Experimental song, guitar-triggered sample-mashing, electro-dub, industrial dub-metal, intricate percussion, ambient jazz… Just some of the well-known genres heard tonight.
Yasmine Hamdan – Shmaali شمالي [Crammed Discs/Bandcamp]
While I’ve featured quite a bit of Lebanese music on this show, it’s leaned towards the experimental. Yasmine Hamdan‘s career goes back to the late ’90s with indie/trip-hop band Soapkills, all three of whose independent albums have been re-released by Belgian powerhouse Crammed Discs, whose catalogue covers postpunk and experimental music as well as “world music” from all over the planet. Hamdan released two previous solo albums with Crammed, and a third is coming, with second single Shmaali شمالي now released. Much like Etyen & Salwa Jaradat, whose Qoumi EP we heard last week, in this song Hamdan draws on tarweeda, a tradition dating back to the latter period of the Ottoman Empire and the British mandate in which Palestinian women used coded language to express themselves under oppression and occupation. The arrangements are a natural combination of traditional music and electronics.
Building Instrument – Baby, når du sover [Hubro/Bandcamp]
Norwegian trio Building Instrument have been around for a little over a decade now, but are perhaps not very well-known outside of Norway, excepting those who follow the great, genre-crossing Hubro label. Mari Kvien Brunvoll sings and plays electronics/live sampler – she is also known for her duo with Stein Urheim. Åsmund Weltzien plays keyboards of various sorts, and Øyvind Hegg-Lunde drums. But despite the predominance of electronics, particularly on new album Månen, Armadillo, the band has a strong folk/jazz sense. I’d go so far as to say it’s folktronica – lots of glitching keyboard lines and stuttery beats, and Mari Kvien Brunvoll’s pixie-ish vocals.
EDT – This Feeling [Across the Horizon/Bandcamp]
Providence Rhode Island-based cellist, composer, songwriter and more Emily Dix Thomas records as EDT, and although I’d heard of her via various session appearances here & there, I’d never heard her own songs, so I’m incredibly grateful to the Across the Horizon project (a co-production of Northern Spy Records and Bob Holmes of SUSS and the Ambient Country Podcast) for bringing us “This Feeling“, a beautiful new song of hers performed mostly on cello and voice, with a little percussion. For Across the Horizon, eight artists (as part of Volume 1) each curate a little three-track selection – one piece by them, and two others they’ve chosen. So really we have guitar master Marisa Anderson to thank for including EDT in her segment.
Circuit des Yeux – Truth [Matador/Bandcamp]
The trajectory of Haley Fohr’s Circuit des Yeux has been an unusual one, from a very experimental start to the discovery of the power of her multi-octave voice, and through various styles of songwriting (including her kind-of alt-country alter ego Jackie Lynn). Last year she released standalone single “God Dick” which gave an indication of the heavy electronic sound here – especially the emphatic Scott Walker influence, which I remarked on when the single came out. It’s an obvious reference, given her rich, expressive, near-operatic voice, her strong artistic vision and refusal to temper the more experimental parts of her art. It’s perhaps no surprise to find that she enlisted Andrew Broder for a final pass on the production – an artist whose music spans backpack hip-hop and free-jazz indie into bass-heavy electronics, who has of late lent experimental electronic production to Pow Wow singer Joe Rainey, among many other collaborations. But in all honesty, any talk about the change in Fohr’s sound here ignores the fact that this is very clearly Circuit des Yeux in every aspect – stirring songs with a kernel of the weird.
Bibi Club – Orgiastic [Secret City Records/Bandcamp]
Québecois duo Bibi Club released their Feu de garde last year to some acclaim. They span languages (English & French to equal degree), and genres (indie rock, synth-pop, French chanson?) and what I’ve heard certainly doesn’t hide the influence of Stereolab (you know, melodic indie/pop meets krautrock, sung in English & French…?). Well, in May they will release the deluxe version of the album, Feu de garde (les braises) (and let me just insert here that “Feu de garde” is protecting fire, and “les braises” are “the embers”). And one of the additional tracks on “les braises” is this cover of “Orgiastic” from Stereolab’s first album Peng!. It’s both true to the original and transformative, just as a cover ought to be. Very jangly, very middy (hardly hits the bass register!), very rhythmic, very oui, s’il vous plaît.
