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Utility Fog

Peter Hollo

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. Peter Hollo curates each episode around a narrative of genre-plasticity, deep-diving into artist histories, side projects and influences. Challenging sounds are contextualised within musical movements, surprising connections are uncovered, unfairly overlooked works are revisited. Come on a journey through music in all its ugly beauty.

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  • 24 episodes
  • weekly
  • Avg 2 hr
  • English

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  • April 12 · 2 hr

    Playlist 12.04.26

    While the new world struggles to be born, people all round this dying old world cannot help but keep making music. Too many, frankly. Please stop. Anyway, I cannot help but keep playing you all this incredible music, postpunkindustrialdubjunglegamelanglitchjazzfolkclassical, as those in the know call it *taps nose* LISTEN AGAIN to the music of the spheres. Stream on demand from fbi.radio, podcast here. Laeter – Isolate [Laeter Bandcamp] Laeter – Leibowitz [Laeter Bandcamp] Liam Bosecke is based on Kaurna country, in Adelaide, and he’s founded a creative community called Empty Frames that aims to raise mental health awareness. His latest album as Laeter is released via that platform, but is of course available on Bandcamp (and in a handsome CD edition!) Blanket Doubt is a wonderful thing that kind of answers the question, “What if indietronica except slow-moving industrial dub?” Intense distorted drum machines and synthetic screeches underscore almost-spoken vocals, or shudder and crash under New Order-esque synth melodies. Pure perverted pleasure. Damos Room – All Shall Go [Long Gone/Bandcamp] Damos Room – Gullet (Dirty Protest) [Long Gone/Bandcamp] Last time I played Damos Room on the show was a mere month ago. I wrote at the time: I’m not sure who Damos is or what’s in their Room, but signs point to it being three guys: Luke Miles, Nicholas Elson & Huw Oleskar. I’ve just found out (because they told me, nothing underhand) that Huw Oleskar is also known as Elijah Minnelli, responsible for some of the most interesting and lovely dub-folk hybrids in recent times, ostensibly under the auspices of Breadminster County Council. As for Damos Room, you can find a series of fantastic, weirdly-shaped releases on their Bandcamp, including a mixtape of two bizarre 40-minute radio pieces, some quasi-singles of abstracted dub/spoken-word/electronics, and the experimental electronics of their collaboration with rapper LYAM, which I played on this show a few years back. So, a month ago I played something from Walk With The Militia, a vaguely-album-shaped item that wasn’t actually their new album – rather it’s a mixtape, entirely in keeping with the mystery what all this is about. It collects – I said – a whole lot of weird shit, but it’s all dub-based experimental electronics, with Minnelli’s distinctive spoken word & low-key singing, odd radio interludes and noise bits and so on. It’s really fantastic. So how about All Shall Go, their new album which is really released now? Well, it’s just as murky, weird-shaped and all as the prior mixtape and earlier works. And as with earlier works, there are also some head-nodding beats and bass, and tracks where Oleskar’s voice chants and sings in nearly melodic fashion. Don’t expect pop, dancehall or grime here, but do expect music that’s evocative, challenging, ancient and modern. Do go deep, but don’t miss that mixtape, or 2020’s Commencement either. Carl Gari – Pick’n’Peel [Molten Moods/Bandcamp] Most of us know German band Carl Gari from their incredibly strong albums made with Egyptian singer/trumpeter/poet/composer Abdullah Miniawy, on AD93 and Amphibian Records. Between those two releases, the band & singer released a live album on Molten Moods, and it’s that label that Carl Gari return to now for their self-titled album, forthcoming in June. This is the first single (by the time of writing I’ve heard the second), and it’s just what the doctor ordered – dark, insistent minimal drum’n’bass if it was produced by Depeche Mode circa Songs of Faith and Devotion, a very specific reference that probably only makes sense to me 🖤 Fez The Kid & BRUK – Original Secret [RuptureLDN/Bandcamp] Two young junglists from Bristol tearin’ it up on this new EP, their first for the iconic jungle-revival label RuptureLDN. These guys really know their jungle originals and are making the kind of tracks that wouldn’t have been out of place in an East London club circa ’93. Both Fez The Kid & BRUK have a number of EPs to their names, but have also worked together for a while, and DJ back2back as well. Turn up yr subs and feel the bass pressure while the snares go renegade. Rrrrrrrince out! A.Fruit – I Left You [YUKU/Bandcamp] A.Fruit – Choice [YUKU/Bandcamp] Anna Derlemenko aka A.Fruit is a Ukrainian music producer, born in Moscow, but her family relocated to Spain after Russia’s war on Ukraine. She co-runs the Distorted Barcelona club and does a lot of music production training & tips on her Patreon – in fact, the first track I played tonight is the subject of a full track breakdown there, and she’s shared the full Ableton project. Her productions are consistently adventurous, mixing up genres and manipulating sounds while remaining dancefloor friendly, and that’s certainly the case on her new EP Choice for the one & only YUKU. She’s an artist I’ll never not recommend. upsammy & Valentina Magaletti – Superimposed [PAN/Bandcamp] upsammy & Valentina Magaletti – It Comes To An End [PAN/Bandcamp] Dutch producer & DJ upsammy (who visited Sydney recently for Soft Centre) has previously worked the built & natural environment into her music: Germ in a Population of Buildings in 2023 created a whole environment of hallucinatory fauna and automata, repurposing IDM in a similar-but-different way to Eora’s own gi. Valentina Magaletti is one of the most versatile drummer/percussionists working at the moment, found in the postpunk-electronica band Moin, but also remaking kuduro & batida with Afro-Portuguese producer Nídia, a kind of postpunk dub with electronic producer Al Wootton, and plenty of other avant-garde stuff. upsammy & Magaletti’s collaborative album Seismo (yes, it means “earthquake”) came out of a commission from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, for which they sampled the sounds of the museum itself, using its spaces as percussive surfaces, and much of the joy of the album comes from the blurring of live drums and other acoustic rhythms with electronic programming and manipulation. Around & amongst the percussion are snippets of voice (a callback Mageletti’s work with Raime and Moin, albeit applied very differently), strange fragmentary samples of guitar & bass, piano notes stretched thin, slow melodic synths. Mostly delicate, mostly the opposite of an earthquake, these are musical giants striding across our world while imps dance in their footprints. It’s a wonderful album. Hoavi – Song of the Forgotten [Peak Oil] Hoavi – Colossus [Peak Oil] And speaking of imps dancing, Russian producer Hoavi is one of the exemplars of music that sounds like skittering insects and tumbling waterfalls, drawing jungle-ish IDM into dub technoid waters. His second album for Peak Oil, Architectonics, takes those aspects into newer territories, with a bank of samples of percussive sounds from around his house, and inspiration taken from Indonesian gamelan and minimalist composition. For all this though, it’s vintage Hoavi – rhythmically complex, deep sound design. Genius. Foote/Dickow – Underwater Welder [Geographic North/Bandcamp] Peak Oil is run by two Bria/ons – Brion Brionson is the “o” guy, and the other is Brian Foote, who’s been kranky‘s media guy forever as well as running various labels (including Peak Oil just above here!) and playing in various bands. Brian’s also a connoisseur of IDM, electronica & rave in all its variations (solo as Leech), and here he teams up with Paul Dickow, best known as Strategy, maker of much dubwise, ambient & technoid musics and himself co-founder of the Community Library label. High Cube is their first outing together as a duo, and you can feel their shared musical heritage in its bones. Skittering IDM glitchbeats hover above a dub techno skeleton, and there’s a jazzy sensibility to the keyboards. Charming. Richard Pike – III. “August” [Salmon Universe/Bandcamp] Sydney’s Richard Pike, alum of PVT, is now based in London. He can be found in various ensembles, including with Joe Quirke, with whom he co-runs the Salmon Universe label, and under his own name has been making ambient-techno-hybrid-orchestral soundtracks for TV. Outside of that, he’s released solo music under the alias DEEP LEARNING on Oxtail Recordings, based around subtly rhythmic glitchy loops, but now returns to his own name for album that mixes late-night piano and glitchy dub-techno. It’s not surprising to discover that the creation of this music was directly triggered by the death of Ryuichi Sakamoto, but the music takes darker paths than the Japanese master. The full album’s out later in