291004 08:03

and in the continuing spirit of 'spring cleaning' (see last post for the full rites of spring clearout...), here some other bits & pieces from emails received that i would have liked to editorialise, but didn't find the time.

IT'S A TRAP VOL.1 top quality scandanavian indie compilation
STRANGELY FAMILIAR music production collective
PSYCHEDELIC AVENGERS german psych-pop artist site
THE HARVEY GIRLS new music from a band featured in a previous post
THE NAUGAHYDE LIFE eclectic mp3 blog from the team behind 'the beathunters'
GIBBY HAYNES new mp3 from former butthole surfer
GAMEBOY ORCHESTRAS links to many mp3s
THE RONDO BROTHERS on better propaganda
DAVID SYLVIAN'S LABEL samadhisound.com

a great comment from Henk van Setten on my recent gianni nannini post, which highlights the hazards of promoting unfamiliar music:

"Hi Stuart, on your logpage you talk about a remixed Gianni Nannini song. Seems you take her for a man but actually it's Giann*A* Nannini, she's a grrrl and after her early Germany hitlist stuff so funnily remixed here she also made some less mainstream things in the mid-90s, not all of her eight CDs are that well known, and when she starts growling and grumbling it's easy to take her voice for a man's so you're not to blame, still you might want to correct your text about "the guy". If you'd ask me to compare her early popular songs from the late 80s with someone else's hits I wouldn't say Bruce Springsteen or Freddy Mercury, but more something like a very kitschy (and so sometimes delightful) Italian kind of Blondie pop."

check her out at giannanannini.com

finally, mute records (possibly the greatest label in the world) have launched a new site - and about time too.



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271004 08:10

r.i.p. john peel.

such sad news. peel's contribution to new, independent music is incalculable. so many bands, artists and djs picked up their guitar or slipmat for the first time because of the music peel played on radio one for so many years. the bbc site is building a fitting range of tributes from some of the most important people in music today, and rightly so.

so it goes.



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261004 07:25

it's spring cleaning time at fat planet HQ... which means that i've finally got to reconcile myself to a few facts. no.1 - i am never going to get through the huge list of bookmarks i have accumulated and turn them into worthwhile posts. as much as i'd like to, it's just not going to happen. which means, it's time to hammer your bandwidth. below is a long list of mp3s, artist pages, label sites and portals - all of which would have seen the light of day on fat planet, if i had a team of 6 writers and researchers. this is a solo flight, and these are the casualties.there's a few i've marked as 'recommended', only because i;ve had a good look around and probably downloaded a few tracks. it doesn't mean that the rest are any less interesting. if you find any real gems, let me know :-)

no.2 - again, as much as i'd like to, i can't find the time to update the long list of archive mp3s [link]. the original idea was to document every mp3 ever posted. when i started out, it was a breeze - now it's becoming unwieldly and i'm falling behind. with that in mind, i'm going to leave it as it is, no more updates to the list. i'll leave it online for a couple of months, so if you've got some spare time and heaps of bandwith, get downloading before you miss the moment.

finally, no.3 - i'm going weekly. the success of fat planet has taken me by surprise, i never thought it would be this popular (thanks to everyone who's visited and contributed to the success - that means you). and i never thought the pressure of regular updates would be so intense! i've struggled to maintain 2-3 posts per week, but i feel like i'm slipping. therefore, i'm guaranteeing you a weekly post, usually sunday / monday (but don't hold me to that one). if you want to keep up-to-date with posts, i recommended joining the email list, keep a regular eye on the mp3 blog aggregator, or take the feed.

thanks to y'all for swinging by fat planet, new update next week :-)


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241004 18:29

first up, thanks to a couple of people who helped make this week's show a cut above the norm - namely fbi's emily farrell for her interview with sigmatropic (see last post for more info and mp3). catch's emily's show roundabout every monday at 10pm.

and double-thanks to another fbi trooper, jules thomas, for calling in with a live report from the icelandic airwaves festival in reykjavík. currently making her way round europe, she called at 5am her time, so i reckon you've got to give props for that... this week's playlist is now live, and here's a few tunes from some of today's artists - co-incidentally, all three are from scandanavia. chilly... >>

KIM HIORTHOY [NORWAY]
det blev fel mp3
thanks to yet another fbi broadcasters, peter hollo from utility fog for picking up a copy of kim hiorthoy's 'hopeness' on his recent travels and dropping it into the fat planet pigeonhole. played the track 'mandarinera' today - the above mp3 is an old one (posted liberally throughout the blog community it seems), but i have a particular fondness for this track - it being my first experience of the norwegian electronic minimalist, taken from one of the excellent 'wire tapper' compilations. this mp3 is from the bubblecore web site - i recommend a long visit to track down some of the other mp3s on there, particularly mice parade, igloo, red snapper, nobukazu takemura and HiM's wonderful 'slow slow slow dub' (not to be confused with a scandanavian death metal dude of the same name...)