YHWH Nailgun – Sickle Walk [AD 93/Bandcamp]
YHWH Nailgun – Changer [AD 93/Bandcamp]
What could be more of-the-moment than combining postpunk and jungle? In this case the drum’n’bass beats that surface at times are performed by YHWH Nailgun‘s drummer Sam Pickard, while Zack Borzone’s tortured vocals reach into hardcore punk territory; meanwhile guitarist Saguiv Rosenstock is doing angular postpunk, and Jack Tobias ties it all together on synths & electronics. On my first couple of listens it felt like each member is playing a different genre, but – Borzone’s vocals aside – now it feels like they’re all playing all the genres, all at once. Pickard’s drumming certainly references drum’n’bass, but also African music and jazz, with his substantial use of pitch-shifting rototoms. The stabby guitar and synths seem to point at the interface of postpunk and pop in early ’80s David Bowie or INXS (seriously), and you could argue that most of the time the other three are just trying to keep up with the drums – Borzone shouting over them, the other two jabbing their way into the cracks. It’s kind of thrilling.
Feliks Mirenskiy – All in My Mind, Girl? [TOPOT/Bandcamp]
OK, this is absolutely insane stuff. Feliks Mirenskiy is a Russian-born guitarist & improviser, now based in Cyprus. Do You Remember? is his response to electronic music made by staring at the screen of a laptop. And so, you may think you’re hearing intricate-yet-chaotic edits of samples and electronic instruments, but in some way everything here is created via his electric guitar. Occasionally you *do* actually hear the guitar, but mostly it’s dense thickets of multifarious sound. Probably the weirdest thing you’ll hear this week.
Laura Masotto – The Body Is a Tree (Ekranoplan Rework) [7K!/Bandcamp]
Italian violinist Laura Masotto inhabits the space of contemporary “neo-classical” music, but doesn’t make pretty, simple piano songs with broken chords. There are some subtle electronic touches to her own work, but on The Spirit of Things Reworks, she and 7K! have invited a handful of contemporary electronic producers to up-end her original pieces. Robert Lippok of To Rococo Rot twists and turns Masotto’s work into some surprising and challenging places, and as heard tonight, Italian electronic producer Ekranoplan brings a kind of postpunk electronic energy with clattering dub delays on the percussion.
the body, Intensive Care – Unwanted [Closed Casket Activities/Bandcamp]
Industrial music has been close to the aesthetic of the body for a long time, especially as they moved from their almost-orchestral black metal/doom into the very electronic hybrids they’ve been creating over the last 10 years. Here they’re collaborating with industrial duo Intensive Care, whose Andrew Nolan collaborated with Full of Hell last year (and, because time is circular, Full of Hell have worked twice with the body on two extraordinary albums). Anyway, no surprise, this particular body collaboration sounds a lot like the body, and particularly the bass-heavy electronic pieces are very excellent.
memotone – Wisdom [MOTHER] [Discrepant/Bandcamp]
We’ve been fans of Will memotone Yates here at Utility Fog Towers for a long time – I’m thinking 2012, when the Hands EP came out with that lovely track sampling “Ghosts” by Japan? Yates is a talented multi-instrumentalist, and from his beginnings on the fringes of UK bass music he’s covered ground from gentle folktronica or lo-fi jazz to oddball English folk and thickety bass-techno & house. I wouldn’t say that’s all present on his new LP Pruning released on the reliably-weird Discrepant, but – well, maybe I would? It’s a collection of off-cuts from other projects, and if it’s lo- in fi, it’s hi- in quality.
NVST – Coming & Going (Stillstuck Edition) [Maloca Records/Bandcamp]
Dreaming Of Us While Slowly Catching Fire In a Place I Never Belonged is the very descriptive title of the new EP from Swiss DJ NVST. She applies glitched treatments & dub delays to her own spoken voice and bassy electro beats – it’s super moody stuff, and beats get more complex before dropping out for the majority of the last track, made of spooky pads and scattered vocal shards. Highly recommended.
