Playlist 27.10.24

Utility Fog

Experimental sounds abound, wrong-song to maltreated beats, un-classical to dis-cordian.

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YATTA – MTV [PTP/Bandcamp]
YATTA – Circle [PTP/Bandcamp]
Last year, Sierra Leonean-American musician YATTA, who I’ve been a fan of since around 2019’s WAHALA, dropped a single track on their Bandcamp, “Fully Lost, Fully Found“. A staggering piece of layered vocals and electronic processing, I loved it a lot, and it appeared in the DJ mix I did for Absorb. Finally now, 5 years since WAHALA and 4 years since their collab with Moor Mother, Dial Up, YATTA has released a new full length, PALM WINE, and that song is on there. Central is YATTA’s beautiful voice, but there’s a lot of variety in the production, with various collaborators throughout. Some tracks have a distinctly West African flavour – the album title refers to both the drink and the musical genre that was the precursor to highlife and soukous. On opener “Circle”, YATTA enlists producer/engineer Myles Avery on a piece that’s sparingly made up of shuffling low-end sounds, mid-range synths and heaps of vocals. Meanwhile the exhilarating pop of “MTV” brings a host of collaborators: So Drove, album executive producer Carlos Hernandez and engineer Maxime Morin. Excellent stuff.

Emma Anderson – Taste The Air (Julia Holter Mix) [Sonic Cathedral/Bandcamp]
Emma Anderson – Bend The Round (The Orielles Blend The Round Mix) [Sonic Cathedral/Bandcamp]
Lush – especially their earlier EPs and first two albums – were among my favourite of the ’90s female-fronted 4AD bands, drawing from shoegaze and heading towards pop. Both Miki Berenyi and Emma Anderson wrote songs, and I love them both equally, but some of the most pop were Anderson’s – see “Lovelife” for instance. Anderson formed a band called Sing-Sing that also featured Mark Van Hoen, but it was only last year that she released a solo album – the very Lush-like Pearlies. But perhaps more relevant for Utility Fog is the remixed album Spiralée – Pearlies Rearranged. The reworkings range from straightforward versions with some extra production to a few radical reworkings. Julia Holter arranges “Taste The Air” into something you’d find on one of her own albums – acoustic instrumentation and odd structures, it’s a delight. So is the new blend of “Bend The Round” from The Orielles, an indiepop group who radically reworked themselves last year, and here take Anderson’s song from trip-hop into lovely jungle a la Mono. I also want to note the pulsating krautrock from Mexican duo Lorelle Meets The Obsolete, whose Lorena Quintanilla will be heard later tonight.

Underworld – Ottavia feat. Esme Bronwen-Smith [Smith Hyde Productions/Official Store]
Last year, Underworld dropped the incredible “denver luna acapella” with no forewarning, an incredible piece of work highlighting Karl Hyde’s vocals traced by sparkling vocoded electronics. The acapella sits beautifully within the techno journey that is the full song, and surprisingly both versions appear on the now highly-anticipated Strawberry Hotel. Does the album live up to that expectation? I think so – it’s certainly their best in many years. A couple of collaborations shine: a surprising appearance from Nina Nastasia, and the expressive spoken word of Esme Bronwen-Smith, a classically-trained mezzo-soprano who happens to be Rick Smith’s daughter. Here she speaks from the point of view of Claudia Octavia, wife of Nero. I believe her words are loosely based on Monteverdi’s L’incorazione di Poppea. Bronwen-Smith is credited as co-producer on the album, bringing a bit of intergenerational creativity to the proceedings.
Speaking of, it’s also notable that Karl Hyde’s daughter Tyler Hyde is in Black Country, New Road. Being a nepo-baby certainly brings opportunities others lack, but talent also runs in families.