JENS LEKMAN [SWEDEN]
rocky dennis farewellsong to the blind girl mp3
jens lekman is one of those artists (like joanna newson) who divides people entirely, right down the middle. it's straight-forward loving or loathing. the problem people seem to have with lekman is that his music is ostensibly comedy, albeit pitch black. take the track i played today 'a higher power' (from his new collection 'when i said i wanted to be your dog') which starts with a proposal to his girlfriend that they both shove plastic bags over their head and shuffle off this mortal coil. the above mp3 is similarly tounge in cheek, although it makes it perfectly clear why many folks love the guy - the music is consistently excellent. strip the comedy from this and lekman's name would probably be sung from higher mountains. seems the old dilemma still exists - how can you write funny songs and be taken seriously?

ANNIE [NORWAY]
chewing gum (fake ID's juicy fruit bootleg) mp3
annie's 'chewing gum' hasn't hit australia yet - however, when she hits, i'm sure it'll smack like a tsunami. from what i've read, annie's all over the uk and probably rightly so. this is 100% pure pop, it's what the phrase 'bubblegum pop' was invented for. she's an artist that royksopp, the streets, richard X and mylo have all chosen to work with. so maybe pop is no longer the dirty word that it once was? ::: and here's where i wrestle with my conscience - i'm not so much breaking the rule of this blog, more bending it... i don't post commercially available mp3s, but if i can't be bought... well, it might worm its way on here. the above mp3 is a bootleg from one of my favourite bastard pop mxrs, fakeID and glitches up annie into a harder territory. check out his site for loads more where that comes from.

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211004 08:44

a huge thanks to tofuhut for tracking me down for an interview for the blog. check it out at tofuhut.blogspot.com. last week's playlist from the radio show is online here - there are loads of free'n'legal mp3s available from artists played on the show, so might have to split this one into a couple of parts...

GUTEVOLK [JAPAN]
sora mp3
a beautfiul piece of scattered alt.folk-pop from japan, seemingly borrowing rythyms from jazz / electronica (in places reminiscent of norway's jaga jazzist) but all played 'organically'. gutevolk is a solo project from vocalist hirono nishiyama, one time collaborator with famed japanese electronic / experimental producer nobukazu takemura. gutevolk hails from a japanese label called happy (introduced to me by swen's weblog), who brand themselves as 'unconventional japanese pop'. the site is worth a visit as it features more free music from similar artists on its roster such as piana, tenniscoats, cinq and eisi. the label releases hirono's new e.p. 'twinkle' this month.

SIGMATROPIC [GREECE]
higway to china (roadtrip mix) mp3
alternative music from greece is seemingly difficult to come by. there's a huge greek community in sydney, and my local record store services them well with an impressive selection that is bigger than that of the electronica section (which in itself is simultaneously broad + eclectic). yet nothing in the greek selection suggests 'alternative' (far from it), so it was a relief this week to finally find something very special from the south east corner of europe. sigmatropic is the brainchild of axis boyatzis, and comes after many years developing new wave / punk personas. this is a very different approach - coming from both post-rock and electronica, and creating a beautiful hybrid. his new album 'sixteen haiku and other stories' was based on the greek poetry of george seferis and features contributions from 18 vocalists including laetitia sadier from stereolab, cat power, lee ronaldo from sonic youth, robert wyatt, mark eitzel and more. the above mp3 is a remix of a track from his previous album 'random walk'. [site]

NITIN SAWHNEY [ENGLAND]
raag (remix) mp3
finally today, a man who manages to traverse many different markets - nitin sawhney's takes on asian electronica has secured him a place in the dreaded 'chillout' section of major commercial record stores, however such unfortunate pigeon-holing belies the diversity and experimentation of his work. much of the last album 'human' passed me by on initital inspection, however it was only after repeated plays that a few tracks rose above the pack as real gems (esepcially his collaboration with aqualung 'falling'). he has a new remix project out now, featuring mixes from quantic, freeform five, london elektricity, visionary underground and more. it's a little 4/4 for my tastes, and - if that's not your flavour either - you might be better served with the original. the above mp3 is also a remix of a track from 'human', although not on the new album. it starts with the customary downtempo / ambient sensations, before moving into some smart drum'n'bass action halfway through. [site]

