301104 09:02

this sunday, i'm DJing at the inaugral night of 'shithouse' - a new club / gathering curated by fbi's jack shit. also in attendance will be a few other good folk from fbi - dj soup aka john blake, emily from roundabout, dubmeister tim ritchie and curly dan zilber in his dj debut. and JJJ's robbie buck will be along to give the radio theme a national sarong. from 5pm til late at spectrum, oxford street, darlinghurst, sydney.

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291104 09:02

i'm just back from a few days at surfers paradise in southern queensland, so no fat planet yesterday, hence no playlist. don't get excited about surfers paradise either, i was at a radio conference and didn't get to see much outside of the hotel, much less do any surfing. the conference did unfortunately collide with what is known as 'schoolies' - when 17-year-olds who have just finished their final exams all descend on surfers paradise, get drunk and try to get their rocks off. 50,000 of them in one week - count 'em. what a car crash...

rather than forego the opporunity to post some mp3 links, it's a good opportunity to place catch up with two people that have stumbled through the fat planet dimension of late...

AKIRA RABELAIS [US: TEXAS]
pleure de le voir gai comme un oiseau des bois mp3
+
HAROLD BUDD [US: CALIFORNIA]
pantomime [with zeitgeist] mp3

a large thanks to david sylvian's samadhi sound for sending fat planet copies of their two new releases - akira rabelais' 'spellewauerynsherde' and harold budd's 'avalon sutra'. i've been a huge fan of sylvian's work for over two decades, thanks to my sister's early interest in his work under the japan guise. it's therefore a treat to find sylvian putting together his own label to release such beautiful, eclectic music. both artists would loosely fall under a 'contemporary classical' banner, but i found that phrase inherently problematic - primarily because it is it's own paradox. rabelais' religious, vocal work takes its source from field recordings from the 60s and 70s, treated and processed forty years later. in this treatment, rabelais has used his own bespoke audio filtering software, which gives you an indication of where rabelais sits in the pantheon of composers. unhappy with any 'off the shelf' or freeware titles, rabelais instead took the time to make his own. the above track is not from the album, rather from his 2003 release '...benediction, draw' on orthlorng musork.

harold budd is a little more well known to me, as i used to own and reguarly enjoy his collaboration with the cocteau twins, the 1986 album 'the moon and the melodies'. this new album, 'avalon sutra', took me back there and - with it's combination of simple piano music and electronic ambience - is a beautiful reminder of a space that exists outside of popular, contemporary or classic music. there are far too few composers that can confidently both master the form and simultaneously cast off any outmoded cultural assumptions of what 'classical music' represents. budd acheives this with stunning results. characteristically for sylvian (who also appears on this album), the album is beautifully packaged and comes with a 2nd CD featuring an extended remix from akira rabelais. the above track, not from this release, is taken from the 2000 album 'the room'. check out the epitonic page for an additional fila brazilia mix of the title track.

you can hear samples from both albums over at samadhi sound, and you can buy online here.



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221104 17:40

here we are again, another week in international music-land. playlist for yesterday's radio show can be found right here and what follows is a slew of likely contenders who muddled their way on-air during our 120 minute round-the-world excursion >>

HEXES AND OHS [CANADA]
alive until saturday night mp3
thanks to mystery and misery for turning me onto these guys, a rare fusion that takes the all the most electrifying parts of the electro-rock-post-punk boom, and mixes it up with smart-ass electronica. truly a tasty treat. they are a couple (this fact seems to surface a great deal, yet only in the context of them trying to distance themselves from the concept - odd...), heidi donnelly and edmund lam and were formerly known as a vertical mosaic. influences cited include new order, the velvet underground, stereolab, tortoise and simon and garfunkel (i wonder who plays who in that role playing game?). check them out, ahead of their 2005 debut, at hexesandohs.ca.

STYROFOAM [BELGIUM]
vs TRISTEZA casio (styrofoam mix) mp3
styrofoam's new album 'nothing's lost' is a killer - certainly the album of the week over at fat planet, if ever we had such a thing. styrofoam is belgian producer arne can petegem and for this new album on morr, he's pulled together an a-list supporting cast - markus from the notwist, valerie from lali puna, ben from death cab for cutie / postal service, andrew from american analog set and, lo and behold, the wonderful alias from the anticon collective. with that kind of assistance, you can expect some fine results. you hear samples from the album over at morrmusic.com. free'n'legal sytrofoam mp3s seem hard to come by, so i've posted this one from epitonic, taken from tristeza's 2002 release mixed signals. more on tristeza here.

MAHER SHALAL HASH BAZ [JAPAN]
sunrise mp3
the domino records site doesn't reveal a great deal about duo tori and reiko kudo. this track is taken from an album entitled 'blues du jour' - a collection of 41 tracks recorded over two sessions in east kilbride in scotland. their previous album 'return visti to rock mass' featured a modest 83 songs. it took some google-digging, but i finally found some information on the band - a 2002 interview from the independent. on my searching the words 'shambolic', 'syd barrett' and 'kitchen sink 'surfaced a great deal, so hopefully you're beginning to get a sense of where this odd japanese excursion might take you.