Circuit Des Yeux – God Dick [Matador/Bandcamp]
Haley Fohr’s Circuit Des Yeux has always been an experimental endeavour, even before she developed her astonishing vocal range. God Dick is a single track that bridges between her last album, -io, and whatever is coming in 2025. It’s Haley Fohr at her most Scott Walker yet – lush and disquieting.

aquaserge – N.I.O New Information Order [Crammed Discs/Bandcamp]
Every release from French experimental pop band aquaserge is different, but this two-track EP follows closely from this May’s album La fin de l’economie and shares its anti-capitalist theme. The title track is a cover of the sainted Robert Wyatt, from his 1991 album Dondestan. The original features his patented unmodulated synth sounds, and sparse drums and bass, underlining his angelic falsetto. Aquaserge rather gorgeously reproduce the arrangement, but with winds & horns and slightly more jazzy drums, and the delivery of the vocals – adapted in French for the current era – is equally touching. The cover is accompanied by an original that cements the band’s debt to Wyatt in arrangements and harmonies.

Brad Stafford – Burning Sun [Feral Media/Bandcamp]
In the mid-’00s, a duo called The Longest Day released a few albums through Eora/Sydney label Feral Media – here’s the first. The shoegazey indie and spacerock of that band is continued, but in a more electronic fashion, on Brad Stafford‘s The Imperfect City. Here warm synths redolent of Boards of Canada meet soft drum machines and often-buried vocals. It’s lovely, nostalgic stuff.

Moin – We Know What Gives (feat. Coby Sey) [AD 93/Bandcamp]
The various releases by Joe Andrews and Tom Halstead as Raime combined a love of breakbeat/jungle with jagged postpunk riffs. Moin finds them officially joined with percussionist Valentina Magaletti, who contributed drums to many of the Raime releases. Moin bumped up the ersatz postpunk thing, foregrounding guitar riffs and Magletti’s taut rhythms, embellished with Raime’s characteristic sampled vocal jabs. For new album You Never End, they’ve invited singers to guest on about half the tracks, moving further from mechanised, sampled material into a full band. Here, the unassuming voice of Coby Sey is set at odds with the lumbering drums and distorted guitars, but those vocal jabs still shoulder their way in.

kelly moran – Superhuman (Loraine James & Fyn Dobson Remix) [Warp Records/Bandcamp]
Early this year, pianist Kelly Moran released her 2nd album for Warp, Moves in the Field, pitting her piano against programmed sequences on a Yamaha Disclavier. Here, her music is further chopped and rearranged by Loraine James, with intoxicating beats from young drummer Fyn Dobson, who’s been performing with James lately. Love this.

Rutger Zuydervelt – Rafting [Machinefabriek Bandcamp]
Dutch sound-artist Rutger Zuydervelt, better known as Machinefabriek, continues his forays into rhythm with another composition for dance/circus duo Marta & Kim, joined by additional circus performers Felix Zech and Knot on Hands. The fluid movements of the Meander performance are echoed in Zuydervelt’s score (“soundtrack”?): on the opening track it’s motorik beats and marimba-like synths pattering along. There’s plenty of Zuydervelt’s patented sound design here as well.

LTO – Bolt [Denovali, on Bandcamp soon]
One of the members of the mysterious (post-)dubstep crew Old Apparatus, active from around 2010-2013, LTO continues to preserve the mystery – as far as I know, his real name’s not known, but he’s from Bristol. After a handful of fairly underground solo releases, LTO released two very soundtracky albums for the fairly wide-ranging, postrock/post-classical leaning European label Denovali. They’re both lovely (check Déja Rêvé and Daear), but only preserve hints of dubsteppy bass. So it’s cool to hear the first single, “Bolt”, from a new LTO album, The Return, that’s apparently on its way. We’re absolutely in cinematic territory here, but we’ve got a shambling rhythm with diving bass swoops and clattering off-beats, and synth pads that are eventually joined by a (probably synthetic) trumpet melody. Bodes well!

Loop Year – Memory Guests [Loop Year Bandcamp]
Just recently, Adelaide’s Cailan Burns, one half of beloved Australian idm/indietronic band Pretty Boy Crossover with Jason Sweeney, has quietly started putting out ambient/idm music under the name Loop Year. There’ve been a few singles, and now there’s a four-track EP, Memory Guests, inspired by Andrei Tarkovsky’s film Solaris (echoing the Meemo Comma album released a few weeks ago!) Four tracks of slightly melancholic, shoegazey electronica for your pleasure.

