290604 20:59

as i wait patiently for the two-hour season climax of alias (hey, i'm not ashamed to admit i love that kind of 100% nonsense), here's some links i've been meaning to post for a while...

TRANS AM [US: WASHINGTON]
remote control mp3
this is a great introduction to trans am - in that it's impossible to define where they sit. their latest album 'liberation' mixes post punk, 80s pop, white boy funk, electro, alt.rock and a few more genres too and it all comes out smelling absolutely top class. the album is currently lodged in my top ten of 2004, defying someone to oust it.

DAVID SYLVIAN [ENGLAND]
late night shopping (tweaking the tweaker remix) zipped mp3
sylvian and i go way back, my sister being a huge japan fan in the late 70s / early 80s. from 'communist china' and 'adolescent sex' to this latest remix - there's nothing there to connect them. sylvian today is far removed from the early new wave dabblings, although it's refreshing to hear this mix as it initially reintroduces electronic sound to his vocal (something missing from the first few solo albums) and drops a hard guitar riff in there too for good measure. nice to see that after a recording career spanning 25 years, the man shows no signs of losing his edge.

PRINCE PO [US: NEW YORK]
social distortion mp3
i'm late to the prince po game, only recently coming across the richard x mixes of the 'hold dat' single. they're excellent reworkings of what was originally a little more straight-forward. the above mp3 is interesting enough and worth checking out, but maybe i'm just an electro boy at heart - on the strength of this, i'm thinking richard x came out as the victor in that last face off.

MORRIS NIGHTINGALE aka JIMMY EDGAR [US: MICHIGAN]
check out my gold tooth mp3
hidden away on jimmy 'warp records' edgar's web site are some secret pages featuring previews of new material, some pictures of jimmy drunk (?) and this little beauty - 19 year old jimmy recording as morris nightingale. wonderfully dumb filtered vocal dropped over scratch-happy electro. give the serious face a holiday for five minutes.

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270604 18:13

note to self: when you find an australian bar selling pints instead of schooners on the night before your radio show, stop and think to yourself - how will the show sound with a dirty hangover? well, hopefully i didn't suck too badly, but at least there was some quality tunes. here's a sniffter to download for yourself...

THE BAMBI MOLESTERS [CROATIA]
theme from slaying beauty mp3
chalking another country off the fat planet 'to do' list - the bambi molesters grab the honour of being the first croatian band to be played on the show. it's a slice of fifties surf rock that starts off sounding worryingly like the shadows before picking up into a cool little number (which features peter buck from r.e.m.). there's more where that came from on their website.

THE INTERNATIONAL NOISE CONSPIRACY [SWEDEN]
new empire blues (teargas & plateglass remix) mp3
if you've got some spare time and some fat bandwidth, grab all you can from the american production duo teargas & plateglass (they've very kindly provided us with heaps of downloads on their website). this is quality broken beat - parading into territory from mezzanine-era massive attack but with a nastier bite. the above track (i think) takes a sample from an old nicolette track ('no government') and pushes the swedish rockers into a more interesting arena.

SOPHIE RIMHEDEN [SWEDEN]
hold me mp3
another top quality mp3 release from the race will begin label. a double-header of quirky, glitched swedish electronica - the above track which is a little more restrained than the 'a-side' (do we still have 'a-sides' any more?) entitled 'wanting'. grab them both at racewillbegin.com and have a sniff at some of their other free releases too, definitely worth an investigation.

SCHLAMMPEITZIGER [GERMANY]
starter für argwöhnische anhängsel mp3
try pronouncing this track even in a sober frame of mind... i swear (and this is probably just my addled subconscious) that i can hear the faint hint of an old sigue sigue sputnik riff at the back of this lush, dark piece of electronica. honestly, just say to yourself 'u.s. bombs flying overhead...'

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250604 14:42

today's selection is devoted entirely to those wonderful people who have emailed me links to mp3s of their own, or directed me to other sources. thanks for your suggestions and support!

HEALAMONSTER & TARSIER [US: NEW YORK]
cycle (moonbunny remix) mp3
m/f duo from nyc making some excellent electronic music, and this mp3 reminds me of some of the finer moments of chris & cosey (formerly of throbbing gristle), albeit with a little more pop punch. highly recommended. check out their site for heaps more downloads - all of similar quality.

