280605 09:13

'hear' fat planet!: there have been many false dawns, but it does look as if online streaming of fbi 94.5 (the sydney radio station that broadcasts 'fat planet') will be up and running in the next couple of months. which means, that depending on your time zone, you can kick back online and listen to two hours of new international music every sunday (or maybe it's your saturday?). in the meantime, you can make do with the new 30sec promo for fat planet featuring a very strange man delivering the (hilarious) intro and my own dulcet tones following thereafter. a gold star if you name the four tunes :-)

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260605 20:26

FAT PLANET iMIX TWO: now online is the second fat planet compilation available through i-tunes. as you may know, fat planet only links to mp3s already posted online by artists, labels or from other legitimate sources - which makes it a little tricky to post some of my truly favourite tunes without breaking copyright. so, an imix is one way to access those tracks and to allow some cash to flow back to the artist. the new comp features the bjork / kelis collaboration on 'oceania', a track from m.i.a. entitled 'you're good' (not available on standard copies of the 'arular' album), a track from new jaga jazzist album, the gorgeous remix of japan's guitar vader by coldcut's soulmates hexstatic, plus music from OOIOO, amon tobin, m83, the knife, mutamassik, muslimgauze and more. click here for track list and download info. i mix one is also still available featuring asian dub foundation, lali puna, dj krush, ojos de bruho, the concretes, jimi tenor, ce-cile and other goodies.

UN CADDIE RENVERSE DANS L'HERBE [BRAZIL]
<www.mst.org.br> mp3
un caddie renverse dans l'herbe (which seems to translate as "a caddy reverses in the grass", but i am obviously willing to stand corrected) is brazilian born, barcelona based didac p. lagarriga. taking a broader approach to music, didac is an artist working across sound, visual art and texts and has been taking his work around the world for the best part of ten years (including a few appearances at sonar). the above track - a beautiful looping, tumbling mix of traditional instrumentation, starting & ending as neo-folk and dropping something entirely unique in the centre of the track. it's taken from his most recent album 'like a packed cupboard but quite', on which didac is credited as playing balaphon, mbira, kalimba, melodica, chimes and "software". of the tracks i've come across (including one on a recent wire sampler), many of them have a URL as the title, demanding an immediate search online for the subject - in this case, "brazil's landless workers movement" (an english version can be found here). didac's site with more real player samples is at oozebap.org/renverse.

BLASTCORP [AUSTRALIA]
stars never fall (dsico hack) mp3
self-titled "no talent hack" dsico - one of australia's long-serving new breed of producers, remixers, songwriters - has dug up a few unreleased gems from his archives and served them to us on a nice shiny platter. click for those, plus a few other mp3s from back in the day (including his bizarre rage against the machine cover). his blastcorp mix is by far the best of the mxs on offer, a new-wave makeover adding a generous 4/4, 80s handclaps, driving bass and a gorgeous wall of noise towards the climax. tidy work. as for blastcorp, he's darwin-based kris keogh - a new release is due on the excellent city centre offices label very soon. more blastcorp downloads here.

MRS PILGRIMM [ENGLAND]
the love i don't show mp3
gotta gotta get down mp3
mrs pilgrimm, aka sophie williams, is a cellist by trade who has a long history with lou barlow, is featured on michael rother's (neu!) new album and has a remix disc ready to drop featuring the talents of sonic boom (spacemen 3) & j peter scwalmm (brian eno). a cursory click on the above mp3s gives an instant flavour - a bare, stripped back sound wherein sophie exploits all possible aspects of the cello as an instrument (the fact that you rarely hear straight 'bowed' cello is telling). the vocal, an unashamed south england drawl, harks to the more casual aspects of bjork's performance and not nearly as annoying as our other favourite little pixie, joanna newsom. more info and other mp3s here.

