300304 08:06

B.
minikool mp3
+
RENE BREITBARTH
125 mp3

::: two doses of tasty, minimal electro / tech house featured on a downloadable compilation called designated drivers from the testone label. first up is B - aka german musician and testone label founder bjoern hartmann, with a thoroughly danceable piece of minimalism. although his biog cites him as 'tech house', the second mp3 from rene breitbarth actually feels a little darker and far less dancefloor friendly than its predecessor.

tonight at the kudos gallery in paddington, sydney - robyn buchanan (aka my good lady wife)'s installation, sue the 80s, opens as part of the 'too much sugar' group exhibition. head on over to suethe80s.com for the full horror show.

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290304 09:04

FOUR TET
as serious as your life (jay dee remix feat. guilty simpson) mp3
as serious as your life (remix one) mp3
::: in which, the don of folktronica gets some serious remix treatment... in the first instance from the hip-hop producer jay dee whose recent credits list includes work with a tribe called quest, common, erykah badu, slum village and guru. guilty's freestyle + jay dee's beats are all over this mix and arguably little remains of the original, but it's an interesting curio nonetheless. the second mix is uncredited and seems a little more familiar, if a little heavy on the breaks. check out four tet's epitonic page to download 'no more mosquitoes' from the 'pause' album.

thanks to swen's weblog for pointing me in the direction of smart-music.net for a free download of an exclusive ninja tune compilation feat. cloudead, dj vadim, jaga jazzist, the herbalizer, blockhead and heaps more. you can also download accompanying artwork.

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280304 20:56

and so australian winter begins ... still, it's 26 degrees, so who's complaining about an early darkness? :-)

today's fat planet playlist is available on demand, right here. today's guests were founder of bloom records, emmanuelle gaugin, and his first signing, naab. more info can be found (in french...) at bloomrecords.com and naabnet.com

download some of today's tunes :::

BLOCKHEAD carnivores unite [ENGLAND] mp3
SEACHANGE news from nowhere [ENGLAND] mp3
TV ON THE RADIO dreams [US / NEW YORK] mp3

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260304 08:25

TAKAKO MINEKAWA
maxi on! mp3
::: prior to her 1994 debut album, takako was a member of a band called 'fancy face groovy name' which almost takes the title of best japanese group name of all time, were it not for the wonderful 'seagull screaming kiss her kiss her'. during her career, she's worked with a few of the contemporary japanese greats such as cornelius and buffalo daughter. the above track is taken from an e.p. released in 2000 (seemingly her most recent output) and mixes surf guitar, dust + scratches, munsters-style piano with her breathless japanese vocal. where has she been all our lives :-)

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240304 08:57

AUDIAC
everybody's sneaking baby (remix by brandow) mp3
::: audiac are a german duo (alex wiemer and niklas david), augmented by others on drums + programming. their debut album 'thank you for not discussing the outside world' was produced by hans joachim irmler from the legendary faust and, unsurprsingly, is now available on faust's klangblad label. the above track places a muted, treated vocal against a beautiful string / horn accompaniment, which then collapses into 40 seconds of vocoder electronica towards the climax. some reviews have placed audiac into a portishead / goldfrapp context which seems unfair and is possibly just another example of lazy journalism. [i wonder how often the word 'portishead' has been used in a review by way of comparison... and considering their time was now nearly ten years ago, can't we find something new to say?]

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230304 08:30

HiM
slow slow slow (dub) mp3
::: not to be confused with the scandanavian metal singer of the same name (not the lower case 'i' - makes all the difference, right?). HiM is based around founder doug scharin and the album 'many in high places are not well' features members of mum, tom tom club, swans, out of worship and mice parade. the above mp3 is a dub version of an album track - gentle, laid-back, post-rock dub. only problem is that it's all over too quickly...

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220304 08:15

HELL INTERFACE
solyent night mp3
::: this is an interesting curio - hell interface is actually a little known offshoot project for scotland's boards of canada and the above track featured on a 1997 v/vm release entitled 'whine and missingtoe'. it still features the trademark BoC sound, albeit with a darker theme. more info about this release, and other v/vm mp3s can be found here. according to david a.c.'s BoC discog site, another hell interface track 'the story of xentrix' can be found on the rare 'pool party' mix cd for warp records and two remixes (curiously, one of 'trapped' by colonel abrahams!) on skam. you can hear all of the hell interface material on this archived real player stream of a BoC radio special.

bjork.com have posted a quicktime 'ad' for bjork's next album - or rather it's 'the next episode' in the story of the new album. the video seems to consist of bjork hitting a broken organ a making a fine display of heavy noise. we're told that new material will be out 'before the end of the summer' and that the record features further collaborations with matmos. the unoffical bjork news site 'etoile polaire' has also posted a short sample of a new track 'synchronicity' which features on a new spike jonze documentary dvd.

finally, here's a great flash animation involving strange japanese characters beating their heads on large drums. and if anyone can tell me what the giant revolving sculpture is in the background, i'd love to know.