DSICO [AUSTRALIA]
going back to cali mp3
"that no-talent hack" dsico has forsaken his recent vocoder cover excursions in favour of a more basic approach. and when i say basic, i mean absurd xylophone, hand claps, random guitar tweaks etc etc. and the subject of his affection this time around is ll cool j. check out reformat records for more, plus cuechamp's mash up of four thousand songs in about ten minutes.

SOVIET SUBLIMINAL SEDUCTION [DENMARK]
impotennis intro mp3
the sss web site reckons " if you're into neo kraut rock or post rock, then this might be your ticket. high-flown and mezmerizing when it finally takes off....". i've listened to a few of the sss tracks on their site and no two sound the same - which is always a good thing. there's 30+minute excursion on there too which they bill as "progressive hip hop over ambient to rock and nutty cut ups". they're almost daring you to download... there's a full discography with more downloads here. thanks to lars from noisejihad.dk who sent me some info on these guys and a couple of other bands too - wäldchengarten and ultimate combat noise, the latter being one of the most apt names for a band i've ever heard.

CAIRO TRIP HOP UNDERGROUND [US: CALIFORNIA]
dimension x mp3
cairo trip hop underground is the psuedonym for michael cox, and his new release 'raks zahra' is out now through his own down dog records. it's always a risky mission to blend east and west and come up smelling of roses, and fortunately cthu carries it off with great aplomb. follow the label link for more mp3s and some from michael's other project, petrol bomb somosa.

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220604 08:57

as previously promised, it's about time i posted some australian music. i heard a musician interviewed yesterday who said 'it's australia - it's all about rock music'. and it's true. with the predominant genre in america now morphing into r'n'b and hip-hop, australia might well be the last bastion of stadium rock. and, as far as i'm concerned, the sooner we're over that, the better! so today i hope to prove a small point about musical diversity in australia with a double dose of experimental electronica, plus some new wave and dark jazz breaks ...

PURDY
the cow and the moon mixture go to site
only being an aus resident for the last 18 months, i don't confess to knowing a great deal about the local history of electronic. i do know that kevin purdy is in a band called tooth who made some great alternative music and that last year he brought a solo album of sample-based semi-electronica, full of pop snesibilities, called 'fairytale insurance'. this above track (recorded in 1994) is minimal to the point of being almost invisible - a looped bass low in the mix, with some samples bubbling to the surface to interrupt the flow now and again. it's taken from a kevin purdy interview on the 'cyclic defrost' website - a crew responsible for australia's take on the 'the wire' magazine as well as the frigid club night in sydney.

FOURPLAY
corrosion (antlerland 2000 remix) go to site
vested interest - i know peter hollo who is one of the four in fourplay. don't let the fact that they are a string quartet deter you - it's just their instruments of choice, and they're not interested in standard classical music. peter's obsessions are legion, but experimental music seems to be at the top of the list (he's currently spending his savings by visiting the sonar festival in europe). the band recetnly asked some australian artists to remix their work and the results were largely outstanding. the above track (although not featured on the finished album) is a shining example.

CUT COPY
going nowhere zipped mp3
i wonder if some bands feel at all anxious about the kind of people that 'appropriate' their music. you know, if george w. bush came out and said he loved your tunes, how would you feel? cut copy have had the strange honour of being championed by australia's uber-'trendy' retail store, general pants. that aside, they're making some straight-up new wave, direct from the 80s, with a side-swerve to take in some daft punk funk.

GAUCHE
take my hand mp3
difficult to pigeonhole this band, which is very much in their favour. they're borrowing elements from jazz, electronica, drum'n'bass, funk, breaks, all with a dark edge - and some sensational double bass it has to be said! check out their web site at gauchemusic.com

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200604 18:30

ok, so i didn't get round to the aussie post - it's coming, this week for sure. i nearly laughed off my chair just before i went on air today, reading the news that madonna has decided to change her name. she's putting the past behind her, cleaning up her act and so has taken a new name to mark the change. and her new name is? esther. yup, me too. absolutely speechless...

anyway, here's some 100% legal links to some of the artists featured on today's fat planet :::

CHROMEO [CANADA]
needy girl mp3
these guys are so profoundly 80s, it's ceased to be funny. listening to the title track of their album 'she's in control', i suddenly caught a flash of crockett and tubbs dashing across maimi harbour on the trail of phil collins. this music isn't influenced but the 80s, it is the 80s. hear it and weep.