May, and the last single brings in something of the jungle-meets-dub techno we’ve heard a lot of tonight. Laurence Pike – Guardians of Memory [Balmat/Bandcamp] It’s lovely to find Laurence Pike – brother to Richard above – coming out on Philip Sherburne & Albert Salinas‘ Balmat label in late May. Pike was drummer in Pivot/PVT and Triosk, and the hallucinatory melding of live jazz and micro-sampled loops has remained central to his DNA since the start. There’s a trickery at the heart of Possible Utopias for Jazz Quintet, hinted at with “possible”: while there are guests on these tracks, it’s never a jazz quintet, and still predominantly Laurence solo. The “utopias” denote an idea of freedom which Pike is reaching for, in continuity with his last album The Undreamt-of Centre – that people are not atomised individuals but exist interdependently with their environment. And for all that this is a solo album, Pike begins the album with a substantial, sumptuous feature from Eora/Sydney pianist Novak Manojlovic. Utopian indeed. David Norland – E-Car Soul reNYX [Denovali] English composer David Norland, who lives between LA & London, is best known as a soundtrack writer for film and stage, as well as a composer of electronic and experimental choral music. He has an album coming via Denovali called La Source, which is not a soundtrack, but incorporates choral music into its beat-driven electronic framework. Strangely, I didn’t hear the single “E-Car Soul” as choral, but the “reNYX” by UK vocal/electronic collective NYX reworks it into their image, with vocal harmonies and rearranged electronics. Carl Stone & Asuna – Ulna As Ancestor [Room40/Bandcamp] A pioneer of live laptop music, Carl Stone has been at it since the 1980s, and has had a renaissance since Unseen Worlds released a series of his early music on triple LP sets. Stone has for a long time lived between LA and Japan, and on this new CD he’s collaborating with Japanese artist Asuna Arashi, whose toy instruments are sampled and processed by Stone and then handed by to Arashi for her to rework and… send back to Stone. With all these layers of processing, it’s not often easy to make out the original toy instruments, but it’s pretty immersive, experimental but friendly. In keeping with a lot of Stone’s own work, the titles are all anagrams of “Carl Stone Asuma”, all of which are unreasonably good (“A Nacreous Slant”? “Nascent Arousal”!) Loom & Thread – Spheres [Macro/Bandcamp] A few years ago, German jazz trio Loom & Thread released their debut album Island Grammar on macro rec. Pianist Tom Schneider is known as “frontman” of the live techno act KUF, playing as lead instrument the sampler. On Loom & Thread’s debut, Schneider at least played piano primarily, albeit sampled and processed live, as were the double bass of Tobi Fröhlich and the drums of Daniel Klein. For their follow-up Bandcamp, Schneider is well and truly a sampler-player (although yes, piano’s in there too), triggering & manipulating samples of two saxophonists and two vibraphone players (one of whom is drummer Daniel Klein). The samples’ use can range from chaotic scatter to undulant layers, around which is constructed a form of contemporary jazz. It’s weirder than their first album, but just as enjoyable. You can see them playing some of this live here, with Fröhlich also alternating between double bass & sampler. Christian Wallumrød Ensemble – Not new to [Aspen Edities/Bandcamp] It’s seems like yesterday – well OK, it was only last week – when I was talking about the richness of the Norwegian (and generally, Nordic) music scene(s), highlighting among others the stunning new solo album from saxophonist, singer, composer etc Espen Reinertsen. Reinertsen’s album was released on SusannaSonata, run by the artist known as Susanna or Susanna and the Magical Orchestra, who is also Susanna Wallumrød. She’s the youngest of a family of musicians – as well as their cousin, jazz pianist David Wallumrød, her brother Fredrik Wallumrød is a drummer of mainly rock & pop, and the oldest of the lot is pianist Christian Wallumrød (born in 1971 – Susanna was born in 1979), a renowned jazz pianist & keyboard player, whose eponymous Ensemble have released a series of albums on ECM Records. Christian & Fredrik also release music made of drum machines & synths as Brutter (also here) – glitchy, arhythmic synthetic grooves. Anyway, last week I remarked on the uncanny beauty of Reinertsen’s album, and there’s something similarly bewitching, gorgeous but slightly wrong about the music on the Christian Wallumrød Ensemble’s latest album Non Sonett, released by Belgian post-folk/jazz label Aspen Edities. The label specialises in acoustic experimental music by and large, but does slip sideways into electronics at times, and so does this latest album, where minimalist jazz compositions sidle up to Norwegian folk and haunted electronics, while remaining utterly restrained throughout. You may think this would sound cold & difficult, but it’s not: it’s engrossing and delightful, like Penguin Cafe Orchestra recording Talk Talk’s last albums, Keith Jarrett jamming Sunn O))), Henry Purcell discovering free jazz. If you only listen to one Norwegian jazz/folk record this week, make it this one (but don’t stop there). tokesmo – 02.02 [tokesmo Bamdcamp] tokesmo – 01 [tokesmo Bandcamp] Andrea B of doom/psych/metal trio Morkobot is tokesmo, a project in which he combines field recordings and found sounds with electronics. Two EPs launch the project; on tksm 01 it’s more sound-art and noise than rhythms, while tksm 02 transforms found sounds into percussive instruments for its IDM-meets-industrial beats. Whitney Johnson, Lia Kohl, Macie Stewart – paper folding | disappearing [International Anthem/Bandcamp] Whitney Johnson, Lia Kohl, Macie Stewart – laundry | blood [International Anthem/Bandcamp] Last year I played a track from a trio of Chicago-based women who were all string players and singers – in fact, I loved it so much I played it in Part 2 of my Best of 2025. Whitney Johnson on viola, Lia Kohl on cello and Macie Stewart on violin don’t just all sing – they all operate various tape machines, into which they feed their sounds and alchemically transmute their playing & singing into dusty loops. You can see this gorgeous transformation happening in real time in this video. Last year’s “stone | piece” was one partially improvised composition that’s part of the BODY SOUND album now released by Chicago (post-?)jazz institution International Anthem. There’s a surprising variety of sound here – string drones melting into tape hiss are part of it, but so are plucked prepared cello, loops glitched through manipulated recording heads, deconstructed folk melodies and quasi-classical accompaniments to angelic singing, squalling loops played at triple-time and roaring bass as the cello is pitched down multiple octaves. An extraordinary album like no other. Hara Alonso – A Second is a Choir (feat. Lia Kohl) [FUU/Bandcamp] Lia Kohl also turns up as one guest on the brilliant new EP Music of Many Nows from Stockholm-based Spanish sound-artist Hara Alonso. Here, Alonso combines accidental and casual recordings of life going by, combined with recordings of a nearby choir, a found piano and a couple of guests, and makes beautifully cracked vignettes, much deeper musically than this method would suggest. Honestly this couldn’t be more Utility Fog, and I love it so much. Daniel O’Toole – Breathing Colour [Cascade Rumble Records] Naarm-based artist & musician Daniel O’Toole was based here in Eora until a few years back, and was responsible for a lot of well-loved street art under the name Ears. Accompanying that were a few albums of funky instrumental hip-hop as Captain Earwax, but these days Daniel is emphasising the more abstract, gallery-friendly side of his art – gorgeous colour gradients and textures that you can sample here – and musically he’s making incredible custom-built instruments alongside his own strings, keyboard playing, percussion etc: check out the particle plate and the particle drum. Hand-made gestural instruments like this are at the core of O’Toole’s new album Outer Magnolia, but equally there’s a lot of acoustic sounds here – folktronica but not like your Daddy made it. Euan Alexander Millar-McMeeken – Nothing Moves In Me [Sleep In The Fire Records] London-based Scottish musician Euan Alexander Millar-McMeeken has recorded a lot of solo ambient music as glacis, and led indie/folk band The Kays Lavelle for many years. He has a substantial number of collaborative projects, many of them duos, all of them wonderful: Graveyard Tapes with Matthew Collings and Civic Hall with Craig Tattersall, Bird Battles with Jesse Narens and now Yoal with Satomimagae. In 2024, Euan released his first album under his full name, All The Weather Of The Human Heart, a deeply moving work that’s a meditation on loss, in which the central vocals & piano are cracked & smudged through digital & analogue means. Similar approaches to sound design are found on the solo follow-up Framed Insects – fragile songs and tape hiss interrupted by distorted beats or glitched into strange structures. Just gorgeous. Listen again — ~217MB