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210304 18:36

new fat planet playlist is live. felt a little out of sorts behind the panel today - mostly because i spent an hour freaking out beforehand thinking that daylight savings had finished and i was an hour ahead of the rest of the world. then i reaslied i was seven days ahead of myself which is enough to make anyone lose their mind.

today's planet ride included the following tracks, downloads of which can be found in the mp3 archive :::

COCOROSIE by your side [FRANCE]
JOSIAH four leaf foundations [US / CALIFORNIA]

other downloadable material played on today's show :::

THE LOW FREQUENCY IN STEREO men don't walk [NORWAY] site [go to sounds]
RHYTHM KING AND HER FRIENDS get paid [GERMANY] mp3
SKALPEL ninjazz [POLAND] mp3

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190304 09:08

ENON
shave mp3
::: ok, so it's another track from the touch and go records site - there's more on there if you care to look :-) i found a review of enon's high society release that claimed "enon has captured the five decades of modern music and released it on one CD, without imitating and without saluting" which is a huge statement to make. the above track is taken from their new album, hocus pocus, which is apparently more danceable than previous material (having only heard that one album, i can't comment!). there's more official downloads + videos on enon's website and you can also find older enon material can be found on their epitonic page

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180304 08:55

COCOROSIE
by your side mp3
::: there's almost as much written about music as there are CDs in this world and so it's rare to find yourself stuck for words, trying to describe a sound. well, download the above and try it. on the surface it's somewhere alongside bjork or moloko, but on deeper inspection, there's certainly traces of southern blues, jazz, downbeat hip-hop - and all the more remarkable considering this is coming out of paris. visit this site for more downloads, including the stunning 'jesus loves me'

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170304 08:49

N.E.R.D.
she wants to move (FakeID's geek mix) mp3
::: following on from the shadow post two days ago, i thought i should mention FakeID as i've played a few tracks on the fat planet show. i have no idea who he is, other than he's british (although this is unconfirmed...) and i first dropped by his site when he was posting mash-ups "made in 60 minutes" (my favourite being goldfrapp vs the timelords). these days he's sensibly ditched mash-ups in favour of his own unofficial electro remixes. check out the site for mixes of the white stripes, franz ferdinand, hot hot heat and plenty more. there are also remixes of adam ant and coldplay but i haven't had the nerve to download these as yet...

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160304 08:26

JOSIAH
four leaf foundations mp3
::: and on the eighth day, god created anticon. in 2003, there was no other source of alternative hip-hop that came anywhere close to anticon. top recommendation from this corner is alias' outstanding 'muted' album - if you buy one album this year... well, you know the drill. the above track by josiah is a beautiful slice of instrumental hip-hop, laced with tasty eastern percussion influences. the anticon web site seems to suggest that josiah is the brother of 'why?' (surely not his real name) from clouddead. [thanks to levins for the nod on this one]

CIRCLESQUARE
non-revival alarm / 7 minutes flash site (go to 'tracks')
::: i neglected to mention on sunday's update that the feature album i played out on fat planet was circlesquare's excellent slab of downbeat melancholia 'pre-earthquake anthems'. circlesquare are from canada and may or may not be the brainchild of an artist by the name of 'march21'. playlouder placed them somewhere between this mortal coil and depeche mode, although i think their scope is a little wider than that. they're signed to output, the label run by trevor jackson (aka playgroup) which features a roster that also includes the rapture, colder and 7 hurtz and has licenced four tet, black strobe and lcd soundsystem. there's a rare interview with circlesquare here.

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150304 07:58

DJ SHADOW vs NEPHISA
blood on the motorway (no more bush fires - the life remix) mp3
::: i'm pleased to see that the (now passing?) bootleg mash-up trend has re-invigorated a taste for 'unofficial' remixes. musicians and DJs have been 'illegally' remixing other people's tracks for years, yet the acceptance / legitimacy of mash-ups by the media + record co.s seems to have lead to a similar acceptance of (and subsequent desire to source) unofficial mixes. yesterday, i found a cd from an australian producer called friendly, whose unofficial breaks remix of LFO's 'lfo' has apparently been licenced back by mark bell (aka LFO) as he enjoyed it so much. similarly, the above mp3 has been given shadow's stamp of approval and is linked directly from his quannum projects site. it's a mellow, stripped-back version of the track from 'the private press' with recurring piano & flute throughout.