FELIX DA HOUSECAT [US: ILLINOIS]
madame hollywood (tiga's mister hollywood version) mp3
silver screen shower scene (malibu mix) mp3
played back my interview with felix on today's show, promoting his new album 'devin dazzle and the neon fever'. it was a great privelege to talk to someone who's last album spent so long in my cd player. unfortunately, i woke the poor guy up in his tokyo hotel room so i'm not sure if he was totally cogniscent. before i even mentioned anything, he was off on an anti-electroclash rant ... bless him. the above tracks are two top notch remixes from 'thee kittenz and the glitz', the first (from tiga) taking the original in a whole new direction. a dancefloor essential.

LILLE [DENMARK]
tiger (edit) mp3
this is the title track of lille's album on bloom records. it's a reasonably diverse album, at the pop end of an electronic vocal spectrum that naturally includes bjork, but it's probably closer to the seemingly short lived career of someone like emiliani torini (is emiliani still out making tunes?)

MISS KITTIN [FRANCE]
[...and the hacker] 1982 mp3
[golden boy feat...] 1234 mp3
following the felix interview, i played a track from the new kittin album 'i com'. caroline is taking the blueprint laid down by her collaborators such as the hacker and golden boy (see above downloads) but this time she's making a sound that's intrinscially her own. go purchase!

NEUTRINO [JAPAN]
syupaman mp3
great downtempo hip-hop from japan, released on mush / dirty loop - fast becoming the leader in such sounds. they're also forward-thinking enough to provide an extensive mp3 download section on their web site - if you've got the patience, you'll be well rewarded.

SUBURBAN KIDS WITH BIBLICAL NAMES [SWEDEN]
rent a wreck mp3
this is a young swedish duo, signed to labrador who've only been making music together for about six months. it's an unusally fast turnaround from formation to record company cheque book, so we should expect some good things when their debut e.p. drops in september

SWEET ELECTRA [MEXICO]
filefly zipped mp3
i played the track 'kum-v-e-' from the excellent mexican electro compilation 'acid cabaret'. this track is a little less electro and more house orientated, with what seems to be their trademark mix of 'western' dancefloor beats mixed with latin percussion

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160604 09:20

i've been disgracefully slack in my posts over the last short period, hope to rectify that this week as there's a pile of great music stacking up on the hard drive. today's post features music from last sunday's radio show.

BANG GANG inside (acoustic demo version) mp3 [ICELAND]
sweet downtempo indie from the cold country, seems sparse at first (even a little laconic) but i've found it to be a 'grower'

BIG JOAN tiger mp3 [ENGLAND]
angular post-punk with distorted vocal - english band, german vocalist. far less pop than many recent ventures into this territory

CHICA + THE FOLDER der wolf und p. mp3 [GERMANY]
see post dated 110604 for more info

DET GAMLA LANDET den galne ryttaren mp3 [SWEDEN]
contemporary swedish folk with a wonderful repetitive structure that builds across the three minutes. there's echoes of jaga jazzist in there, if a little more laid-back. my favourite of today's batch.

expect an australian post very soon. i haven't posted much in the way of australian music thus far as my radio show is 100% non-australian ('music from every else but here'). however, i can appreciate that for visitors from other parts of the shiny globe, this might seem odd, so i'm working to rectify that with some interesting mp3s due tomorrow or shortly thereafter. so it goes.

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130604 17:58

it's the holiday weekend, so i'm going to post mp3s from today's show sometime tomorrow... time for some rest and relaxation! in the meantime, today's playlist is here.

on next week's show [sunday 20th], i'll be talking to felix da housecat about the global success of his last album THEE KITTIN AND THE GLITZ (which was partially responsible for bringing MISS KITTIN to the world), his latest release DEVIN DAZZLE AND THE NEON FEVER and why 'electroclash' is such a dirty word.

plus on saturday (19th), i'll be DJing at the sydney film festival, preceeding the midnight screening of the original 50s 'godzilla' movie with a night of japanese music! more info here and here.