  • April 5 · 2 hr

    Playlist 05.04.26

    Songforms of conventional and highly unconventional sorts tonight, taking in folk traditions from around the world, jazz, the outer limits of metal and more, plus strange twistings of clubforms, impressionist composition of the early 20th century, field recordings and more… LISTEN AGAIN, unconventionally. Stream on demand from fbi.radio, podcast right here. Wendy Eisenberg – Take A Number [Joyful Noise/Bandcamp] Wendy Eisenberg – Curious Bird [Joyful Noise/Bandcamp] We’ve heard from brilliant guitarist, sometime banjoist, songwriter, improviser & composer Wendy Eisenberg in many contexts in the last couple of years: there’s the amazing postpunk/art-rock trio Editrix, Bill Orcutt’s Guitar Quartet, their avant-garde songwriting collaboration with Caroline Davis, and most recently their appearance on their now-partner Mari More Eaze Rubio’s brilliant solo album sentence structure in the country. But the highlight for me remains Eisenberg’s breathtaking final track, “In The Pines”, from their 2024 album Viewfinder. So for all their jazz guitar chops and restless experimentation, I’m already primed to love Eisenberg’s most pure songwriting on this album. There’s definitely a statement in self-titling a mid-career album, and Wendy Eisenberg presents as a straightforward album of songwriterly storytelling, deeply grounded in their newfound love with Mari Rubio. There’s definitely more than a little country in these songs, as well as folk-revivalist styles from Britain, Appalachia etc, but whatever genre, Wendy’s particular melodic sensibility comes through. Supporting this, however, are the utterly essential, sumptuous string arrangements from Mari Rubio, who also co-produced the album with Eisenberg and added pedal steel and synths. With longtime bandmates Trevor Dunn on bass (known for Mr Bungle, Secret Chiefs 3, many John Zorn-related lineups etc) and Ryan Sawyer on drums (of too many collaborations including a time in At The Drive-In and long-ago UFog faves Stars Like Fleas), there’s a homely feel to these songs, songs which contemplate identity, life’s trajectory, past trauma and coming into a hard-won happiness. Margareth Kammerer – Gift [Ftarri/Bandcamp] Margareth Kammerer – Amor [Ftarri/Bandcamp] Weirdly, when I did my DJ set for Art After Hours/Liquid Architecture/Sydney Biennale in March (stream it here) I decided to play a track by Berlin-based Italian singer & composer Margareth Kammerer, and only a day or two later I discovered that she’d just released a new album, The Garden. I’ve been a fan of hers since, I would say, the mid 2000s, when she released the extraordinary album To Be an Animal of Real Flesh, full of odd, experimental songs. Following a few years later came two wonderful, mysterious albums with The Magic I.D., a quartet with Christof Kurzmann on electronics and vocals next to her own guitar & vocals, and the two clarinettists, Kai Fagaschinski & Michael Thieke, who also play bewitching, alien music as The International Nothing. So it’s reasonable to say she’s been deconstructing and re-examining songform for some decades by now. Released by Japanese label Ftarri (also a tiny experimental music venue & store in Tokyo), The Garden is of a piece with her earlier albums – the last of which came out a mere 12 years ago… Her oddly beautiful songs are supported by many important fellow travellers including our own Chris Abrahams of The Necks etc, double-bassist/electronicist Werner Dafeldecker, experimental musician Valerio Tricoli and experimental cellist Bo Wiget. I remain in awe. Espen Reinertsen – Til noens dype muskelvev [SusannaSonata/Bandcamp] Espen Reinertsen – Skal jeg følge deg til havet [SusannaSonata/Bandcamp] What astonishing beauty to stumble upon without warning! Espen Reinertsen is a name I’ve known for a while, as his saxophone and woodwinds – or his mixing skills – are credited on many a Norwegian release, including those from Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, Erik Honoré, Kim Myhr, Jenny Hval and Christian Wallumrød Ensemble. But these are his own songs, with sparse live drums and drum machines, sparse keyboards and gorgeous woodwind & trumpet arrangements which frequently shift into unexpected voicings and harmonies. You’ll hear a lot of Radiohead here – albeit more jazz-informed – but it’s also one of those rare cases when the post-rock-as-in-Talk-Talk tag is completely justified. Reinertsen’s melodies are simple until they spin off into some harmonically distant galaxy, and his layers of woodwinds are delicately emotive, merging invisibly with synthesizers just as Erik Nylander’s acoustic drums somehow have the precision of drum machines and also the sparkle of jazz drums. What a blessing. Marianna Sangita Angeletaki Røe & Trondheim Jazz Orchestra – Kori [Puritone/Bandcamp] So, Trondheim Jazz Orchestra are a collective with a varying lineup of Norwegian improvising musicians, who enlist different musicians to collaborate with them, with reliably extraordinary results. On this album, they work with Greek-Norwegian singer & composer Marianna Sangita Angeletaki Røe, who has titled the album ΣΠΙΤΙ (SPITI), which is Greek for “Home”. Marianna Sangita explores her own search for belonging, caught between two very different places, and she sings in four different languages: Norwegian, Greek, English, and Sámi, the latter being a people indigenous to the Sápmi region across northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland and part of Russia. The music, too, draws from many different traditions, with Greece’s proximity to the area Europeans call the “Middle East” evident in its traditional musical forms, and the combined vocals of Sangita, Ina Sagstuen and Sissel Vera Pettersen (and other musicians at times) evoking Eastern European musics as much as Nordic. The musicianship is uniformly brilliant, the songs sparkling, moving, joyful. Highly recommended. Mayssa Jallad – Taamir (Bahriyyeh) [Ruptured Records/Bandcamp] A few years back, Beirut label Ruptured put out an amazing album by Lebanese singer/songwriter and researcher Mayssa Jallad called Marjaa: The Battle of the Hotels. In touching experimental songs, Jallad chronicled the beginning of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975, in which Christian Nationalists and pro-Palestinian leftists fought a violent battle amongst the high-rise hotels in Beirut, leading to the Green Line dividing the city, a rift that lasted for 15 years. Since then the album has been remixed in spectral dub fashion by Civilistjävel!, and in 2024 Mayssa created a stunning piece about a Palestinian woman displaced from her village in the Nakba. That single was created out of an instrumental track by Tunefork Studios & Ruptured Records’ Fadi Tabbal, and her new song “Taamir (Bahriyyeh)” is a musical collaboration with Tabbal, featuring drums from Postcards & SANAM‘s Pascal Semerdjian. Jallad is an urban researcher as well as a musician, and urban history is the basis of all these works. This song is about the Taamir social housing project, built in the wake of a destructive earthquake in 1956. By the time the project started, the Ain el Helwe refugee camp had already existed for 8 years, and the juxtaposition of Palestinian refugees, unfortunates who lost their homes in the earthquake, and those more fortunate, is explored by Jallad in this moving, experimental piece, with rumbling, clattering drones and field recordings surrounding Jallad’s voice. Radwan Ghazi Moumneh & Frédéric D. Oberland – Squeal Of Swine خنخنة خنازير [Constellation/Bandcamp] Montreal’s storied Constellation label here brings together a Canadian and French artist for their first duo work. Radwan Ghazi Moumneh has been deeply involved in the Montreal postrock & experimental music in Quebec for over 2 decades, and he’s the co-owner of the mighty Hotel2Tango, originally a performance & artists’ space co-run by members of Godspeed You! Black Emperor and A Silver Mt. Zion, but his main musical outlet has been Jerusalem In My Heart, begun as an audiovisual project with Erin Weisgerber, with Moumneh’s stunning melismatic vocals fed through granular processing to create a contemporary Arabic music ahead of its time in the mid-2010s. Frédéric D. Oberland is a key figure in Paris’s psych & avant-rock scenes, although he also began making films on Super8 & video. Among many bands & collaborations, he leads the incredible Oiseaux-Tempête, a collective whose music draws on psych, krautrock, postpunk and electronic music, with many collaborators and a deep connection to SWANA artists. Moumneh & Oberland had worked together via Oiseaux-Tempête and other projects, but had long intended to collaborate as a duo. Some works were started at Hotel2Tango in 2023, but as Moumneh puts it, since the genocide began he’d experienced sever writer’s block, so he took himself off to Paris in 2024 to complete the work. Four of the seven tracks do feature Moumneh’s voice, but here it’s Oberland taking more of a driver’s seat. Nevertheless, as well as Moumneh’s pain-filled voice Moumneh plays both buzuk and rababa, and there’s daf in the mix along with lots of electronic drones, drum machines and Oberland’s sax and clarineau. This is immersive music of great emotion. Maryam Saleh – Nedaa نداء [Simsara Records/Bandcamp] I first heard Egyptian singer Maryam Saleh as part of the magnificent trio release Lekhfa back in 2017. There, Saleh’s voice combined with the voice and instruments of Palestinian-Egyptian musician Tamer Abu Ghazaleh and the production wizardry and music of Maurice Louca – a masterpiece of Arabic indie music. As far as I can see, her new album, coming some 9 years later, is her first since that collaboration. Produced by Maurice Louca, it also features multiple instruments and creative mentoring from Paris-based Palestinian musician Kamilya Jubran, who founded the organisation Zamkara in Paris to support artistic projects. After three years of development, the result is Syrr سِرّ, the Arabic word for secret, which also happens to be the name Saleh gave her daughter. The album is imprinted by heavy events in Saleh’s life, particularly post-natal depression and divorce. Released by Sarah El Miniawy‘s Simsara Records, this is a creative take on Arabic music, leaning into trip-hop at times, into acoustic instrumentation at other times, carried by Saleh’s beautifully expressive voice and the confident hands of Jubran and Louca, and the impeccable musicianship of the other instrumentalists who join them. But one of the highlights is “Nafas نفَس”, in which Saleh is accompanied solely by Jubran’s oud and exquisitely-harmonised vocal shadows from the two of them. All in all, not to be missed! Taroug – Sirocco [Denovali/Bandcamp] On his second album with Denovali Records, Chott, Düsseldorf-based Tunisian musician