new kids on the blog: it's a fat planet indeed - myke from shortwave music dropped me a line and what a glorious treasure-trove his blog truly is. any blog that has the disclaimer 'not for the faint-hearted' is worth a trip. myke has been 'collecting' sounds for years, mostly by recording off-air transmissions from shortwave radio around the world. the results are bizarre and outstanding - try this gorgeous 'mystery torch song' from the ukraine for an idea of what's in store. // hi to matt from bomarr blog who dropped me a line introducing his blog. recent posts include the excellent takako minewaka, b, fleischmann, bonnie prince billy and - oddly - david koresh... // always good to see another australian blog - reverb city dropped by to say g'day, with a good selection tracks including gina villalobos, treetops, red riders and loads more // hello! suprise! is the marvellous title of a new blog specialising in the swedish music scene with daily news updates and regular mp3 posting. just like hansel, sweden is so hot right now - so bookmark this one to stay up to date.

today's radio show: playlist here. this week's feature album was mugison's 'mugimama, is this monkey music?' - available on matthew herbert's accidental label. more on mugison at his official site, and you can grab a few mp3s on the icelandic airwaves site. make sure you download the rather special remix of mugison by the legendary arto lindsay.



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200605 18:30

JAGA JAZZIST [NORWAY]
oslo skyline direct download
if you have yet to check into the jaga jazzist hotel, you've missed out on a great deal up until now. never fear, their new album 'what we must' is a great jumping-on point. released through the norwegian label smalltown supersound and via ninja tune, it represents some of their most accessible material to date. a ten-piece featuring a core team of three horntveth family members, the band released their first material back in 1994, when some of them were only 14 years old. in the intervening years, their releases have met with incredible acclaim, particularly the 2003 album 'the stix'. where that album carried a degree of electronic production, adding beats and samples to their trademark guitar / horns / drums sound, 'what we must' is their self-confessed "rock album". for me, there's an immediate connection with last year's excellent tortoise album 'it's all around you' - swathes of guitar-driven melody married with amazing horns and jazz drumming played at a pounding pace, it really does leave you breathless. 'what we must' along with caribou's 'milk of human kindness' and four tet's 'everything ecstatic' are shaping up to be the three key instrumental albums of 2005. a further six mp3s from earlier releases can be found on their site here.

PLANETAKIS [GERMANY]
mike patton mp3
in which cologne-based duo jenny and robert drive a stake through the pretty-boy heart of electro pop, spiking it up with deutsche grammar, abrupt guitar and old school analogue drums! i can't quite tell you what the song is about other than it does have the words 'faith no more' in the chorus, so i have to assume it is actually all about mr patton himself. jenny's brother has made them a video, and brings with him some polished cred having shot clips for sven vath and miss kittin. honestly, i love this shit - goddam germans, they do it for me every time. a whole album's worth of mp3s can be grabbed from planetakis.de.

TIME [US: COLORADO]
hungreed mp3
thanks dad sorry mom mp3
time is a solo hip hop producer from denver, who - at the ripe old age of 20 - has dropped his debut album 'litterture'. if i tell you that his collaborations and supports stretch to aesop rock, anticon, sole, themselves, lyrics born, diverse and their ilk, you can see that we're playing in territory that i've embarassingly once referred to as alt.hip hop. crass though it sounds, some sort of marker is obviously required to differentiate time and folks such as anticon from the bling-bores that are hogging valuable shelf-space in record stores around the world. time, the self-titled 'crunktastic rap geek', crops up in an interview on urbansmarts.com and has this to say about genre definitions: "hip hop is dickriding, bullshit, patronizers and politics. it's pot heads, fake revolutionaries and alcoholic kids. i think hip hop (music) is a label. a lot of people separate hip hop and rap. it's too hard to segregate everything. i could be labeled as rap because i say chain or crunk and i could be labeled as hip hop if i talk about spray paint and b-boys, yo! the music business is one sided and frustrating but when you get to the bare bones of it, it's all music." so there you have it. check out time and some of his fellow mcs at dirtylaboratory.com and those north of mexico can catch him on a u.s. tour this month with pedestrian and telephone jim jesus.

