Playlist 18.08.24

Utility Fog

Vale Dean Roberts Plus minimal folktronica; loop-gaze; bass, techno, jungle, doped trip-hop; industrial drone; and variants of contemporary classical.

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Dean Roberts and the Black Moths – the fake and detached [Ritornell/Staubgold/Bandcamp]
Dean Roberts – smash the palace and what nerves you’ve got [kranky/Bandcamp]
It was with incredible sadness that I read Lawrence English’s tweet on Dean Roberts‘ death a few days ago. The New Zealand experimental songwriter, guitarist & sound-artist hadn’t released an album since 2000’s Not Fire, but there was no sign that he was ill, as far as I know. He was a year younger than me. I won’t speculate on his passing, but he’s someone who, in his gentle way, touched many in the experimental music scene, from the free noise band Thela (with Dion Workman and Rosy Parlane, two other NZ experimental iconoclasts) to the glorious glitched postrock of Autistic Daughters (with Austrian experimental stalwarts Martin Brandlmayr and Werner Dafeldecker, and our own Chris Abrahams as a frequent guest), and with his solo sound-art/noise/experimental song as White Winged Moth and under his own name. Randomly choose music from his discography and you might hit some granular drone work or hushed, skeletal songs draped over sparse guitar tones and scattered kraut-jazz drums. In tribute – since we’re not going to have any new music from this important figure any more – I chose two solo works from my earliest encounters with his music. 1999’s Dean Roberts and the Black Moths Play The Grand Cinema was originally released on Mille-Plateaux sublabel Ritornell, and re-released by Staubgold in 2004. Here the “song” elements are mostly buried in more freeform noise/postrock/sound-art gestures. In 2003, postrock/ambient label kranky released be mine tonight, an impossibly fragile collection of songs drawing Talk Talk’s postrock into a more freeform jazz world, still with the glitch elements he’d picked up in the late ’90s. Vale Dean.

Lucy Sissy Miller – Horse Girl [Mêtron Records]
Lucy Sissy Miller – The Lighthouse [Mêtron Records]
It feels like the techniques of abstraction and alienation of form used by the likes of The Books, Lucky Dragons and others a couple of decades ago have been absorbed by younger music-makers (whether through Japanese computer games and the outer reaches of J-pop, PC Music’s gleeful repurposing of IDM, and the general destruction of genre boundaries) so that the bio for French-British singer-songwriter Lucy Sissy Miller‘s minimalist folktronica album Pre Country comfortably namechecks Laurie Anderson and Imogen Heap without mention of any of the artists or movements mentioned above. And while I can hear elements of soccer Committee’s collaboration with Machinefabriek and others, ultimately Lucy Sissy Miller’s gorgeous abstracted, electronically processed take on country or folk music is all her own, and I’ll be very cross with you if you don’t check it out.

Seefeel – Hooked Paw [Warp Records/Bandcamp]
Back in 2010 & 2011, shoegaze/electronic pioneers Seefeel released a new EP & album after some 14 years’s absence. Now after almost the same length of time the core of Mark Clifford and Sarah Peacock have put together a new album (albeit only 6 tracks – surely an EP), with the familiar sampled & looped vocals of Peacock pulsing through through dubwise electronics. They’ve always had a temporally displaced sound – constructed entirely through digital technology but somehow analogue, even organic sounding. It’s a pleasure to have something new, and we’ll hear the rest of Everything Squared in a week and a bit!

I7HVN – Chains of Bronze [YUKU]
Bangalore-based producer I7HVN (which stands for Ishan) lands on YUKU with his Innate Needs EP after an album released last year on Indian label Qilla. It’s dark and fittingly bass and breakbeat-oriented for YUKU.

Or:la – Chant (Midland‘s ‘Arpeggiate Me’ Remix) [fabric Originals]
Irish producer Orlagh Dooley aka Or:la is the founder of the experimental house/techno/bass label céad (Gaelic for hundred). Her new album Trusting Theta is out on fabric Originals on September 20th, and in the meantime UK producer Midland has taken the very minimal funky electro tune “Chant” and overlaid lavish pulsating synths – a real winner.