Taroug (aka Tarek Zarroug) presents a highly varied mixture of styles. When Zarroug wants to make beat-based bass music, he hits all the right production notes with a healthy dose of north African percussion, while elsewhere there’s dreamy postrock with vocals by the artist himself. Honestly it’s uncanny how the album flits between genres, displaying Zarroug’s ancestry here, slipping into UK bass there or indie guitar music elsewhere. A really impressive album. Wraz. – Twist [Deep Dark & Dangerous/Bandcamp] Rites, the second full album from Montreal dubstep master Wraz., is released through Deep Dark & Dangerous, the label run by New Zealand’s longstanding dubstep duo Truth. As usual, heavyweight dubstep gear, sci-fi aesthetics, surprising melodies… Battery Operated – Stutter [YUKU/Bandcamp] Battery Operated – Casting Shadows [YUKU/Bandcamp] It should be obvious by now that YUKU delivers the goods, but here they are again with something insanely great. The artist behind Battery Operated is also known as PS95, an outlet for mangled jungle breaks that draws our attention to the fact that the Playstation was launched in 1995, the heyday of jungle. On the other hand, Battery Operated has thus far been an alias for deliciously lo-fi tape loops – see their Instagram for videos of their beautifully-modded cassettes & players. But the debut Battery Operated album for YUKU, TYPE I, combines these two strands in stunning fashion. From what I can tell, PS95 & the recording artist Battery Operated are the same person, but the tape loop “art” projects are done with his brother. So this ain’t dance music, not primarily, but nor is it dreamy loop-jelly. Breaks surface from tape hiss, tape loop experiments are layered & sequenced into melodies and sonic narratives, often sounding like a half-analogue/half-digital current-day version of IDM. Wonderful. Thugwidow – IT DIDN’T NEED EXPLAINING [Thugwidow Bandcamp] Thugwidow – pristine heart [Thugwidow Bandcamp] Jungle may be having a renaissance right now, with no end in sight, but Welsh producer Alex Lowther-Harris was on the jungle train way before most. The first Thugwidow releases were around 2017, and for a few years he was fiercly prolific, released mostly on cassette and digital, with a couple of CDs and some vinyl further down the track. His lo-fi early work gave way to slicker production chops as time went on, and the creative firehose slowed by around 2021-22. So it was a joyful shock to see something new appear on his bandcamp, only… it’s a swan song? Yes, SWUN SUNGZ does do what its title suggests, but it also shows that this prolific artist had more up his sleeve – it’s just that the pleasure had drained from it, he was feeling stuck… So here’s *ahem* 121 tracks, going for almost 11½ hours, and there’s a lot of quality material here, including a bunch of collaborations, and productions ranging from hardcore jungle-techno to advanced rhythm science. It’s a helluva way to go out! Note also that not only is all the money likely going to the British bird & wildlife charity RSPB, but he says most of his earnings from the project were always given away to charity. CRZKNY – 009 [Virgin Babylon Records] Japanese experimental electronic producer CRZKNY (which I’ve just learned stands for “CRAZY KENNY”) has brushed shoulders with experimental genre-mashing legend (and seminal UFog artist) World’s End Girlfriend before, on WEG productions and on his label Virgin Babylon, but this is a bit of a special release – a bit like Thugwidow’s above, this is a massive collection of unreleased tunes, here all just numbered as they’re pieces that CRZKNY has played at the Nagoya club GOODWEATHER. CZRKNY put this collection together to help support the club’s founder Eri Ishii after she suffered both an aortic dissection and a cerebral thrombosis, leaving her in a coma for some weeks. She is now on a long road of rehabilitation, and CRZKNY wants to give back to a person who built this perfect live space for his music. Lots of great techno, including glitchy shit and tasty breakbeats, for a good cause. deafkids – CICATRIZES [Neurot Recordings/Bandcamp] Brazilian band deafkids may nominally be classed as “punk”, but hardcore punk mixes with industrial and noise in their sound, along with electronic music of all shapes. They released the incredible uncategorizable Metaprogramação on Neurosis‘ Neurot Recordings in 2019, and then when the pandemic hit, they put out a series of EPs that mixed Latin rhythmic complexity with guitar pedal and software experimentation, collected now on the album Ritos do Colapso. Except before that in 2020 came their collaboration DEAFBRICK with cross-continental noise-metal-industrial-electronic duo PETBRICK. So with various collabs and oddities in the interim, their forthcoming CICATRIZES DO FUTURO (Scars of the Future) is their first album proper since Metaprogramação. It looks to be more electronic, more intense, more angry than ever, a visceral reaction to the state of the world. Highly rhythmic and danceable, it shifts between hardcore punk, industrial, Latin American and club sounds with abandon. I can’t wait to hear the whole thing. Lint – Balsam of Peru [Lint Bandcamp] OK so, you know, like Scattered Order? A band who I have referred to in the past as “Sydney postpunk/post-industrial/experimental electronic legends”. Mitch Jones is a founding member of said legendary band, active since the early ’80s or possibly slightly earlier, post-etc as described above. Drusilla Johnson aka Dru Jones has been a member of said legendary band at times, and has contributed some brilliant artwork in various phases of their existence. She’s also Mitch’s wife, and they live now in Mt Victoria, in the Blue Mountains on Dharug and Gundungurra country, and at times they release music together as Lint. It’s instinctual, artistic, splashes of colour washed over detailed line drawings… It’s the sound of Air in the taps, but it’s also the sound of over four decades building and trashing and rebuilding a musical language, and you can hear it in every dialogue sample and every wonky beat and the occasional guitar noise solo. It’s so lovely to have a seemingly endless font of new music from these folks in many changing combinations. Roman Rofalski – Ondine (radio edit 1) [Puddle Label/Bandcamp] Last time we heard from German pianist Roman Rofalski – only a few weeks ago – he was deconstructing his piano… again, following his wonderful Fractal from 2024, which shredded piano and prepared piano into constellations of granular sound and rhythm. Ravel Reimagined does just what it tells you – but to be clear, Rofalski does it really well. Over four tracks, Rofalski excerpts four celebrated piano works by the beloved impressionist composer and deconstructs them – and it’s notable that these are live performances, with Rofalski playing grand piano and simultaneously sampling himself, then reworking phrases into loops & glitchy constructions, overlaying them with synths and even beats at times. Maurice Ravel was famously prickly, was not fond of the borrowed artistic term of “impressionism” being used for his music (nor was his elder, Debussy), and was underappreciated in his time. He’s also one of my favourite composers, who I believe advanced composition in directions hitherto unimagined. Rofalski’s extrapolations push Ravel far beyond his imaginings, and it’s quite likely he would be horrified to hear what’s been done to his pieces – but now we’re imagining a composer unmoored by over a century from his origins; these prickly pieces require decades of context to situate them here and now. The virtuosic pianism outlining harmonies full of augmented and diminished intervals, whole-tone scales, melodies woven through corruscating hemidemisemiquavers (hear the original here) are thrown immediately into digital reverberation and gradual distortion until they’re glitched and chopped, then crash into long-ringing tones, a fragmented sample bleating around Ravel’s melody as the piece comes to a close. Bravo. OD – Arrival [Driftworks/Bandcamp] Alex O’Donovan is a recording & mixing engineer, but as OD he makes his own music. On Svalr, O’Donovan documents time spent in Svalbard, an island archipelago in the Arctic which is also home to Norway’s Global Seed Vault (the subject of another beautiful sound work by Ecker & Meulyzer). This album is part of a new project called SITE, co-curated by Audiobulb and Driftworks. O’Donovan took extensive field recordings of the diversity of natural sounds (including glaciers!) as well as the built environment, and found commonalities in all these sounds that formed the basis of his compositions. Remote as it is, Svalbard is inevitably encroached upon by anthrogenic climate change, and as the EP goes on, the sounds of water & ice & animals are swept up in almost industrial impulses, and glitched beat constructions. OD’s Svalr makes compelling music around its highly engaging field recordings. Sandscape – half closed eyes [Octopoda Records/Bored of Works/Bandcamp] Sudanese-Scottish “ethereal grunger” Eliza Shaddad and screen composer Daniel Sonabend team up as Sandscape on the forthcoming album Phenomenology, and first single “half closed eyes” is like hearing a dusty 7″ record playing in a different room of your house – a beguiling piece of ambient-dub-jazz with both artists’ vocals, soft but saturated piano, and muffled drumming from Liam Hutton. Unexpected harmonisations flow over the looping music, but not long after it fades away like a dream – “half closed eyes” indeed. The album promises noise-laden trip-hop, muffled jazz and an exploration of the mixed Arab/British/Jewish heritage between the members… Keen to hear more. Stine Janvin / Morten Joh – Leaving home – O Verden, Hav Da Gode Nat! (feat. Lucy Railton) [Futura Resistenza/Bandcamp] Stine Janvin / Morten Joh – Before the burial site – Jeg Raader Eder Alle [Futura Resistenza/Bandcamp] Returning now to Norway, we finish with beautiful strangeness from Norwegians Stine Janvin and Morten Joh, adapting funeral procession music (“Liksongen” = corpse songs) from Ryfylke, Norway. Janvin’s voice forms the basis of these works, but the ceremonial music is rendered alien through extensive electronic processing and additional electronics, and occasional vibraphone from Joh. Two guests, both with innovative approaches to their instruments, contribute further: Berlin-based Australian guitarist Jules Reidy and British cellist Lucy Railton. But one of the most magical moments must be when Janvin’s voice is shadowed by its electronic twin in warbling harmony. On the second last track, the alien elements mostly give way to the acoustic sounds of voice and vibraphone, although the album concludes with stentorian synths playing J.S. Bach. Not for the faint of heart, but rewarding listening. Listen again — ~208MB