FOUDRE! – Cybernetic Reset [NAHAL Recordings/Bandcamp]
(Adapted from when I played a preview track from this album:) The first self-titled album from French postrock/krautrock/psych band Oiseaux-Tempête in 2013 was a revelation. I suspect I found it after the brilliant 2014 remix album, but I was a firm fan from there on. In the interim I discovered many other projects of Frédéric D. Oberland, many of which I’ve played here. One of those is FOUDRE!, a trio of fellow travellers, based around modular & analogue synths, other keyboards, electronic and physical percussion, effects and vocals. Like Oiseaux-Tempête and related groups, the influence of the MENA region is strong in the music. Along with Oberland, the group features Paul Régimbeau aka Mondkopf, who’s been a member of Oisexau-Tempête at times, and Romain Barbot aka the prolific Saåad, both of whom were present on that remix album back when. Voltæ (Chthulucene) might be the most exciting work from these collected artists for some time, driven by percussion and programmed beats, drenched in psychedelic synths and further energised by north-African and Middle Eastern melodies and samples.
There really are surprising nods to the club here, or the more experimental, deconstructed end thereof. I’m pretty sure UFog listeners will love this.

ESTHER – DFAM [YUKU/Bandcamp]
Audrey Amsellem DJs as ESTHER and runs her own label, Doum Records. After a couple of great EPs on Flore‘s POLAAR label, she now finds her way to YUKU, where her Hungry Claws EP fits the label to a tee – gnarly, snarly bass music, glitchy jitters.

re:ni – PLAYPLAX [re:lax/Bandcamp]
Thousand Yard Stare is the second EP of 2024 from UK DJ Lauren Bush aka re:ni, following Beautysick, released on Timedance. This one’s on re:lax, which she co-runs with Laksa. “Electro” is namechecked as a genre, and it feels a bit too syncopated for that, to me, but even at its slowest it’s too energetic to be dubstep (the BPMs sit around 140-150). It’s fun club stuff with rhythmic smarts and plenty of bass.

TARP – PART [TARP Bandcamp]
Dentaljams + Ezroh are names I’ve vaguely heard from Kaurna/Adelaide’s electronic underground (let’s pretend there is one), and here they’ve officially teamed up under the name TARP. Noting the 666 in their Bandcamp URL and their penchant for heavy black & white imagery: this is industrial techno with a hefty helping of noise. The 16 tracks on TARP I – released simultaneously with the TARP II EP – contains 16 tracks of pummelling noise and randomised kick drums, while the TARP II EP is four tracks of somewhat more digestible industrial techno. A barrage I can appreciate. Submit.

In Spite of Dreams – Tesrec [Misanthropic Agenda/Bandcamp]
Gerritt Wittmer runs noise label Misanthropic Agenda, who’ve released the likes of Boris, Merzbow, Yellow Swans, John Wiese and also more minimalist sound-arty stuff like Giuseppe Ielasi. In Spite of Dreams is a new project from him, labelled as industrial hip-hop (actually “destroyed industrial hip-hop”), and the music on subject:empty may lean more on the “destroyed” than the “hip-hop”, but there are stretched and destroyed vocals as well as crunching beats and delicious bass rumbles. Recommended.

J. Zunz – Four Women and Darkness (Petbrick Remix) [Rocket Recordings/Bandcamp]
Mexican musician Lorena Quintanilla is J. Zunz, under which name she’s released three albums – two on Rocket Recordings. She has just now released a very good remix EP, Re:Volver, with four very different reworkings of her own very fine work. There’s techno and ambient-leaning stuff, and then there’s the mighty Petbrick, the duo of ex-Sepultura drummer (and Soulwax member) Igor Cavalera and Bear Bites Horse studio owner and Big Lad member Wayne Adams. Their noise rock verges on metal but also experimental electronics, and given Adams’ previous life making breakcore as Ladyscraper, it’s not too surprising to hear them in drill’n’bass mode on this remix.
As I mentioned earlier, Quintanilla is also one half of Lorelle Meets The Obsolete, who simultaneously released their own remix EP Remezcla, which I discovered too late for this episode.