in the mail: some good folks who've emailed fat planet of late >> uk-based electronica / experimental sound artist, ascoltare, is kindly giving away a four-track mp3 of brand new material. discordant organs meets glitch meets pure abstraction - simultaneously disconcerting and lush. // subscribe to the modular newsletter and download a recent dj mix from cut copy, recorded for radio one // new ambient - alt.world release from gamma ray blast from portugal, via the test-tube label - or cut straight to the mp3 // washington-based electro pop artist chris price sent over his sweet'n'smart new track charge me up - "got my finger in the socket and i can't get enough" - more info on his site // from the man who gave us so many greap warp videos, chris cunningham has a new dvd / book package out, with music by aphex twin , entitled rubber johnny // fellow-warp man jamie liddel does his own inimitable thang live on stage in london on this short movie.

click here for last sunday's fat planet playlist. the feature album was melodium's 'la tête qui flotte' (label site). a wonderfully diverse album for open-minded music lovers everywhere - with tracks ranging from lo-fi, alt.folk, downtempo broken beat, glitch, ballad pop and so much more. downloads from melodium coming soon to the blog.

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150605 08:53

back in march of this year, the WHAT IS MUSIC festival rolled into Sydney as part of a national tour, and - in addition to the smaller shows happening across town - it set up camp at the metro theatre for a one night "onathon". the bill included the residents, chicks on speed, pan sonic, sun o))), gang gang dance and - my personal highlight - OOIOO from japan.

matt torbus is a sydney photographer who has done a great deal of work for me at fbi 94.5fm and i asked him for some of his shots of the night to share with you all. a couple of tasters below, click here for the gallery. if you're in sydney, and could use matt's excellent services, email matt@torbus.net.

yoshimi (also found in the boredoms) bringing in some inspired trumpet to the proceedings:



and here's miko vania from pan sonic:



here's your soundtrack for the photos:
OOIOO [JAPAN] right hand plonk mp3
PAN SONIC [FINLAND] aaltopiiri mp3

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130605 14:55

KONONO NO.1 [CONGO]
ditshe tshiekutala mp3
there's been plenty written about konono no.1 around the blogshere for the last six months, and - when clearing out my bookmarks - i realised that i should have really posted this free mp3 some time back. if you're not already aware of why konono no.1 are gaining so much critical praise - it's simple. they are one of the most original groups operating in africa today, mainly due to their use of the electrified / amplified traditional instruments - a style known in congo as 'tradi-modern'. boiled down, it's old school analogue electronic music - thumb pianos, megaphones, pots & pans, old car parts etc, all amplified to the point of almost absurd distortion. if any modern euro-electro pioneer was making this, we'd be hailing them a genius - yet, konono no.1 have being doing their own DIY thing for nearly 25 years. it's a classic tale - probably an archetype of some kind - where the westerners stumble across the indigenous people, doing their own thing for decades and doing it far better than those damn westerners could ever imagine. there's a movie in there somewhere... crammed discs have released an album, entitled 'congrotronics', fat cat have dropped a split 7" and finally there's a live album, 'lubuaku' from which the above mp3 is taken.

INDIGENOUS RESISTANCE [CANADA]
eagle screaming red sky alight mp3
through the eyes of one who paints with earth mp3
the indigenous resistance label is run by an organisation called the fire this time with the aim of exploring "issues and examples of indigenous resistance and indigenous reality that normally don't receive attention will be highlighted through our releases". how that practically manifests itself is simple - the fire this time records indigenous artists, adds his own original production and contributions from like-minded artists, and distributes the results freely with the help and co-operation of original artists - a concept cheerily titled ' freedub'. that philosphy is manifested in the above tracks - the first has a long and convoluted history and is based around lyrics composed by performer / poet jessie kleeman from greenland (highlighting the country's indigenous history), vocals performed by christine d and music by asian dub foundation's dr das and adrian sherwood. das also contributes bass to most of the mp3s found on the IR site, and the collaboration continues with the fire this time working on the track 'powerlines' from the new adf album, 'tank'. the second mp3 features a contribution from michael franti from spearhead. more info & mp3s on this project can be found at firethistime.com.

last week's radio show: the feature album last sunday was the excellent new compilation from soul jazz - 'the sexual life of the savages - post punk from sau paulo, brazil'. more info on this release, plus streaming audio of some tracks can be found at the soul jazz site. playlist here.