  • March 29 · 2 hr

    Playlist 29.03.26

    Quite a journey today, through genres, countries & continents, emotions and BPMs. This is how we do it in the house of Utility Fog. LISTEN AGAIN & travel with me. Stream on demand at fbi.radio, podcast here. Snakeskin – Lost Today [Tunefork Studios/Bandcamp] The Bunny Tylers – Let There Be Light [Tunefork Studios/Bandcamp] Akram Hajj – Day 2 [Tunefork Studios/Bandcamp] SANAM – Aykathani Malakon (SAFA remix) [Tunefork Studios/Bandcamp] While the US & Israel’s misdirected, pointless, intensely damaging war on Iran continues, Israel has taken the opportunity to advance into southern Lebanon – very much not for the first time, but driven by the far right’s power in government and the impunity of the IDF & settlers’ accelerating ethnic cleansing of the West Bank, this is now becoming a territorial takeover. “Greater Israel” was once just a gross fantasy of the worst elements of the Zionist right, but now they’re grabbing their chance to enact it in reality. Under the pretext of disarming Hezbollah, Israel is flattening areas of Lebanon including neighbourhoods in Beirut, and as a result there are more than 1 million displaced people in Lebanon. Over. One. Million. Beirut, as you may have noted from these playlists over the last few years, has an unreasonably rich experimental music scene, and Tunefork Studios has been a hub for musicians ranging from postpunk & shoegaze bands to noise, chaotic industrial rock and electronica. The studio was founded by the ever-present producer Fadi Tabbal, who’s also one half of Snakeskin with Julia Sabra and one half of The Bunny Tylers with Charbel Haber, and associated musicians manage (Sabra) & work there. In December 2024, Tunefork released a big compilation of amazing Lebanese music called Land 01 – A Compilation for the Displaced in Lebanon, materially supporting people with living spaces & more. The current situation has severely deepened this humanitarian crisis, and fortunately Tunefork had not one but TWO compilations of music by Lebanese musicians ready to go. Like 01, all tracks are exclusive to the compilations, totalling 58 new tracks. If you don’t already have the first, you can purchase all three at once for a discount, but however you choose, you’ll know that you’re helping raise money for Beit Aam, a community space in Beirut that’s providing housing and food for displaced people. The tracklists are extremely varied, from a touching piece by Snakeskin to the post-industrial lurch of The Bunny Tylers, the swirling noise of Akram Hajj and an unreleased remix of Beirut supergroup SANAM (now signed to Constellation) by London-based sound-artist and researcher Mhamad SAFA, and so much more. dälek – By the Time We Arrive in El Salvador [Ipecac Recordings/Bandcamp] Last year, Will Brooks, also known as MC Dälek of the eponymous noise-hop outfit dälek, collaborated with the legendary postpunk/art-rock drummer/composer/singer Charles Hayward, a project dubbed HAYWARDxDÄLEK. It was one of those things which seems completely out of leftfield, but works surprisingly well. It was also charmingly odd that it was released on renowned metal label Relapse Records, but Relapse has of late also supported Kevin Martin & JK Broadrick’s Techno Animal remasters and their newer project Zonal… And more to the point, dälek in their first incarnation (with producer Alap Momin aka The Oktopus) and their 2016 reformation (now with longtime fellow traveller Mike Mare aka Destructo Swarmbots) have always been metal-adjacent, their boom-baps and Brooks’ conscious, politically-informed raps generally supported with shoegaze-noise-drone that references the Bomb Squad’s innovations with Public Enemy but also the washed-out intensity of My Bloody Valentine. New album Brilliance of a Fallen Moon follows their other recent albums on Mike Patton’s Ipecac Recordings with claustrophobic environments, noise textures and social commentary. “By the Time We Arrive in El Salvador” flips Public Enemy’s masterpiece “By The Time I Get To Arizona“, itself a riff on Jimmy Webb’s “By The Time I Get Phoenix“, to reference the appalling deportation by the Trump regime of mostly Venezuelans – many American citizens – to the notorious high-security CECOT prison in El Salvador. Brooks’ lyrics poetically circle his subject matter, often buried in the mix, part of the cyberpunkish malaise. james K – N’Balmed (JASSS Purple Remix) [AD93/Bandcamp] Following her vaporwave-trip-hop album Friend from last year, james K now reaches out for some heavy-duty Friends to remix the album. Spanish producer JASSS, whose Eager Buyers album last year featured james K on one of its best tracks, takes “N’Balmed” into something equally ’90s-influenced but on a more head-noddin’ electro-pop tip. There’s a plethora of interesting artists involved here, and I look forward to further offerings. Antoine Ferris – shame’s coming ft. natacha kanga [Carton Records/Bandcamp] I have the honour of having “discovered” French bassist Antoine Ferris before he was cool – where cool = released by the might Carton Records (that’s really cool!) A friend alerted me to the soundtrack to this beautiful black & white video which, as I described it 3 years ago, captures something of the joy of early Fennesz & Mego glitch-works for me, but it’s entirely made from electric bass – stuttery edits and pitch-shifts, and occasional outbursts of skronky distortion. That track, “Hount Orbe”, has been included on Ferris’ debut solo album [KAAARST], fitting in very well with the even noisier processed sounds, industrial-seeming beats and shocks of occasional beauty here. I’m looking forward to playing you more from this album, but the first single somehow drags the abstract bass destruction into hip-hop territory, made only more sinister by the guest rapping from Natacha Kanga. ŽIVA – Hesitation [ŽIVA Bandcamp] Croatian singer/producer Lucija Ivsic moved to Naarm/Melbourne a couple of years ago, leaving her postpunk band Punčke and started her solo project ŽIVA, an outlet for industrial-tinged experimental electronic pop, to which she brings a Slavic darkness and lots of energy. Her second album ŽIIVA (which is easy to misread if you forget it’s album “II”) exorcises mental health demons on underground dancefloors. There’s nothing quite like it around at the moment. Esther – Critical [YUKU/Bandcamp] On the Leese and Chewlie Invite 002 EP, Prague label YUKU brings us another selection of experimental bass productions by women, selected by Belgium’s Leslie Deboeur (Leese) and Swiss producer Julie Häller (Chewlie). Toulouse DJ Esther brings a techno thump with deep subs and jittery rhythms around the edges. Ruby My Dear – Iterations [Analogical Force] Named for a Thelonious Monk tune, Julien Chastagnol’s Ruby My Dear has always brought classical compositions and jazz melodies to his super-intricate breakcore & idm productions. While you may not find specific instances of jazz or classical here, there’s a melodic nature to whatever the producer does, as well as blasts of intense break-choppery. Like Antoine Ferris and Esther, Chastagnol hails from the Toulouse region, and when not DJing or beatmaking, since 2000 he’s run the family winery, Mas Levigné. ZULI – Half Empty [irsh/Bandcamp] ZULI – 44 [irsh/Bandcamp] Cairo master ZULI is back on the irsh label that he founded with Rama in pandemic times. Naming the release The Screaming Abdabs gives more than a hint at the nervous energy found within, which takes another sharp turn into industrial strength saturation while bringing back something of the high-tech beats that made ZULI stand out when he debuted 10 years ago. Basslines boom, drums crunch and screetch, and even the domestic samples that make up “44” clatter in fury, punctuated by stomach-rattling subs. Unconventional dancefloors rejoice! Marco Simioni – Dot With Illumination (Delta Division Remix) [Detroit Underground/Bandcamp] London-based Italian producer Marco Simioni returns to Detroit Underground with JOMO, an extended remix album (23 tracks!) of reworks of his 2023 album FOMO. “Joy Of Missing Out”? Here Simionio steps back from the production booth, handing his acid & breakbeat-fuelled IDM tunes to a bunch of friends from around the world. The rave deconstructions and ambient electronics here mirror the album’s range, with blurting acid and melodic post-trance rubbing up against drum’n’bass and jungle mutations like Delta Division‘s remix. Dro Carey & Pinz – Hellish Plasma [Braincamp rec./Bandcamp] Eora/Sydney electro/experimental mastermind Dro Carey returned after 4 years with the VT2 EP last year, and has now droppped a big album, Denim Iron, via his Braincamp rec., which releases his productions in various incarnations, including the disco-house and techno of Tuff Sherm, the twisted avant-gardism of PMM and the dance compositions he’s made under his own name. But Dro Carey is what Eugene Ward is best known as, and the album starts off with tuff