamp/soccer Committee Bandcamp]
I have been a dedicated fan of Dutch singer-songwriter Mariska Baars for many years, via Rutger Zuydervelt aka Machinefabriek - both working with him under her own name, and then in equally mysterious projects such as Piiptsjilling and FEAN with the Kleefstra brothers and others. Where Jan Kleefstra performs his poetry in Frisian, Baars sings either wordlessly or in English. Her work is characterised by an exquisite restraint, whereby if you're listening you can't help but be drawn into the patiently unfolding melodies and subtle but essential textures. Even without Machinefabriek's sensitive deconstructions around the edges of their collaborative work, Baars seems to dismantle and rebuild the fabric of her songs so that they are as attenuated as possible while still holding together. Her new album ❤️ /Lamb is her most confident and fully-realised yet. On listening to this, I wanted to remind myself of where I discovered Mariska Baars, with Machinefabriek on their incredible album Drawn, which birthed the Redrawn compilation of remixes and covers - an album I return to frequently. Tonight, we hear Andrea Belfi overdubbing drums and percussion over "high pitched drone I", magically turning it into a slice of shoegazey postrock. Ugh, so amazing.

Rakhi Singh & Laura Cannell - Zahira [Brawl Records]
Laura Cannell - Nik Colk Void remix - Closer To Now [Brawl Records]
The adjective "restless", often applied to highly productive artists, could not be more fitting for English violinist, flautist, singer & inveterate collaborator Laura Cannell. Her deep connection to country and land (originally from Norfolk, now living in rural East Anglia) pairs with her deep knowledge of folk music and early/medieval music, but improvisation is also key to her work, both solo and in collaboration (e.g. the monthly series of works with cellist Kate Ellis and others throughout 2021). Meanwhile, Cannell also has an electronic project called Hunteress, no less engaged in folk forms for that. All these aspects feed into various collaborative projects, such as 2020's spoken word-and music project THESE FERAL LANDS Volume 1 (of which the year-long EP series was a sequel), and now the collaborative release ECHOLOCATION: Resonate From Here. This time the web of artists reaches even farther afield, from English folk music giant Kathryn Tickell OBE to US veteran rock cellist Lori Goldston, and two women working in the post-industrial electronic field, Gazelle Twin and Nik Colk Void, the latter of whom overlays shudding drum loops and distortion over Cannell's tremolo violin. Cannell and Rakhi Singh (the founder of Manchester Collective who also works with electronic musician & composer Seb Gainsborough/Vessel) create songs of wordless interlocking vocals and violins, which on album closer "Zahira" break into jazz soloing just when you least expect it. It's notable that all the collaborators here are women: Cannell observes that growing up, she couldn't see herself anywhere in the music she saw. ECHOLOCATION presents a non-genre-specific body of work from seven women whose artistry should resonate far and wide.

Klara Lewis & Nik Colk Void - Say Why [ALTER/Bandcamp]
Klara Lewis & Nik Colk Void - In Voice 1 [ALTER/Bandcamp]
The Nik Colk Void remix above was an irresistible segue into her new duo here with Swedish electronic musician Klara Lewis. Both artists bridge the line between techno and experimental electronics on the one hand, and noise/drone/glitch on the other. What's unexpected about their debut album together on Luke Younger's ALTER label is the playful humour that radiates out of these 17 vignettes. The fun that went into creating this music is evident throughout, even on the more sharply intense tracks and the more tender pieces. Here we have the modulating static of opener "Say Why", which could be placed anywhere from '80s industrial tape experimentation and late '90s glitch work, followed by the second track, one of a few manipulations of small snippets of pop vocals into isolated saccharine sweetness.

Arthur Russell - Picture of Bunny Rabbit (edit) [Audika Records/Rough Trade Records/Bandcamp]
Arthur Russell - A Little Lost [Point Music/Be With Records]
Arthur Russell - In the Light of a Miracle [Audika Records/Rough Trade Records/Bandcamp]
The story of Arthur Russell is one of the saddest in the music business, and a sadly not uncommon one - an artist of immeasurable influence who was broadly unknown in his own lifetime, most of his work released via archival tapes after his tragic death from AIDS-related illness in 1992. (Notably, another such artist, the iconoclastic gay black composer Julius Eastman, now being revived and celebrated decades after his premature death in obscurity in 1990, was a close associate of Russell's.) Russell was a true original - initially known for his disco/house material, often under the pseudonym Dinosaur or Dinosaur L, but simultaneously creating pensive, contemplative works for his scratchy electrified cello and voice plus various effects. Most of his works, including many of his most revered songs, were only released on archival compilations after his death - for instance "A Little Lost", which appears tonight, came out in 1994 on the album Another Thought. So, while it's easy to become cynical about yet another archival Arthur Russell release, each one gives us more insight into an unparalleled talent, even when these songs are ostensibly incomplete demos. The title track of newbie Picture of Bunny Rabbit really is a selection of tape & effects jams, mind you, and yet it's also one of the most riveting tracks on the album. I had to make my own edit tonight for space, playing two of the four segments, but listen to that stretching and pitch-shifting, mangling and editing! I'm reasonably sure all the sounds come from the electric cello, straight into the machines. Meanwhile, the album also sports an unheard version of "In the Light of a Miracle", albeit so different as to be pretty unrecognizable from the 13-minute disco-house classic - although that's usually credited as "In the Light of the Miracle", so maybe it's different? Either way, a grinding, rubbery rhythm that may come from the cello accompanies Russell's usual cello scratches and soft vocals, and a guitar that reveals itself in the mix at points. Revelatory.