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140304 18:46

new fat planet playlist is live.

amongst the usual mix, tonight's show featured some northern european alt.rock from finland and iceland. click below to download :::

CESSNA book [FINLAND] mp3
SINGAPORE SLING listen [ICELAND] mp3

i also featured the following tracks, downloads of which can be found in the mp3 archive :::

LAZLO BECKETT & STEVE TAYLOR work with what you've got [UK]
NITRADA fading away [GERMANY]
GIARDINI DI MIRO tokyo-ga [ITALY]

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130304 17:28

STRAIPH
barry will be long (fisk industries remix) mp3
::: how about this for a bio? "Working within the Zoology department at a biological research centre located in the semi-rural remote isolation of the Highlands of Scotland, His project started a few years back. After moving to the remote field station, the utter boredom of the isolation drove the scientists to start showing slide shows in the evenings on a German made projector called Paximat multimag. it was from these hazy stoned gatherings, Straiph began to construct music scores for their slide shows..." / fans of boards of canada will not be disappointed. more info + downloads here.

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120304 07:58

TV ON THE RADIO
dreams mp3
::: i don't confess to knowing a great deal about this band - this is the 3rd mp3 i've found from them in as many months and, due to the fact that their work doesn't seem to be available in australia, it's all i have to go on... this is from their new album 'desperate youth, blood thirsty babes' and marries analog-synth / drum machine with their trademark harmonies and wash of guitars. there's not a great deal like this out there...

CALEXICO
alone again or mp3
::: taken from the same label source as tv on the radio, this is the arizona's band version of the arthur lee & love classic -which i remember mostly from the reasonably faithful version by the damned of all the people. smash it up!

i'm a regular visitor to swen's weblog which he started as a way to catalogue some of the music mentioned in the wire magazine. he regularly strays off that narrow(ish) topic into other musical areas, but it's generally always leftfield / avant-garde. he recently posted a 10th anniversary listing for the ninja tune label that includes mp3 downloads for coldcut, dj food, blockhead and clouddead. sven also posted a news itme yesterday about a woman who beat her boyfriend to death with her iPod. apparently he had erased the 2,000 mp3s that had taken her months to acquire. full story here.

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110304 08:34

BLISAED
the one you thought you knew mp3
::: blisaed, aka matt centonze, is a 19-year-old musician from california - the name 'blisaed' apparently a development of the idea of 'blissful music'. with the above mp3, released through the excellent free-mp3 label site monotnik, matt has produced an atmospheric slice of downtempo electronica, not far from the blissful state that he sincerely hopes to achieve.

i've been a huge fan of siouxsie + the banshees since i was a young lad, so i'm a little freaked out this morning to open up playlouder.com and find that one-time banshee guitarist, john mcgeoch has died at the age of 48. weird too that only two weeks ago i was on fbi banging on about the role he played in the formative years of post-punk. i'd never reaslied how pivotal he was in music history and it was only when i was researching the fbi show that i kept seeing his name come up time and time again - magazine, public image limited (aka PiL), visage, ultravox and, of course, the banshees. so, respect to mr mcgeoch - love your work.

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100304 08:30

FERNANDO LAGRECA
suave mp3 album site
::: it's not often you encounter minimal electronica from uraguay, but here we go. fernando currently lives in spain and has put together an album of abstract, glitch melodies that demand close attention. click on the above link for the label site offering a full album download. while you're there, you'll also find many other avantgarde albums from similar artists - again free downloads available.

my wife + partner in criminal activities, robyn buchanan, is suing the 80s. for $500,000. all of this is true. for the full back-story and supporting documentary evidence, go to suethe80s.com.

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090304 09:13

THROBBING GRISTLE
various (si begg's crash edit) mp3
::: throbbing gristle's history now dates back nearly thirty years, and whilst we're very casual about the way we toss around the word 'pioneer' in the company of people such as kraftwerk, can or stockhausen, throbbing gristle are invariably painted out of the picture. it's fair to say that most of today's electronic, industrial or experimental music owes some kind of debt to TG. click on over to the mute records site for a retrospective and info on the newly released 'mutant TG' remix project, with the likes of carl craig, two lone swordsmen and carter tutti (aka two former members of TG, chris & cosey) mixing it up. the above download from si begg is an odd, short attempt to fuse tracks from 'mutant TG' into 75 seconds (not hugely successful and not really indicative of TG's output). for edited extracts from many TG releases, check out brainwashed's TG site - here you can listen to highlights such as 'maggot death', 'five knuckle shuffle' and 'we hate you (little girls)'.

LASZLO BECKETT & STEVE TAYLOR
work with what you've got full length mp3 @ hand on the plow.org
::: a follow-up post from last week's download from these guys. they very kindly emailed me to tell me that they've now posted a full-length mp3 of the above track. 'work with what you've got' beautifully combines minimal cut-up vocal scattered across a fucked + funked electro-glitch backbone. work it!