drum machines and dense synths, and mostly stays there except a few more spacious tracks. The collab with Eora DJ Andy Lowe aka Pinz – heralding a full collaborative release later this year – is apocalyptic basslines, syncopated beats and sinister vocal snippets. Korsain – +55 [Infernal Sounds/Bandcamp] On the +55 EP Brazillian beatmaker Korsain drops three tracks on Stoke-on-Trent dubstep/140bpm label Infernal Sounds. +55 is Brazil’s calling code, emphasising the influence of Korsain’s home on these tunes, and while guest MC Rakjay is based in the UK, he slips invisibly between Spanish and English. Only the third track approximates dubstep, but the standout title track takes the tempo and sparse-not-sparse attitude of early dubstep with percussion reduced to pounding kicks and rimshots, occasional toms and slices of voice, while the bassline drives ever-forward. Paperclip Minimiser – II A1 [Peak Oil/Bandcamp] A programmer of sophisticated music software as Cong Burn (also the name of his longstanding experimental record label), John Howes has for years made organic-feeling techno & electronica under his surname, but Paperclip Minimiser is his home for minimalist dub techno and dub-tinged IDM. Frankly all stunning stuff, as should be expected from Brian Foote’s Peak Oil. Commodo – Deep Harbour ft. Alfa Mist [Black Acre/Bandcamp] A few years ago, dubstep don Commodo hit upon a combo of postpunk guitar+bass with the spare beats and head-noddin’ vibe of dubstep & grime (see Deft 1s & the releases following it), following the equally subtle & vibey TV crime soundtrack-meets-dubstep of 2020’s Loan Shark and Stakeout. So it’s nice to see him back on Black Acre with more jazz-fusion vibes, here assisted by the brilliant Alfa Mist on super slinky electric piano. You can catch the keyboardist (without Commodo) at Sydney Opera House for Vivid Live in May! Meanwhile Anz provides two excellent breakbeat remixes – it’s been a few years since we’ve heard from her, and hopefully this heralds very good things on the way! Nicolas Remondino – boku ga (feat. Adele Altro) [OOH-sounds/Bandcamp] Nicolas Remondino – hìeratico [OOH-sounds/Bandcamp] Italian percussionist Nicolas Remondino has featured on these playlists many times, whether solo as LAMIEE. or part of the duo ŌTONN with Andrea Silvia Giordano, with the new music group Dròlo Ensemble, the postrock/jazz of McCorman – or indeed under his own name. For a while it seemed like every release sounded different – drones, leftfield songwriting, extreme electronics or free jazz; but that previous solo album Ocra Rossa established a practice around prepared drums, on that release the sole sound source. On his extraordinary new album Hìeratico the scrapes and scatters and sussurations of those percussion instruments become one instrument among many, but remain at the centre of the work. Around them, Remondino weaves his own keyboards and processed samples along with many guests, including the inimitable percussionist, pianist & vocalist Limpe Fuchs, instrument-maker, mad scientist & trumpeter Pierre Bastien, sound-artist, guitarist & maker of beautiful scratchy noises Giuseppe Ielasi and more – including the lovely vocals of Adele Altro on one of the tracks tonight. KINACT – Cercle de Tambour Kinact [Nyege Nyege Tapes/Bandcamp] KINACT – Cercle de Tambour Kinact avec Manza et Ikembe [Nyege Nyege Tapes/Bandcamp] Nyege Nyege Tapes has long supported weird electronic music from the African continent, not just Uganda where they’re based, and here we’re presented with the wild, entirely sui generis sound of KINACT, which is really a conglomerate of street artists from the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo: KINACT = Kinshasa in Action. The members dress up in colourful, outlandish costumes, often made from artfully-repurposed rubbish, but they also make music from percussion instruments and lots of distortion – much like Konono No.1 did a generation earlier. Founding member Eddy Ekete brought a group of KINACT members to Nyege’s studios in Kampala where they spent a two-month residency creating the incredible sounds you can here now. Congolese drumming patterns mix with synths, pummelled sheet metal, power drills, motorcycle engines and more – it’s Einstürzende Neubauten remade from the ground up in DRC, realised in Uganda… But it’s just as magical when the percussion itself gets to shine – especially when the wooden xylophone called Manza and the thumb piano known as Ikembe. Unmissable. FRANTX – BARBIECUE [Carton Records/Bandcamp] Andrea Giordano, Kalle Moberg, Jo David Meyer Lysne – D’antorn a lor [Black Truffle Records/Bandcamp] Two releases here show the breadth of the work of Oslo-based Italian musician & singer Andrea Giordano, mentioned above as an early collaborator with Nicolas Remondino in their electro-acoustic duo ŌTONN and the contemporary classical/jazz Dròlo Ensemble. And while I say she is Oslo-based, Giordano is also leader of the Paris-based “glit-noise” band FRANTX. As far as I know, in FRANTX she is lead singer, also playing melodica and all sorts of electronics (in other groups she plays winds and various keyboard-based instruments including accordion). I intrepret “glit” as “glitch”, but it could also refer to glitter, and the group has a glittery queer punk attitude, tackling the politics of making music in the current context, expressing themselves through electro-acoustic experimentalism, punk noise (or noisy punk) and a weird instrumental lineup (guitar & drums added to Giordano’s melodica and Fanny Meteier‘s tuba). The album’s out on May 22, titled IDUTYU (“I Didn’t Understand That You Didn’t Understand”). Meanwhile, at the far opposite end of Giordano’s practice is her album Radis, released on Oren Ambarchi‘s Black Truffle Records. The album takes Giordano back to her hometown of Cuneo in Piedmont, setting 20th century poetry written in Piedmontese, a language at the edge of disappearing (in fact, some of her lyrics with FRANTX are also in Piedmontese). These are touching, beautifully vulnerable, minimalist songs on which Giordano mostly plays the organetto – an Italian miniature button accordion – and is joined by accordionist Kalle Moberg and guitarist Jo David Meyer Lysne, both of whom use extended techniques to extract emotion in a sideways manner. The detailed mix by Jim O’Rourke helps bring out every squeak and scrape. Zela Margossian Quintet – Repentance [Ropeadope/Bandcamp] Staying acoustic, we visit the Sydney-based Armenian pianist Zela Margossian, whose Quintet are releasing their third album Remedy on the storied American folk/roots/jazz label Ropeadope. Like her US-based compatriot Tigran Hamasyan, Margossian combines virtuosic jazz piano with the gorgeous harmonies and complex rhythms of traditional Armenian music, almost unparalleled in its ability to pull the heartstrings. There are three singles so far released, all of which demonstrate how epic and engrossing this album will be. Caroline Davis – She Know She Is Water [Ropeadope/Bandcamp] At the beginning of March, I was fortunate enough to be able to premiere two tracks from the incredible solo album Fallows from Brooklyn-based saxophonist Caroline Davis. A renowned jazz saxophonist and composer, Davis has played in and led ensembles with notable US jazz musicians such as Tyshawn Sorey, Dawn of Midi’s Qasim Naqvi and turntablist Val Jeanty – and in 2024 she made a gorgeous duo album with Wendy Eisenberg, avant-jazz-pop that could only come from these two distinctively talented musicians (there’s a follow-up coming sometime!) All that said, Fallows is a very different beast, made entirely solo during an artists’ residency in Ucross, Wyoming, where she was able to work on saxophone looping techniques and the sound processing and synthesis available on Critter and Guitari’s Organelle. The result is that anything can happen here, from expressive multi-tracked saxophone harmonisations to tumbling glitchy beats, loops queasily shifting speeds and field recordings populated with local fauna. On “She Know She Is Water”, Davis samples the voice of Thích Nhất Hạnh, a Buddhist monk and peace activist who she was fortunate to meet during her studies. Sampled keyboards and machine rhythms clatter and glitch, splashing around the samples of Hạnh’s voice. A unique and very special album. Penelope Trappes – Thou Art Mortal (Julia Holter Rework) [One Little Independent/Bandcamp] After not one but TWO albums from Brighton-based Aussie singer/sound-artist Penelope Trappes last year – A Requiem was followed by Æternum – Penelope now enlists a pretty incredible group of her peers – mostly women – for OPVS NOVUM – A Requiem Reworked. The release features the likes of Saint Etienne, Klara Lewis, Flora Yin-Wong and more. On the first single, Julia Holter leans deep into the minimalism of the original, with lone string parts and vocals echoing in darkness, embedded into reverb tails of bells and white noise. Listen again — ~220MB