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110604 08:57

THE NOTWIST
one with the freaks mp3 [GERMANY]
+
CHICA + THE FOLDER
der wolf und p. mp3 [GERMANY]
+
MASHA QRELLA
i want you to know mp3 [GERMANY]

three in a row from germany today - the notwist have been buzzing around the fat planet radar for a while, but i only recently managed to bag their excellent set of remixes 'different cars and trains' which features treatments from console, four tet and manitoba (the latter two collaborating for the first time on a remix, and both playing in sydney tomorrow night...). the mp3 'one with the freaks' is an untreated notwist track and is a great slice of guitar-based pop. the band have a web site with a wonderfully scattered design here. chica and the folder is unlike anything i've heard - although strangely familiar at the same time. there's some echoes of folktronica in there, but it's mostly built around a collection of disparate samples and percussion noises with a vocal that's reminiscent of genesis p.orridge in places. oh yeah, and there's wolf noises too :-) masha qrella on the other hand, builds a track around what sounds like a broken toy banjo with some relaxed vocal over the top. masha and chica can both be found on the monika label.

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070604 19:55

UNIT 21
lain, i care mp3 [RUSSIA]
+
SLEEPY TOWN MANUFACTURE
lain, say you care mp3 [RUSSIA]

a double helping of lush russian electronica for you today from the perpetually wonderful monotonik free-mp3 label. there's some much to explore on their site, so much to drag you into the depths of your screen and away from the real world... recent favourites have been the superb lacklustre from finland, blisaed and australia's own pretty boy crossover. of the two tracks on this split e.p., unit 21 deliver a sensational abstract piano / strings / electronic piece that demands your attention - a wonderful respite from the day's hazards! sleepy town manufacture respond with a gentle scattered rythym, some surface bass and more ethereal tones. all in all, a beautiful package!

ho de ho ho - the man otherwise known as 'dirty slut' sent me this rather kewl list of genres the other day. obviously, i have no idea what they mean - pls do enlighten me! there was a gig billed in the u.s. that had "some of your favorite local DJs playing bass music, enchanting IDM mesmerization, christ-only nose hop, sleazy electro hop, gypsy hop, and future hop". why does christ alone get the nose hop? why can't we have some?

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060604 18:19

tonight's playlist is now live - ch'k it here. thanks to peter bryant from babypop for dropping in to get all 'freakbeat' on us [?]. more info on his club can be found here.

here's some tunes from today's crowd that you can download and play until your heart is very content (sounds very bjork like...)

2/5 BZ bbam zipped mp3 [TURKEY]
more info can be found in the post dated 040604

THAVIUS BECK to make manifest mp3 [US : CALIFORNIA]
more info can be found in the post dated 010604

BJORK hidden place (hearts and bones mix by matmos) mp3 [ICELAND]
with one, possibly two, new albums ready top drop over the next year or so, the bjork rumour-mill is already kranking into gear. collaborators once again include matmos, whose web-only free release mp3 features above. the track i played on today's show - 'desired constellation' - is allegedly lined up to be included on the first album

THE BOOKS lemon of pink direct download [US : NEW YORK]
played the track 'take time'. download the album's title track above. more info can be found in the post dated 030604

LOSCIL nautilus mp3 [CANADA]
played the beautiful opening track 'sickbay' from his new album, 'first narrows'. canada has a huge and very excellent electronica scene and this new release is some of the very best. the above mp3 is taken from the 2002 album 'submers', also on kranky

THE MAGNIFICENTS various mp3s > link [SCOTLAND]
too many good freely downloadbale tracks to choose from courtesy of this excellent, angular scottish band with a wheelbarrow-load of more balls than franz ferdinand
(if you MUST, go for 'kids now', but i recommend spending some with all of them)

JUANA MOLINA quien? mp3 : el desconfiado mp3 [ARGENTINA]
more info can be found in the post dated 230504

PIN PIN SUGAR bei mp3 [ITALY]
instrumental alt.rock, coming on like a heavier tortoise. from the bar la meurte label, from which last week's ronin download came

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040604 10:03

have i told you how much i like the milk factory? well, i'm going to tell you again. if you're into the music posted on this blog, then you will - without doubt - be in puppy love with the milk factory. this month, they've grabbed an interview with the legendary founder of cabaret voltaire, richard h.kirk. i've heard his two new re-release packages (of work from the 70s, 80s and 90s) and it just reaffirms his place in the hall of electronic music fame. they've also got some great reviews of new albums that i've also had the good fortune to check out - such as sixtoo, busdriver, icarus, meat beat manifesto, rephlex's grime compilation etc etc. surely you need no more encouragement? go to it!