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080304 08:22

yesterday's fat planet playlist is now online. here's a couple of mp3s from artists that we played on the show :::

BARBARA MORGENSTERN
move flash-site mp3
::: electronic artist barbara is described on the promo for her forthcoming sydney gig as a cross between portishead and bjork... not sure about that comparison, it's a bit straight-forward and misses the point. she sings mostly in german and, although offers a more straight-forward sound than the likes of ellen alien, she actually inhabits a space not occupied by anyone else. go to the above site to the discography section, to the album NICHTS MUSS and download the mp3 there. here's a review of the album from philip sherbourne's excellent neumu site.

GARLIC
a weird wood soul wmv video
philmore mp3
::: sounding for all the world like a more folk-orientated version of arab strap. ok, so they sing in scottish accents and it's a lazy comparison, but it's better that i quote arab strap than the proclaimers - surely? they're signed to bella union - a label set up by robin guthrie and simon raymonde from cocteau twins. head to garlicmusic.co.uk for more downloads.

KVLR
slow clapping mp3 @ it'satrap.com
::: some straight-ahead alt.rock from this swedish four piece. it's not my usual flavour, but i figured that we all need a little bit of variety in our life. head on up to the top of the 'it's not a trap' tree for regularly updated scandanavian music news.

yesterday's feature album was 'tronica' from japan's sketchshow (featuring two thirds of the legendary yellow magic orchestra). their official web site is avexnet.or.jp/sketchshow and, although bereft of mp3s, features some windows media player and real player downloads

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060304 19:59

GIARDINI DI MIRO
tokyo-ga mp3
GIARDINI DI MIRO vs PIMMON
post-DM mp3
::: two tracks from an italian post-rock six piece - and two very different versions of the band. the first is taken from their self-titled e.p. (released on fiction fiction in 2000) and adds a little more rock to the mogwai formula. the second is taken from a collaboration between GDM and australian glitch artist paul gough (aka pimmon) - the results deviate clearly away from post-rock into more spacious electronic territory.

NITRADA
fading away mp3
::: whilst tracking down GDM above, i came across their label 2ndrec. which fortuitously led me to south german artist nitrada. this gorgeous slick of electronica (with vocals from kaye brewster from scottish band the electroluvs) is taken from the new album 'we don't know why but we do it'. check out the microsite that supports the release.

caught wire @ the gaelic club last night - that's three times i've seen them in as many years and each time it's been completely different. 2001's barbican laptop set is a universe away from last night's unapologetic punk assault. four men in their late 40s blowing all the young pretenders off the map - completely reaffirms your faith in the idea of growing old disgracefully. legitimate wire downloads are hard to find - if you locate any, let me know. eleven years ago [!], zero-g interviewed wire's bruce gilbert - text of the interview can be found here.

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050304 08:23

MAGNET
heaviest heart mp3
::: went to see magnet live last night, aka even johansen from bergen in norway. first discovered him via an x-ray magazine comp and the track 'the day we left town'. the album is called 'on your side' and is well worth tracking down. vocal comparisons to thom yorke are not misplaced - johansen creates a great deal of space in which his voice can work and the instrumentation dabbles around with pared-down acoustic, some steel guitar, strings and the occasional drop of mellow electronica. even was in the fbi studios yesterday and he recorded two tracks in session - tune into fat planet on sunday at 3pm (AUS EST) to hear them in full. over at homeofmagnet.com you can download 4 exclusive tracks, including the above.

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040304 07:42

LASZLO BECKETT & STEVE TAYLOR
work with what you've got / hand on the plow (edits)
hand on the plow.org
::: i rarely like to post to mp3s that aren't full tracks, but these edits are too good to miss (around 60 seconds in length) and quite unlike anything else that's out there. formerly of planet mu (label run by uziq's mike paradinas).

E.B.I.
tender snap compartment mp3
::: e.b.i. stands for electronic barnacle island, which is an odd name - barnacle is not really a name that fits anywhere into popular (or unpopular) music. there's plenty more of such names (steroid, glove, etc), but this isn't the time or the place... this mp3 is mid-tempo, semi-melodic yet disonant electronica, with the rythym played out on some dull, clunking objects. very smart indeed.

SPILLSBURY
kurz von vier mp3check
::: this was one of the very first songs on the fat planet radio show many moons ago (and is also archived on the mp3 page somewhere). i was thinking about it again this morning as it's used on the show promo. a slice of throwaway guitar pop from germany with some urgent vocal thrown in for good measure.

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030304 01:16

internal dialogue was loud and annoying this weekend. so i've re-skinned the web site to give myself some peace of mind, albeit temporarily.

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020304 08:40

CLOUDDEAD
rifle eyes dirtyloop.com
velvet ant mp3
::: seems that the new clouddead album 'ten' is fiercely anticipated by a good few people 'in the know'. certainly for anyone who's into leftfield / experimental hip-hop it's going to be a key release for 2004. two album tracks downloadable above. when you're at the dirtyloop page, scroll down for three more back catalogue mp3s.

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