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181004 08:18

slow on the updates this week as i've been overhauling my personal site at zerogweb.net. click on over there for the updated site, including new texts, images and mp3s (of my own humble musical exploits).

also been busy with the sideline web development business (also at zerogweb.net). we've just delivered some screensaver work for depeche mode to support the release of their forthcoming remix collection. to download, go to the remixes minisite and click on screensavers.

so it goes.

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131004 08:30

MACHINE DRUM [U.S.]
$$legs mp3
mltply mp3
i'm new to these guys, but the ever helpful (and wallet-loosening) bleep.com describes their last album ('now you know') as a release "that helped define the digital/cutup hip hop sound". and there's infinite shades of early funkstorung in there - i adore the germans' 'additional productions' release from way back, it was a genuine eye-opener for me, in that i'd never heard anything quite like it. micro-editing matched with dust + scratches taken to the extreme, all the while retaining an all important sense of ryhtym and melody. their mixes for both wu tang clan and bjork still remain classics of their genre. but we're talking about machine drum here - and it would be unfair to wholly associate them with another artist. the two tracks above are taken from their forthcoming merck release 'bizness'. '$$legs' is all dirt and beats and absolutely delicious, whereas 'mltply' is built around a great flute loop and a head-nodding 4-4, with what sounds like spliced guitar dropping in halfway through. the last minute disintegrates the track completely, furious editing taking the song to the edge of destruction - ouch! now that funkstorung have moved onto much more accessible territory with their latest album, maybe it's left to machine drum to carry the torch for the glitch hip hop genre? [merck site] + check out an older free mp3 release from monotonik.

OMZO [SENEGAL]
missalu aduna mp3
+
SLAM REVOLUTION [SENEGAL]
wax degg mp3
more african hip-hop thanks to our friends at nomadic wax. both tracks are taken from their new release "african underground vol. 1 hip-hop senegal" which aims to provide a contemporary snap-shot from what is arguably africa's home of hip hop. unlike many compilations claiming to be the 'real deal', this is actually the genuine article - recorded on location in dakar, calling on artists that you're unlikely to hear anywhere else any time soon. omzo takes a less agressive musical approach than many of his american counterparts, but his lyrics are (apparently) no less incisive. his 2000 release 'kunu abal a beut' (trans: 'the hand that leads is the hand that rules') is cited as having a direct effect on the elections of the time, when the standing government was ousted. slam revolution's 'wax degg' is my favourite of the two, mostly due to the production skills on display and i love listening to on-going rhymes in a seemingly impenetrable language - especially when the only english you'll hear is the occasional "fucker!" dropped into the mix. slam revolution are one of the dakar's original crews, founded by shaffai (see recent post) and who have since gone their separate ways. according to info from nomadic wax: "the crew recently suffered a devastating loss when fellow mc and longtime friend mohammed ba (aka tipse) was murdered while on a religious pilgrimage to touba (senegalís religious center) and is still an unsolved mystery". purchase 'african undergound volume one' here.

CYNE [U.S.]
steady mp3
a miami-based hip hop crew who have been releasing tunes on must!delicious / rice and beans and are expected to drop a new album on the excellent city center offices label in 2005. i don't know how many other hip hop artists appear on the cco label, but my knowledge of them extends mostly to deep, lush electronica - their 2000 compilation 'cashier escape route' (an essential purchase) featured artists such as skanform, solvent, to rococo rot, pole and isan. which suggests interesting potential from cyne and possibly a critical release when the album drops. the above mp3 is taken from their early e.p. 'movement' and is a hard polemic built around a beautiful, wistful vocal sample. check out their full range of releases on forced exposure.

+ a quick thanks to woebot for their recent heads-up to fat planet. their critique of mp3 blogs is stop-on and it's well worth checking out some of their other suggested destinations.



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111004 09:30

yesterday's playlist (on such a sunny, summery sydney day!) is now online - ch'k it here. and here's some audio from the show to download and call yer own...