Braille – Cost Of Living [Hotflush Recordings/Bandcamp]
NY musician Praveen Sharma was one half of Sepalcure with Machinedrum between 2010 and 2016, releasing the bass music of the time, inspired by UK garage, dubstep and house. With Benoît Pioulard in Praveen & Benoit he explored more ambient & folky terrain as well, but his solo moniker for some time has been Braille, under which he explores garage, house and ravey breakbeat. Following a string of singles & EPs with Hotflush Recordings, Scuba’s label has now released the Triple Transit album, an unrelentingly sunny collection of breakbeat synth bangers. Lovely really.

Hassan Abou Alam – Mesh Mafhoom [Nerve Collect/Bandcamp]
Hassan Abou Alam – Khalsana ft Ziad Zaza [Nerve Collect/Bandcamp]
Out August 30th through Nerve Collect is the latest album from Cairo-based producer Hassan Abou Alam, whose Bandcamp bio says he’s been making tunes since 2008. I’ve certainly been following him for a few years, with releases on Banoffee Pies and YUKU among others. His music’s an electrifying amalgam of UK & US bass styles with fidgety North African percussion and thunderous sub bass. On a couple of tracks here he’s joined by fellow Egyptian rapper Ziad Zaza adding an extra energy.

Muadeep – La Branco [YUKU]
German producer Patrik Schmidt aka Bobby Kudlicz is clearly a fan of Frank Herbert’s Dune, given his project Muadeep‘s similarity to “Muad’dib” and a previous EP named HARKONNEN. He’s also collaborated last year with Amon Tobin under his Two Fingers alias. His new album Connected comes via YUKU, a collection of mid-tempo rollers with a lot of African & Middle Eastern samples throughout. Tasty stuff.

Callum Asa & 140 – Drips (Low End Activist Drizzle Remix) [Earful of Wax]
“Drips” is a collaboration between London electronic producer Callum Asa and the nearly-ungoogleable grime MC 140, originally featured on Earful of Wax‘s EARFUL OF WAVS Vol. 1. Now Earful of Wax have released Low End Activist‘s skeletal remix on a limited 7″ dubplate, with proceeds to Palestinian families.

Mantra – Schemes and Dreams [System Music]
V.I.V.E.K‘s System Music, like his own music, tends towards 140bpm, primarily dubstep, so it’s interesting and excellent to hear key jungle DJ and RuptureLDN co-founder Mantra collaborate with the label on her forthcoming 4-tracker, simply titled SYSTEM EP. Dubstep tempos, held down by the sub-bass, but with some nimble breakbeat action. Boh!

The Person – Dub23 Flight1058 [Acroplane]
Defcon – Astropolitique [Acroplane]
Belfast label Acroplane has been around since the early netlabel days, and nowadays they’re again a “netlabel” because aren’t we all now, in the age of Bandcamp? They’re celebrating their 18th birthday with a compilation called XVIII, released 13th of September, with all proceeds for the first year to the International Committee of the Red Cross. Meanwhile a few tracks are available, including the one from The Person (another almost-ungoogleable artist!) – it’s kind of breakcorey jungle that slips into dub reggae halfway through. When it’s out you’ll also get Defcon‘s track which is a crisp amalgam of jungle and footwork with flittery synths. There’s lots of great stuff on here, acid and IDM and techno and breakcore as well.

Ehye אֶהְיֶה – Symphonic [Woodland Creatures]
Ehye אֶהְיֶה – Durge [Woodland Creatures]
Shmuel Hatchwell appeared on Utility Fog earlier this year with a release under his hoyah moniker for Low End Activist’s BRUK label. On the 6th of September, Hatchwell’s Ehye אֶהְיֶה will release his Forgot My Password album on Skwirl‘s Woodland Creatures label. While “hoyah” is an esoteric feminine form of “to be” in Biblical Hebrew, “Ehye” means “I am”. The vibe here is a beat tape of dope-addled instrumental hip-hop filtered through a contemporary bass lens, with pitched-down voice samples, each track based around a few samples, drum machine beats and sub-rattling kick’n’bass. It’s low-key brilliant and I’ll be coming back to it a lot. Fans of Odd Nosdam, DJ Food, DJ Screw or Kenny Segal’s productions with billy woods take note.