yesterday - in a fit of nerd angst - i reworked the mp3 archive link page such that it's now categorised by region. still some work to do in allocating countries, i've got it all logged elsewhere, just need to make the move.

anyway, in going through this glorious exercise, i realised that i needed to log some of the less well represented areas such as africa and the middle east, which i began to do. as they've haven't been posted on the main blog, i thought i'd list them right about now:

> AFRICA

FELIX LABAND single light mp3 [SOUTH AFRICA]
downtempo, borderline lounge or the dreaded 'chill out', but felix pulls it off by not entering too far into cliche and dropping some live percussion over the mix

LESTER stanley's master plan mp3 [SOUTH AFRICA]
an odd mix of lo-fi electronica, acoustic guitar & distorted vocals - a short, sweet and highly unexpected treat

PORTABLE adhesive mp3 [SOUTH AFRICA]
what i like most about portable is that he's bringing either samples and / or live instrumentation to minimal glitch electronica and giving it a warmth that can be lacking in similar types of releases. check out more portable downloads here for a fuller picture

OUMOU SANGARE nebife mp3 [MALI]
without doubt my favourite african artist, simply because you're unlikely to find a voice quite like this. she's recently released a double album worldwide, titled 'oumou' that's half back-catalogue, half unreleased, including some reworked (although thankfully not fully remixed) versions of earlier work. if you only choose one download today, make it this one!

> MIDDLE EAST

2/5 BZ bbam zipped mp3 [TURKEY]
who knows what planet this man exists on - it's encouraging to know that there's people making bastard-glitch-mash-up freak-out noise experiments the world over. trot on over to his (almost unreadable) web site for more madness

THE ASTROGLIDES the man with the golden reverb mp3 [ISRAEL]
i don't know the region that well, so i don't know how the surf goes on the eastern mediterranean. whatever the rip curl, these guys are making some damn fine surf tunes that hark back to a golden era, mixed with a unique soundtrack element too. most of their songs are sadly on the short side, but you'll find more tucked away here

BADAWI final warning mp3 [ISRAEL]
i first came across this on an old wire magazine compilation and fell in love with it straight away. good to know that it's available to download on epitonic.

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030604 23:34

a new URL and a new design -- if this is ur first visit, then a warm slap on the back and a hearty congratulations for making it here. leave a comment and let me know what you think.

SKALPEL [POLAND]
break in (tagit james remix) mp3
i called these guys nu-jazz in the past, which probably doesn't do them many favours, but hopefully you get the picture. they're signed to ninja tune (one of a raft of recent new signings + releases, including the excellent sixtoo) and to give them a fair crack at some early promotion for their album, the label ran a remix competition (fast becoming de rigeur for some artists - i think bowie's just finished a similar project? and lamb are past masters!). the results are in - the tagit james remix above is the winning entry, however click on over to the results page for another ten...

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030604 09:13

THE BOOKS [US : NEW YORK]
lemon of pink direct download
this track comes from an amazing album of the same name, out on tomlab. my local electronic club (that's a place that plays electronic music, not where we sit around and discuss circuit boards), frigid, cited a review which called it "dj shadow messing around with old appalachian folk records". not too far off, as the above mp3 will attest. beautiful as it is, you can also get a sense of the joy that went into making this track. okay that's enough pretentiousness for one morning...

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010604 19:57

THAVIUS BECK [US : CALIFORNIA]
to make manifest mp3
the death of us all mp3
the alt.hip hop hits just keep on coming. this time it's the debut album from thavius beck entitled 'decomposition' (mush). the above tracks seems to be rooted in more sample based material than live instrumentation, much like four tet, with a little more balls. the album features vocals from cedric from the mars volta, which seems like an unnatural collaboration if ever there was one... the album got a stinking review in stylus magazine, prefix mag called it 'mediocre' - personally, i love these two tracks, but maybe the rest of the album sucks. if you've heard it, do let us know :-)

DANGER MOUSE & MURS [US : NEW YORK]
to a black boy mp3
this track was written as a response to the case of marcus dixon, an 18-year old who was jailed for ten years for having consentual sex with a girl three months short of her 16th birthday. he was acquitted of rape + three other violent acts, but charged with 'child molestation'. all the facts are here, and the track itself manages to blend the story with straight-forward downbeat breaks + acoustica.

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