SLOWLY MINUTE [JAPAN]
a constellation and shooting stars mp3
produced by japanese electronic artist nobukazu takemura, slowly minute might seem like it drifts into territory once occupied by air and their ilk. thankfully, there's no "lounge beats" here, this is much more wayward + haphazard and all the more interesting for it. often the beats, the ideas and the instrumentation don't match - creating what should be a aural disaster, but instead blends together into some beautiful post-rock / folktronica. and it's all the more surprising, as the artist (takahiro chiba from sapparo) is still only 24 years old and making music that susumu yakota ought to be chasing.

EEDL [SPAIN]
too few arguments mp3
i took a track today from a cd just arrived in the post, thanks to lackluster in finland - a collection of his superb glitch electronica mxs of other people's work. you can hear some sound samples from the cd (and of course order the thing itself) here. the track played was originally by the barcelona-based electronica duo, eedl and was called 'too few arguments (no arguments at all lacklustermx)'. above is a lo-fi mp3 from the band that takes the blueprint laid down by fellas like autechre and boards of canada and adds even more warmth and melody. more band info here.

GOTAN PROJECT [FRANCE / ARGENTINA]
santa maria mp3
so the gotan project made it absolutely acceptable to play tango in your own living room, to prance around with your partner on your arm, imagining you were the belles of the dancefloor. maybe you went so far as to put a rose between your teeth ... if nothing else, the gotan project at least allowed the theory of contemporary international music to travel far and wide. whether or not you followed their musical stylings is another matter. judge for yourself with this cut from their hugely successful album 'la revancha del tango'. their new mix cd (from which i played a track today) is notable for addition not only the excellent calexico remix of one of their tracks, but also a mix from the exceptional anti-pop consortium (the original crew from whence beans sprang). hearing gotan vs anti-pop's blend of NY alt.hip hop is a must.

IUNO [NETHERLANDS]
fracture mp3
[re-post] check post from 280904 for more info on this dutch duo



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031004

it's a holiday weekend here in sydney, so with that in mind, it was naturally quite a downtempo show today - dubby, relaxed, sun-lovin' good times... not exclusively though, did break out of the flow to keep everyone awake now and again. playlist is now online here. download some tunes from today's artists :::

JUANA MOLINA [ARGENTINA]
tres cosas mp3
yet another tune from folktronica artist, juana molina - this is the title track from her album 'tres cosas'. i've almost completly emptied the cupboard of juana's free downloads here on this site and played probably more tracks of hers that many other artists on the show. perhaps this posting brings the juana fan club to a close for the time being. check out the new issue of the wire for an interview. [site]

THINK TWICE [FRANCE]
analyse me mp3
played the title track from their debut album 'unemployed' today - which is very different from the above mp3. 'unemployed' is basically a stripped back accosutic pean to being on the dole, listing all the wonderful reasons why mooching has far more benefits than slogging it out for cash - like daytime tv and hanging round on street corners. the early promise of think twice - the 'under the bombs' mp3 found on the f comm site - has not really been bourne out on the album. it's a short, mis-shaped collection of tracks that ends with a cover version of cage's 4'33" of silence. didn't the guy from the wombles do that recently too?

ULRICH SCHNAUSS [GERMANY]
a lie for breakfast mp3
i'm loving the recent track i found from ulrich schnauss - 'on my own' - it has beautiful washes of sound, played back over a midtempo bpm. works well with either headphones and dancing shoes on. it's electronica with a heart and soul and a very healthy pulse. ulrich has also remixed 'little 15' for the forthcoming depeche mode remix project. it's a good mix - the first half retaining much of the original, before breaking down and taking off with more majestic sweeps into unexplored territory. the above mp3 is taken from ulrich's site and is an unreleased track from 2001. there's been a huge progression since then, but this is a lush slice of bleepin' electronica nonetheless.

GIANNI NANNINI [ITALY]
contaminata (apparat rmx) mp3
re-post: more info, see post dated 280904

MANN FRIDAY [ZIMBABWE]
counting down (sea point mix) mp3
re-post: more info, see post dated 240904

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011004 08:26

fellow fbi comrade, dan zilber, and i kick off a new radio show tonight on australia's comradsat at 7pm called the prototype. comradsat is a satellite network and digital delivery system which allows independent radio stations across the country to select and playback programs to broadcast in their own regions. programs can either be played live, or recorded for later playback. so now you know.

the premise of the show is essentially 'new releases in dance, electronica and hip hop' - so this week, we've got mouse on mars, beans, m.i.a., air, shystie, velcro lovers and a few more. there's a li'l prototype web site now live at theprototype.net. ch'k it out for playlists, news et cet era.

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