John Roberts – Swan [Brunette Editions/Bandcamp]
John Roberts – Lens [Brunette Editions/Bandcamp]
A true deep house original, released on the storied Dial Records, John Roberts has also incorporated piano in his work since the start – as heard on the genius 2010 album Glass Eights. Of late, he’s drifted away from the dancefloor, so the beats on the short album Swan are quite abstracted if there at all. The piano, too, is often subjected to granular processing, but also appears in the clear, with expressive melodic lines. This is really beautiful, essential listening.

Dean Spunt – Confusion Is SysEx [Drag City/Bandcamp]
Dean Spunt – Find Me in the Forums [Drag City/Bandcamp]
As one half of No Age, Dean Spunt‘s made some clamorous noise, and as boss of Post Present Medium he’s released a lot of noise, postpunk and weirdo rock of all sorts. Solo, he can be found making strange cut-ups, primitive punk-noise and lo-fi electronics, and following a collab with veteran noisemaker John Wiese last year called The Echoing Shell, his first solo release for Drag City is out now. Basic Editions is no less experimental than anything else he’s done, but it can be strangely (if woozily) listenable. East listening samples, new agey synths and synth-percussion can float through the mix as much as shards of digital distortion. Even at its most droney, it’s the sound of computers malfunctioning, ambient music gone rotten. In other words: excellent.

Julia Sabra – Hands [Ruptured Records/Bandcamp]
Julia Sabra – Minor Detail [Ruptured Records/Bandcamp]
Two weeks ago I played some beautiful, moving music from Beirut duo Snakeskin, made up of Julia Sabra and Fadi Tabbal. I spoke then of the destruction being wrought on southern Lebanon and Beirut by Israel, and nothing much has changed on that front, sadly, with the ancient city of Tyre now under bombardment. As far as I know, Sabra and Tabbal continue to support a fundraiser via Tabbal’s Tunefork Studios along with Beirut Synthesizer Centre to help displaced families in Lebanon. Not long after the Snakeskin album, Ruptured Records are now releasing a solo album of Julia Sabra‘s, consisting of intensely raw demo recordings of songs she’s written between 2020 and 2024, many of them deeply personal. You can hear that emotional vulnerability in these recordings, voice accompanied by acoustic guitar and occasionally piano. Only the last track deviates from the acoustic instruments, with synth lines snaking around Sabra’s voice.

Yara Asmar – i am a terrible mathematician (and an even worse clown) [Ruptured Records/Bandcamp]
Simultaneously with Sabra’s album, Ruptured are also releasing a new album from filmmaker, puppeteer, accordionist and sound-artist Yara Asmar. Stuttering Music follows Home Recordings 2018-2021 and synth waltzes and accordion laments, which have also just been re-released by UK label Hive Mind Recordings as a handsome double vinyl set. In any case, Stuttering Music again centres on Asmar’s accordion laments – and metallophone – processed into cathedrals of reverb. Aching music for hard times.

Cedie Janson – love goes on (go-betweens cover) [Cedie Janson Bandcamp]
A decade ago or more, a great experimental rock band from Brisbane called Naked Maja put out a few cool releases. Sometime later, the band’s Cedie Janson started sending me his solo music, mostly electronic music, some skittery beats. His music has evolved in various directions since then – he’s now based in LA, and has been working on film soundtracks as well – and so we come to his 2024 output. For the ambient lovers, I recommend the EP stitched together with magnetic tape, made of grainy, wobble tape loops. An album, the river, is on its way, and the first single is lovers. The tape loop EP isn’t exactly a red herring: the album’s more song-oriented, but also very soundscapey, with murmured spoken words as much as soft singing, and if there are some sparse beats there are also washes of wind-like drones. So when the lovers single features a cover of a classic Go-Betweens song, the jangles are replaced with stretched-out pads, until about halfway through the song, the beats pick up and more instrumentation joins. It’s quite touching.

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