  • March 22 · 2 hr

    Playlist 22.03.26

    World is fukt. Music, not surprisingly, reflects that. But there’s joy and dancing and energy to be found here as well as anger and only a bit of sorrow. Dance a new world into being! LISTEN AGAIN and enjoy something whyoncha. Stream on demand from fbi.radio or podcast here. Oh and by the way, I DJed on Friday night (March 20th) at White Bay Power Station for Art After Dark / Sydney Bienalle, curated by Liquid Architecture. Mara Schwerdtfeger did a beautiful set, and we were graced by a performance from Tujiko Noriko as headliner. I recorded my first set, which opened the evening, a pretty wide-ranging mix that I’m sure you’ll like if you’re a follower of this show! raven · "Omphalo Centric Mixture", live @ White Bay Power Station for Liquid Architecture Youniss – TakeThat ft. Pink Siifu [VIERNULVIER/Bandcamp] Youniss – Gits Worse ft. Petite Noir [VIERNULVIER/Bandcamp] Sometimes it’s good to become acquainted with the underground & cutting edge in odd corners of the world. I was lucky to perform at the brilliant dunk!festival last year with my band Black Aleph, a festival in Europe’s best-kept secret, the lovely northern-Belgium city of Ghent. Specifically, the festival occurs in a few theatres and venues around an arts centre / platform / community called VIERNULVIER (404), which itself has a phenomenally-curated boutique record label. It’s from this connection that I discovered Antwerp-based multi-instrumentalist, producer, singer & taxi driver Youniss Ahamad. In a fair world, Youniss would be as big as other genre-crossing punk/indie/hip-hop acts, or at least would have the critical recognition he deserves. In this dizzying world of non-stop (bad) news and constant interconnectedness (unless you’re under Iran’s internet blackout or myriad other less-advantaged or more-oppressed populaces), it’s hard for anything to cut through, but I wish that Good Effort! would do so. It’s loosely themed around gentrification, which as it always does is pushing the multicultural residents of the area of Antwerp where Youniss lives out of their homes and community centres. But it’s full of great songwriting, switching between post-punk, jazz and hip-hop on a dime. Youniss plays most of the instruments as well as singing & rapping, but he does also invite some top tier guests, including Belgian clarinettist Dienne, Congolese/South African singer Petite Noir, and underground rappers like Quelle Chris and Pink Siifu. Do yourself a favour and stick this in your ears asap. Kim Gordon – No Hands [Matador/Bandcamp] OK, we all know by now that Kim Gordon is the coolest, releasing now a series of albums (PLAY ME is her third since 2019) in collaboration with Justin Raisen, a producer comfortable in the pop world as well as the more leftfield. Gordon’s delivery has always been more drawled than sung, and her fragile voice somehow suits these simple, bass heavy grooves to a tee. I don’t have much more to say: her social commentary is compact because she knows the words to say. Her style is both now and then, because she’s always been the Kool Thing after all. BAYANG (tha Bushranger) & Kuya Neil – Copy + Paste [CONTENT.NET.AU/Bandcamp] BAYANG (tha Bushranger) & Kuya Neil – Luzon Bleeding Heart (ft. Sevy) [CONTENT.NET.AU/Bandcamp] You know this will be the shit, with Eora’s BAYANG mixing together his love of punk/metal with underground hip-hop, and Naarm’s Kuya Neil as usual throwing plenty of experimental club sounds from all over – bits of jungle, uk bass, baile funk, anything. Another CONTENT.NET.AU affiliate, Sevy, lends a verse to “Luzon Beating Heart”. Grasps_ – Dream On [Grasps_ Bandcamp/Nina Protocol] Christian Grasps_ might be known for his ambient & beat-based electronic productions, including credits with the likes of BAYANG (tha Bushranger), but you might also find him playing piano & singing, or on this new single, playing guitar and singing. There’s a nice bit of a surge in the middle that hints at mayhem that never quite arrives, but that’s by design. A touching little piece. Travis Cook – unfinished symphony [Travis Cook Bandcamp] It’s Travis Cook, on Kaurna land, still bringing a track per week to Bandcamp. Most of them are fragments, as unfinished as this one, but also fun, good production. Laces – Doormen [NLV Records/Bandcamp] Naarm musician Laces is touring UK & Europe with Ninjarachi, and has released his Oekno I EP to accompany them, released by Nina Las Vega’s NLV Records (also home to Ninjarachi). Laces shares with Ninjarachi meticulous electronic production, but this is far more abstract. It was presented to me as “ambient”, but that’s only half the story – there’s beautiful sound design, but also glitchy beats and glitched vox. world’s end girlfriend & samayuzame – Sweet Suicide (Syndrome) [Virgin Babylon Records] So, vocals aren’t usually a prominent part of the music of World’s End Girlfriend, the Japanese master of genre-mashing since the early ’00s. Not that they’re not present, but usually they’re serving the music, whether it’s bizarre electro-acoustic glitch, IDM, breakcore or more like psych-rock/postrock/breakbeat hybrids. Honestly World’s End Girlfriend has been one of Utility Fog’s biggest inspirations since the start, and his now long-lived label Virgin Babylon Records is consistently awesome whether it’s idoru-breakcore, glitch-punk or spoken word. Now, on the 3-track Helix of Frequency, Phenomenon of Love and Void EP he presents three songs with three guest vocalists. This is J-pop WEG style, glitchy, still somehow three genres in one track, and all very lovely. Uriel’s Bath – Beautiful Hats [Hobbies Galore /Bandcamp] The 1990s are big at the moment, and much though jungle is my #1 love, there’s something heartwarming about the kind of ambient techno that developed around the start of the decade, and hearing it echoed nowadays is a weird trip. The self-titled EP by Naarm duo Uriel’s Bath is just such a trip, made by Julia McFarlane and Thomas Kernot, a slightly abstracted continuation of the trip-hop-exotica of 2024’s Whoopee as J.MacFarlane’s Reality Guest (released in the UK by Glasgow indie label Night School). Melodic, electronic, mostly ambient with occasional beats. Sweet as. The Leaf Library – The Reader’s Lamp [Fika Recordings/Bandcamp] Listeners to this show will be aware of The Leaf Library, the London band/collective who make melodic, hypnotic dream-pop/space-rock, with side projects in all sorts of twistings of sound-art, electronica, noise, and folk. Their new album After The Rain, Strange Seeds is released by Fika Recordings, who released one such side project – the strange chamber folk of Mirrored Daughters – last year. While The Leaf Library’s last release was last year’s remix album Flowers at the Border (released on their own excellent label Objects Forever), this new album eschews studio trickery by and large, and is made up of more song-like structures than may be expected. There are also sumptuous strings on a number of tracks, including this one. Some of the best krautrock-indiepop you’ll find at the moment. Xylitol – Bowed Clusters (with The Leaf Library) [Planet µ/Bandcamp] Xylitol – Sudwestwind [Planet µ/Bandcamp] Catherine Backhouse debuted on Planet µ under her Xylitol alias in 2024 with the frantic drill’n’bass of Anemones, very much in the vein of the Planet µ output from the ’00s, as much as the jungle and hardcore she was immersed in in her youth. As DJ Bunnyhausen she was resident DJ at a krautrock club night called Kosmische, and is also a specialist in electronic music & pop from the former Yugoslavia. Her follow-up album Blumenfantasie ups the ante with more sophisticated beats (still manic, don’t stress!) and influences from Sarajevo-born synthmeister Miaux as well as early industrial and yes, krautrock. And Planet µ feels like the perfect home for it – I hear a lot of label boss Mike Paradinas’ µ-Ziq in these tunes, no doubt because Mike was listening to a similar assortment of electronic pioneers as much as his own music directly influencing Backhouse. Oh, and the abovementioned krautrock-influenced space-rockers The Leaf Library feature here – the brilliant “Bowed Clusters” is actually a remix of them which Matt from The Leaf Library gave me a listen to last year, and I’ve been wanting to play it to you ever since. I expected it to be on their Flowers at the Border remix album, but it’s awesome to hear it among the other genre-melted junglisms here. Rutger Zuydervelt – Gas [Machinefabriek Bandcamp] I’ve also been waiting to play something from the pair of releases just out from Rutger Zuydervelt (aka Machinefabriek). A lot of Rutger’s music, particularly released under his own name, is created for dance, theatre and sometimes TV work. His latest is a wonderful thing called Bodies of Water (music for a performance by Iván Pérez / Dance Theatre Heidelberg). The water theme is a great creative catalyst, especially as the work itself deals with the three main states of H2O – solid (ice), liquid (water) and gas (steam, but also water in suspension in air). As well as the soundtrack, there’s an outtakes EP Fog/Drops that highlights water as a power of nature – two 20-minute pieces that mix drone & sound-art with pulsating rhythm. Forces of nature also propel the music on the main album, with thundering sub-bass, sheets of white noise and, well, the drum machines and acidic synth that