Ricardo Dias Gomes - Invernão Astral [Hive Mind Records/Bandcamp]
Ricardo Dias Gomes - Menos [Hive Mind Records/Bandcamp]
It's always great when consummate musicians & songwriters turn their music in experimental directions, and so in the vein of greats like Tom Zé and Arto Lindsay, Brazilian musician Ricardo Dias Gomes (who has worked closely with another Brazilian legend, Caetano Veloso) adds modular synth excursions, electronic beats and dense arrangements to his interpretation of samba. His third album Muito Sol was recorded after moving to London, and dealing with the culture shock. And indeed the references to Brazilian music are brought to the fore due to his distance from home. While the experimentation is at its height in a few shorter interludes, it's an ever-present undercurrent, found in the suspended flat-2 chord that runs through the second half of "Menos", only just resolving in the last bar, or in the cloudy textures underlining the dreamy "Invernão Astral".

Tristan Arp - A Livable Earth [3024/Bandcamp]
Tristan Arp - The Language Change [3024/Bandcamp]
From Brazil to Mexico, where we meet Tristan Arp for some percussion-heavy techno as is his wont. His latest EP, End of a Line, or Part of a Circle? comes courtesy of Martyn's 3024 label, but it's basically vintage Tristan Arp - studio-perfect percussive rhythm play, judicious bass weight, lovely bloopy sounds. It's like micro-house but syncopated and with subs. So, you know: great.

Ekhidna - Trips [Ekhidna Bandcamp]
Here's a new duo that slipped into my in tray this week, hailing from Bristol and London (simultaneously!) and pushing finely titrated trip-hop for a post-dubstep world. Rumbling subs announce the opening bars of their first single, followed by head-nodding beats and high, echo-laden vocals floating over the top. As the song progresses, the bars fill up with bleepy beats and hammering kick drums. It's definitely a trip!

Kilamanzego - Remember Myself [Get Better Records/Bandcamp]
Pronounced "kill a man's ego", Kilamanzego is the alias of a Philadelphia-based artist combining, on this new single, hip-hop with jungle beats and experimental spirit, as is the style right now. She works entirely solo, with all beats, instruments and vocals played & produced by herself. "Remember Myself" comes from the Black Weirdo EP releaesd at the end of this month by Get Better Records.

Trex - Moonshine w/ Benny V [ThirtyOne Recordings]
Now we're in concerted drum'n'bass territory, on the one & only Doc Scott's ThirtyOne Recordings, home to no-nonsense dancefloor-aimed d'n'b, but that doesn't mean it's not creative. Take the One For The Road EP from Trex. Carefully-honed twitchy beats skitter around, anchored by syncopated kicks and wobbling basslines with a lot of soul. I'd equally love to play this loud on a deserted highway or hear it throbbing in a sweaty club.

The Bug - Hunted [Pressure/Bandcamp]
Here's a track from Machine 2, the second in a regular series of EPs Kevin Martin aka The Bug is putting out digitally, basically as DJ tools for playing on his massive, gut-shuddering Pressure soundsystem. And the menacing beats and basslines here would kill on a aystem like that, but they sound just fine with the bass turned up and the volume high wherever you are. Grateful for the unrelenting pace with which Mr Martin puts out music.

Scattered Order - Confirm Humanity - Remix [Scattered Order Bandcamp]
Core Scattered Order member Mitch Jones had the idea about a year ago of going over the material from the band's last two albums and radically reworking the tracks. This project has come to fruition now with the PRANG album. Everything was fair game - changing tempo, highlighting quiet sounds in the original mix, substituting sounds etc - proper remixing. The result is that I can't recognize much of the original tracks here, but it's just what you'd think - a Mitch Jones perspective on Scattered Order, a little more strongly on the electronic sound, on basslines and beats and cut-ups, with his stentorian, processed voice appearing at times like the Metatron.

Speaker Music - Jes' Grew [Planet µ/Bandcamp]
Here's the first single from Speaker Music's new album, out in early September from Planet µ. Thematically, Techxodus takes off from where his earlier music left us, with complex electronic drum patterns at the centre of these works, but it also serves as an extension of his recent book Assembling a Black Counterculture, which contectualises the history of techno in the broad history of Black labour in America. This first single expands Brown's busy percussion with interjected brass samples, creating a new vision of future-jazz within this studious-yet-raucous percussive techno.

Purr - Collapse (Vacant Lake Remix) [unreleased]
Purr - Collapse [Purr Bandcamp]
Melbourne-based (although originally from Sydney) Peter Stone aka Purr has been making hazy, grainy guitar-based music since the mid-2000s, and was last heard on this show in 2016. His new EP SHARDS mostly keeps things shoegazey and soothing, but isn't afraid to take things in a more abstract & distorted direction, like on "Collapse". That track has also been given the remix treatment by ex-Sydney musician Beres Jackson, who is now releasing more organic-sounding stuff under the name Orbits, but for this remix (exclusive for now!) appears under his Vacant Lake moniker, gradually coaxing the broken-down sounds of "Collapse" into a more structured direction, eventually adding drum'n'bass breaks to exhilarating effect.

Gregory Paul Mineeff - The Approach [Cosmicleaf/Bandcamp]
Gregory Paul Mineeff - Questioning [Cosmicleaf/Bandcamp]
On his latest album, You Alone, Wollongong-based artist Gregory Paul Mineeff evokes little universes in 3-5 minute compositions, with a palette that adds guitar to his usual vintage synths, piano and effects. On paper, Mineeff's electronics and piano could be just another entry into generic "neo-classical" as people have decided to call it, but this is neither stock ambient nor wanna-be classical. Greg's too good a craftsman for that, tempering the mournful, melodic broken guitar chords on "The Approach" with warbling drones, and repeatedly introducing the major 7th leading note into his minor piano chords on "Questioning", which also is accompanied by smudged synth drones, and half-heard two-note basslines nearer the climax. Close your eyes and float away.

Listen again — ~200MB

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