Heith – You In Reverse [PAN/Bandcamp]
The last full album from Italian musician Heith, founder of eclectic experimental label Haunter Records, was 2022’s X, wheel, a mystery-laden amalgam of electro-acoustics, quasi-classical arrangements and post-industrial beats. Weirdly, I’m sure I saw that album announced years earlier? In any case, I somehow missed Heith’s The Liars Tell… EP from last year, but new track “You In Reverse” is indeed the first single from a new album due in April. With a cut-up beat trundling along under processed vocals, it quite nicely fits the current trip-hop revival (and then that sax solo…), and I’m interested in where this will fit in with what will no doubt be a wide-ranging album.
Venetian Snares – Drums [Planet µ/Bandcamp]
It’s been a long time since there’s been new solo material from Canada’s greatest purveyor of 7/8 jungle & breakcore, and what better occasion than the 30th birthday of Planet µ, who probably released more of his material than anyone else? Planet Mu 30 (conveniently spelling out the Greek letter µ, for all those who never got the µ-Ziq pun) is a 25-track, 2CD compilation featuring a cross-section of artist from early days (Mike Paradinas/µ-Ziq himself, Luke Vibert) through dubstep to many of the footwork artists µ has championed, and many oddballs from around the world. Can’t wait.
DJ Sofa – Hypervigilance [Repertoire/Bandcamp]
UK jungle/drum’n’bass label Repertoire welcomes Finland’s Kia Súmen aka DJ Sofa on a 12″ with two solo tracks, plus a collab with fellow Finn ODJ Pirkka and a remix from Finnish heavyweights Esc & Mineral. DJ Sofa’s sound tends to have hints of old-school jungle-tekno in amongst the breakbeat edits; working with ODJ Pirkka leads her into more darkcore territory with some intense breaks, and then Esc & Mineral bring early d’n’b vibes.
JANKA – YAMANOTE DUB [oulines]
The two members of JANKA are longtime members of Poland’s electronic music scene; Daniel Szlajnda made DJ mixes as Daniel Drumz from the mid-’00s, and his own beats later on; Piotr Kaliński is better known as jazzy electronic producer Hatti Vatti, as well as being half of cinematic post-classical/bass duo Nanook of the North. As JANKA, it’s all about the dubs; last year they released three longform ambient glitch-dubs on YUKU with Japanese experimental artist CRZKNY. Earlier this year they contributed an excellent dub to the incredible remix album for REIFSMA on Polish post-footwork label outlines, and now they’ve got an album on outlines sublabel guides. In advance of the album, we have the title track “YAMANOTE DUB” (title track in the sense that all their tracks are suffixed with “DUB”). It’s a brilliant application of dub techno aesthetics to footwork sensibilities.
Simon Barker (feat Hinano Fujisaki) – Terrains of Transition [Simon Barker Bandcamp]
Eora/Sydney drummer Simon Barker doesn’t directly reference footwork or jungle with the ultra-detailed rhythms on this 2-track EP Tymbal Echoes. It’s a collaboration with brilliant young Sydney saxophonist Hinano Fujisaki, and the idea came about from considering the hypnotic sound of cicadas, burbling creeks, crackling fires. Barker’s drums are augmented with drones from the self-modulating Lyra-8 synth, while Fujisaki underpins it all with sax overtones. Engrossing.
Sophie Gordon – Knock – B [Sophie Gordon Bandcamp]
You can hear Sophie Gordon on FBi Radio at the moment on Tuesdays on The Bridge, with excellent idiosyncratic Sydney selections. As well as producing promos for the station, she’s quietly crafting electronic music, and the most recent is a pair of tracks called Knock. Both are patient dubby numbers: part A keeps things super spaced-out, with sub-bass murmurings and clicky beat fragments occasionally surfacing; but in part B, she allows a full-blown beat to clatter in, with dubstep wubs as well, even if everything is still held at a certain reserve.
Puce Moment – Bugaku [Parenthèses Records/Bandcamp]
Nico Devos and Pénélope Michel are known in one incarnation as the “ghost opera” band Cercueil, making perhaps a kind of French electroclash. But as Puce Moment they make music for dance and film, a more abstract, classical/art music. Sans Soleil is moody and dramatic music – not at all abstract – based around the pair’s recordings from Tenri, of the ancient Japanese music known as Gagaku. The acoustic instrumentation is reconstructed along with electronics and Michel’s voice. This kind of music is bread & butter for the Brussels-based Parenthèses Records, a label which began life in Boorloo/Perth, and has a particular interest in traditional music coaxed into new forms. If you like the likes of Ben Frost or Tim Hecker, or ex-Perth, Melbourne-resident Tilman Robinson, this should be right up your street.