drive “Gas”. Out of an extremely prolific career of high quality, Rutger is doing some of his best work right now, and I highly recommend this duo of releases whether you need a starting point or a place to catch up. hoyah חיה – talmuds (feat. Derya Yıldırım) [BRUK/Bandcamp] hoyah חיה – sol [BRUK/Bandcamp] Berlin-based musician Shmuel Hatchwell makes dope lo-fi hip-hop as Ehye אֶהְיֶה, and debuted his hoyah incarnation with the disorienting glitched sax samples of Set + Setting on Low End Activist’s BRUK label in 2024. Last year he released the 2-track single 808s n Trance Gates along with a website that interrogated the political circumstances in which he – an observant Jew who happens to be openly anti-Zionist in a time of genocide – found his original choice of artwork censored because it appropriated antisemitic imagery from the early-20th century. In the intervening time, not only has Germany’s suppression of speech about Palestine gotten worse, we in Australia – as well as activists in the UK, France, the US and elsewhere – have experienced an escalation in the suppression of speech critical of Israel, even when coming from Jews like Hatchwell or myself. Last year’s single appears on hoyah’s remarkable new album Can I Get A Chayah?, its flickering samples of Eastern European and Middle Eastern Jewish musics standing as a template for Hatchwell’s deep reimagining of Jewish music, religious practice and oft-warped history throughout the album. Here, the structures of hip-hop, UK club music and experimental electronic production are the conduit for the wide range of diasporic Jewish music fed into the stuttering shutters of Hatchwell’s sampler. The voice of the late David Berman of Silver Jews appears on the second track, a poignant mantra of doubt repeating “Adonai, I don’t know, I don’t know, Adonai” (“Adonai” roughly means “Lord”). Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım meanwhile reminds us of the long traditions of Jewish practice in the SWANA region. Works like this are an important part of imagining and bringing into being a strong panoply of Jewish identities that reject the fascistic, ahistorical tether to an apartheid, genocidal state that’s pushed by Israel and its erstwhile allies across the world. datewithdeath – (aar) [Poverty Electronics] While Travis D Johnson‘s music as datewithdeath has not come to an end, his Poverty Electronics label has closed up shop with two releases at the beginning of this year: the excellent remix/collaboration collection Culotte Sine and datewithdeath’s Apple Tree Brightness, a shining collection of glitchy electro-acoustics, abrasive drones and messed-up beats. Following a debilitating illness, Johnson – writer & folklorist as well as composer, improviser & producer – is concentrating on his boutique publishing house Frolic Press, which happens to come with an accompanying musical outlet, Frolic Press Recordings. Follow there for new noise & beauty, and like me you can catch up on Poverty Electronics on Bandcamp. Skee Mask – Greensleeve Attack [Skee Mask/SCNTST Bandcamp] The alphabetical compilations of unreleased Skee Mask music on the German producer’s Bandcamp have reached F – that’s almost 6 hours of music of 6 albums of 11 tracks each. While obviously unmastered, the music here often rivals the material often released on Ilian Tape, and offers an enjoyable, illuminating look into the musical practice of one of the most versatile producers of the last decade, across warbling ambient, IDM-tinged techno and soft-focus jungle. Rob Clouth – Gummy Clusters [Mesh/Bandcamp] No artist could be more suited to Max Cooper‘s Mesh label than Rob Clouth, so synchronised with Cooper’s are Clouth’s musical aesthetics and interests in the intersection between science and music (the two collaborated on an EP last year). Clouth’s second EP on Mesh for 2026 is Cicada – the sometimes deafening chittering sound of these insects is familiar to anyone living in Australia, but the cicada shimmer in the title track is quickly overtaken by 4/4 kicks. “Gummy Clusters”, on the other hand, is yummy syncopation and chopped vocal samples. Untold – It’s Not My Fault but It Is My Problem [Hemlock Recordings/Bandcamp] Jack Dunning founded Hemlock Recordings in 2008, following his debut 12″ on Hessle Audio as Untold. From the start his approach to dubstep was married with the 4/4 kicks of tech-house and the fidgetiness of electro; I appreciated it more than liked it, but Dunning has a keen musical sensibility and Untold never stayed still. So it’s nice to find him returning to his own label with HEK036 (catalogue number as title hey), out on April 10th. “It’s Not My Fault but It Is My Problem” wants to thump in 4/4 but trips over itself, syncopating into dancehall patterns while the synths snarl in cyberpunk. Just the kind of odd stuff you’d expect from Untold. Whisker Floater – Overshoe 3 [Whisker Floater Bandcamp] Scattered Order – Daisy and Lucy [Red Raw Bandcamp] Nick Shimmin for many years hosted experimental music performances at The People’s Republic of Camperdown, and a year or two ago moved the republic to a converted church in Earlwood dubbed The Red House. The venue itself, beautifully setup with impeccable sound provided by Matt McGuigan, has run into licensing problems (which they are working on!), but many performances there have been recorded, giving one a kind of a chance at re-living the experience (and hearing some unique music). Sydney postpunk/post-industrial/experimental electronic legends Scattered Order performed there at least a couple of times, including a memorable tribute to founding member Michael Tee, who sadly passed away in 2024. Co-founder Mitch Jones and longtime fellow traveller Shane Fahey (a continuing member of SO since their 2009 reformation) made Continue in 2025, using material from Tee, and when they came to launch it at the Red House, they invited Sydney experimental mainstay Matthew Syres to join on treated guitar. That performance is documented on SO CONTINUES at the Red House. Fahey also collaborates with Mitch Jones’ wife Drusilla Johnson-Jones, a wonderful visual and musical artist who was also a member of SO for many years, under the cheeky name Whisker Floater, making complex, internally-interactive, beautifully weird electronic music. more eaze – sentence structure in the country [Thrill Jockey/Bandcamp] When Mari Maurice Rubio first came up on my radar as more eaze, she was making luscious, glitchy electronic music on a compilation from Lillerne Tapes. Her 2018 album Conveyance took a similar approach – samples of classical & other music smeared & glitched into abstracted brushes of audio-painting. But Rubio is a great violinist and a brilliant string arranger, a great improviser and a great producer – for example, she co-produced the new album of her partner, the genius Wendy Eisenberg, and her string arrangements help make Eisenberg’s songs even more gorgeous. But a few weeks before Eisenberg’s album is released, Rubio’s own latest solo album is out on Thrill Jockey, which by the way is the perfect home for it. In their different ways, both albums are homages to what the two have found as a couple, although their duo whait is going to give us more of a picture of what they can do when neither is leading (Sydney’s Andrew Khedoori is giving them a place to explore this as part of his Residence label/project). So sentence structure in the country is a very more eaze kind of thing, and when Eisenberg appears (on electric guitar here on the title track), it’s in service to that vision – as with the other guests, including Alice Gerlach aka alice does computer music. What a “more eaze kind of thing” is is everything all at once – folk & country-infused acoustic arrangements, harsh glitch-edits, vocoded vocals, lilting melodies. It makes as much and as little sense as the words “sentence structure in the country” do, and that’s great – who needs music to make sense? Not me. Jessica Roch – Par [Across The Horizon/Bandcamp] US label Northern Spy has for a few years now run an interesting program called Across The Horizon, co-founded with musician & podcaster Bob Holmes (SUSS, Ambient Country Podcast). Each year when the series is running, 8 musicians curate a wedge of new music, each of them commissioning 2 other artists along with themselves. So each release features three new tracks, which fit broadly into merged genres such as Holmes’ “ambient country”, as well as perhaps ambient classical, ambient folk, ambient jazz… Each new drop is initially subscriber-only, so the latest now-public selection was curated by LA musician & artist Cynthia Bernard aka marine eyes. Alongside her own work is the underwater exotica of Lauren Helene Green and a piece from London musician Jessica Roch, whose track initially sounds like a familiar kind of piano-ambient (albeit beginning in reverse), but almost immediately the simple piano refrain blossoms outward with electronic filligree, and multi-tracked violins hint at expanded harmonisations. In between phrases, the piano glitches and stutters, and warps with tape delay. The piece’s juxtaposition of hesitancy and romanticism, acoustic instruments and electronics, instinctively expresses the jostle of emotions as-yet unprocessed in the hours after Roche’s father’s funeral. It’s deeply touching. Listen again — ~216MB

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