Lilacs & Champagne – 144 York Way [Temporary Residence, Ltd/Bandcamp]
Lilacs & Champagne – Dr. Why [Temporary Residence, Ltd/Bandcamp]
Speaking of minimalist, self-aware hip-hop… Alex Hall and Emil Amos are both members of the excellent experimental/instrumental rock band Grails. Their new album as Lilacs & Champagne comes 9 years after their last, and if Grails are instrumental psychedelic rock, this is a kind of instrumental psych-hip-hop. It’s not so interested in the contemporary bass music that permeates Ehye’s beats, but for head-noddin’ beats and musical collage it’s up there with the best.

Connor D’Netto x Yvette Ofa Agapow – Material IV – dopamine deficit [A Guide To Saints/Bandcamp]
From Room40 sublabel A Guide To Saints comes a stunning album from two Meanjin/Brisbane-based musicians: composer Connor D’Netto and sound-artist/noise artist/vocalist Yvette Ofa Agapow. Calling the album Material is a statement in itself, as the two musicians build roiling drones, rattling anti-rhythms and swooping bass from pieces of metal, tape, natural fibres and other objects as well as voice and electronics. The first track is an imposing, droney beginning that I encourage you to press through as no one track is representative of the whole.

Laurence Pike – Mountains Of The Heart [The Leaf Label/Bandcamp]
We’ve heard the opening “Introit” from Laurence Pike‘s album The Undreamt-of Centre a few weeks ago, in which his usual drums, samples and keyboards are augmented by the Sydney Philharmonia Choir‘s VOX choir (made up of 18-30 year olds), suggesting the gravitas of a requiem. “Mountains Of The Heart” re-centres the music on Pike’s percussion, so that when the voices enter near the 4-minute mark it’s an unexpected opening-up of the sound-field. The voices merge into synth drones, which subtly slide downwards as the piece concludes. I’m looking forward to hearing these pieces in context, and might bring you a sneaky preview of some album tracks in the next week or two.

Family Ravine – Part Chance [Death Is Not The End]
Kevin K.W. Cahill runs the Power Moves Label & Library (also a label), releasing not only his music under many monikers but also other artists of an experimental bent, somewhat ambient, somewhat lo-fi. His Family Ravine seems to focus on folky guitar that mingles with field recordings and weird found-electronics. It’s truly hard to pin down, and that’s what’s so beautiful about it. On (I​’​ll) waltz in and act like (I) own the place, released on entirely eclectic London label Death Is Not The End, the guitars – acoustic and electric – are joined by thumb pianos, mandolin and radio static, for freeform music that’s too active to be drone, but too formless to be folk. Whatever it is, it’s gorgeously beguiling.

Amy Brandon – Intermountainous (2017) [New Focus Recordings/Bandcamp]
Canadian composer Amy Brandon was a performing guitarist for many years, and wrote many works for herself on classical guitar with electronics. More recently she’s retired from performance, and composes endlessly rewarding music for a variety of instruments, encouraging extended techniques on flute, string ensembles, a duo of cellists and more, drawing the musicians through ghostly sussurations to wild scratching and screeching – as well as lyrical passages. Rather than strings or flutes, however, I’ve chosen the one guitar work on her new album Lysis, performed here by Julian Bertino. The 10-string guitar here creeps through disquietingly microtonal lines until spectral electronics join and the guitar begins some softly rhythmic fingerpicking passages, with those strange micro-detunings catching the ear. The fingerpicking builds into a passage of fast, repeating phrases that are almost overwhelmed by windy white and pink noise, before dying down to microtonal phrases and shimmering electronics.

Listen again — ~208MB