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080605 08:12

sunday's fat planet radio show was a call-to-action as part of FBi 94.5FM's supporter drive. as an independent, community station, FBi survives on the financial generosity of its supporters. thanks to the huge number of good people who called and signed up during the show - you're all legends! if you listen to the show and still haven't quite worked up the energy to become a supporter, then click here! [sunday's playlist - a mini rewind / retrospective from the past few months - is here.]

following on from the recent post on the agriculture label, this week it's another 'label focus'. i've been a fan of plug research for a while - some great releases last year from canada's milosh and calamalka, as well as being into old-skool label favourites daedelus and dntel. whilst waiting patiently for the long-awaited new album from nobody, here's a flavour of four albums recently released by plug:

MIA DOI TODD [U.S.]
the way mp3
for a label usually associated with electronica / dub et al, mia doi todd is a surprising addition to the plug research stable. singer / songwriter todd is essentially a folk artist, however it's useful in that context to quote from an interview with american duo the books in this month's wire magazine: "folk is one of those terms that has been defined and then destroyed and then redefined so many times that its really difficult to know what people are talking about". mia's fourth album 'manzanita' comes out on plug after a flirtation with major label sony columbia for 2002's 'the golden state'. the above mp3 cracks open with the sense that we're in post-rock territory before mia drops her trademark joni mitchell vocal - singing "woe is we". it's dark and disturbed in there, although the guitar solo raises an unexpected smile. buy at iTunes

JOHN TEJEDA [AUSTRIA]
alone with you (feat. carl a. finlow) mp3
john tejada is a name normally associated with detriot techno, although the man himself was originally born in austria and relocated to california. tejeda has released a huge catalogue of music spanning many genres - classic electronica, house, techno, drum & bass, even a guitar based project for german label city centre offices working with japanese guitarist takeshi nishimoto. his album for plug research, 'logic memory centre' is his tenth album, and features a few collaborations, including kimi recor of the invisibles and jimmy tamborello (who has worked with dntel and the postal service). tejeda has cited that this album is 100% digital, crafted entirely from the desktop without recourse to hardware. the end result is smart, crip techno and beautiful uptempo electronica, with enough bright lights and dark corners to sustain our listening pleasure right across the album. buy at iTunes

THOMAS FEHLMANN [SWITZERLAND]
lindt mp3
fehlman's career stretches back over 25 years -as founder of early 80s post punk-pop palais schaumburg (with the excellent holger hiller), as a key member of the orb for many years in the 90s and as a prominent player in the rise of detroit techno in berlin and beyond. add to that collaborations with robert fripp, remixes for juan atkins, klaus schulze and more - needless to say, respect is due. 'lindt' is taken from the plug research album 'lowflow' and is representative of fehlmann's approach to this long player - the aim is not to inspire on the dancefloor, but rather to provide more experimental, downtempo and dub flavours throughout. like tejada, it's techno and electronica with heart and soul. dig around fehlmann's site (in the discography section) for more mp3s. buy at iTunes

LANGUIS [ARGENTINA]
never now mp3
'the four walls' is album number 5 for this south american duo (now based in los angeles) and, much like caribou's latest work, it's a successful marriage of live instrumentation and electronica. i can hear new order in the basslines, a whole heap of emo in the vocal, and yet the rest - familiar though it seems - can't be nailed down. if post rock was invented in the early 80s, it might have sounded something like this. buy at iTunes

get more info on plug research at plugresearch.com, and you can also find some older mp3s for download at plug's epitonic page (look especially for the dntel rmx by germany's lali puna).

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