Ledley – Better Than [Impossible Ark Records/Ledley Bandcamp]
Ledley – FOBTW Pt1 [Impossible Ark Records/Ledley Bandcamp]
Ledley – FOBTW Pt2 [Impossible Ark Records/Ledley Bandcamp]
London-based saxophonist Chris Williams and trombonist Raph Clarkson are both big football fans as well as jazz musicians, and they’ve named their collaborative project after Ledley King. This is not an area I’m familiar with, but I can vouch for the music therein, which can venture into high energy, but is also interested in micro-sounds and hidden melodies, and is underpinned by electronics & effects from both musicians, as well as Riaan Vosloo (both live and in post-production). What we heard tonight is how their self-titled album begins, with a very soft swell of scrabbling sounds that tumble into two “FOBTW” tracks in which the two instruments begin their conversation. The trombone spits a rhythmic backing skipping between repeated notes at the tonic and a minor third above, while the saxophone improvises mellifluous melodies on top; when we reach part 2, the saxophone becomes more excitable and the trombone gradually shifts to a more recognizable jazz bassline, while electronic shards rise up at intervals. Excellent free jazz sonics.
Macie Stewart – I Forget How To Remember My Dreams (ft. Lia Kohl) [International Anthem/Bandcamp]
Chicago multi-instrumentalist Macie Stewart can be heard playing violin and other instruments with many other musicians (such as Makaya McCraven and Japanese Breakfast), and has composed music for film & dance. She also writes songs, jazz-inflected indie music which can be heard on the beautiful Mouth Full of Glass album released in 2021 on Full Time Hobby. Her debut album on Chicago’s International Anthem approaches jazz from a minimalist perspective, using prepared piano, violin and voice, and embedding the music in field recordings of the hustle and bustle of normal life. These mostly-dreamy compositions are evocative of something nebulous, helped along by the wonderful Chicago cellist Lia Kohl as well as Whitney Johnson aka Matchess and double bassist Zach Moore. I love the way Lia Kohl’s cello parts swell in & out on tonight’s excerpt – I feel like they’re reversed in parts? This music will welcome you in its journey to parts unknown.
Ai Yamamoto – Buddha on the Moon [Le Mont Analogue]
Ambient label Dronarivm has recently launched a couple of limited cassette sublabels, and on the “tape and analogue sound” label Le Mont Analogue, one of the initial batch is Naarm’s own Ai Yamamoto. Less Hype More Hyphae takes its inspiration from funghi: hyphae are the long, branching filaments by which most funghi grow. The music here is composed of soft & delicate analogue synths, sometimes single lines, sometimes interlocking patterns, sometimes accompanied by field recordings. It’s calming music, so don’t expect a psychedelic mushroom trip.
squncr – Mistral 1AM [Fluid Audio/Bandcamp]
Last time we heard François Larini’s squncr on the show was 2023’s …drowned out…, a captivating set of hauntological sound-art pieces based around recordings of an African catholic mass, which interrogated the French colonial past of Burkina Faso. New album The Moorish Field is also haunted: it’s set in a villa on the French Riviera (near where Larini is based in Nice) and the Moorish Shield was a Moroccan symbol – a protection agains the evil eye – placed there by the novelist William Somerset Maugham. The darkness inherent in this old house in a picturesque landscape is conjured with out-of-tune pianos, tape-manipulated samples and half-caught radio signals. Masterful ghost-ambient.
Kirk Barley – Balanced [Odda Recordings/Bandcamp]
Finishing tonight with a new solo album from Kirk Barley, with sonic illusions made from modular synths in odd tunings and odd cross-rhythmic time signatures. One track features his mate Matt Davies on drums (with whom he records as Church Andrews), but the rest is him solo. On tonight’s selection, the way the various electronic percussion sounds loop and shift, the way the pitches drift from standard tuning, is strangely off-kilter, which (also strangely) makes “Balanced” the perfect title. Like a magic trick, you go back and listen again to try and grasp it.