BALUN [PUERTO RICO]
senecio (revisited) mp3
seems that i owe quite a favour to mystery and misery this week - this is the second post that i've drawn music from today. well, now you know. mp3 blogging is one huge happy(ish) family, we all learn from each other, right? moving on... balun are a three-piece from puerto rico, with a sweet site and a quartet of tunes available to download from archive.org. i'm getting the feeling that central and south american electronica is growing in favour and it's certainly finding some public attention beyond appaearing on the now-standard 'neuvo latino' compilations. i tried to have a crack at beatwave's argentinian electronica comp, but apparently there's itunes issues which prevents it from being sold in the US or UK. worth keeping an eye on for future developments.

WHITE HOLE [GERMANY]
peter builts mp3
i've been wanting to get a post together for this band for a while, following their very smart 'pink album' on kitty-yo. their track 'charterflug' on kitty-yo's 'futurism ain´t shit to me' was the first pointer that this was going to be an interesting release. there's so much great german electronic music out there that's it very hard to keep track of what's going on - there seems to be another great berlin artist every other week dropping into the fat planet sphere (what are gonna do?). white hole are however adopting more hip hop influences into their music, side-stepping the clean purity of most germanic electronica for something a little more organic. tasty.

THE MFA [WALES / LONDON]
the difference it makes (edit) mp3
i don't like to post edits, but i've been loving the superpitcher mix of this track. eight minutes of glory that grabs the honour of being the first track in a long while to give me goosebumps on five consecutive listens. amazing. this is the original mix and is sadly curtailed, but hoepfully you'll get an idea of what's going on... the superpitcher mix is out through kompakt and the original can be found on border community.

finally, something to give you a smile today - you just need to read the first line "newspaper advertisements congratulating australian idol winner casey donovan today mistakenly directed fans to a gay porn website". quality!



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161104 07:56

there's been one too many deaths in the music realm of late - john peel of course, rest his soul, and at the weekend we lost both ol' dirty bastard from the wu tang clan and now, tragically, jhonn balance from coil. jhonn died as a result of a drunken accident, a stumble on the stairs in his house. for more information, see the threshold house web site.

i have incredibly fond memories of listening to coil, most notably the 'love's secret domain' album - still today unsurpassed in many ways, an album of incredibly beauty and innovative experimentation that succeeds in leading you down dark, mind-altering alleyways in a way that very few other pieces of music can do. coil were seemingly destined to drag their heels on what we might call 'proper' albums, but were nontheless hugely prolific with extended improvisational releases, side projects, live releases, remixes, compilations and so forth. you can find more info on coil in a recent post on swen's weblog with links to mp3s.

jhonn's death is a huge loss - however, as the coil site is quick to point out, jhonn has simply crossed over the threshold and a new adventure surely now begins.

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141104 18:21

a beautiful sunny sunday in sydney (trying saying that after a few ales). and we're going for a more pared back, less electronic post today. if you download one tune from this post, don't look past the japanese. it's a joy to behold. [get today's playlist]

GONZALES feat FEIST [CANADA]
lovertits mp3
i played a track today ('mushaboom') from leslie feist's album, 'let it die' - the album was co-produced by gonzales, which seems a little uncharacteristic. we're talking alt.folk from the man who spent a great deal of the last few years hanging around with peaches... and strangely this mp3 (taken from gonzales' 'z' album) is also one that was featured on peaches' debut album, here rendered in a very different version by feist. [site]

ADEM [ENGLAND]
everything you need mp3
some acoustica for you (which makes a diverting change from the predominantly electro-focus of the blog...) - courtesy of the bass player from the group fridge. if you haven't heard of fridge, then you'll have certainly have heard of four tet aka keiren hebden, also a founding member of fridge. however, adem departs from the experimentation of fridge to go for a straight forward folk approach, with some beautiful results. the above mp3 is taken from adem's recent debut album 'homesongs'. the track from today's show 'let me give you a reason' is taken from the promo of the single 'ringing in my ear', which according to the domino web site is not included in the commercial release.

BANG GANG [ICELAND]
inside (acoustic demo version) mp3
a return visit to fat planet for these guys, originally featured back in june. played a more rockin' track today than this acoustic track, and strangely from a promo album of 'pop and rock made in france' - so i can only assume they're de-camped from the freezing cold to the land of fine wine and great pastries. smart move. [site]

KIIIIII! [JAPAN]
brown girl in the ring mp3
got to make sure i've got the right amount of exclamation marks on there... and how do we pronounce the name of the band? no idea. all i can tell you is that appear to be two very mad girls from japan making that insane blend of experimental psychedlic pop-rock that japan does so well. this is a cover of a song that i also remember be covered by the glitter-tastic boney m back in the 70s and it clocks in at just under two minutes - and half of that is a drum solo. these girls are touched by genius. and if you need more persuasion, here's a pic from their web site>>

MUI [ITALY]
t-10 mp3
finally today, i've got to give a huge vote of support to the outstanding 'starving but happy' site, chiefly for the amazing compilation from keplar records that's free to download from their site. the album consists of top quality downtempo electronica and post-rock from germany, italy, hungary (of all places!) and more. i strongly recommend you take time out to own this free compilation, even if you're not on broadband :-) for more info on all the artists on the compilaiton, check out the keplar site. the above track from the italians mui is a beautiful fresh cut of both post-rock and electronica - all in one bite. and by god it tastes good...

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081104 08:04

after a little break in proceedings, the blog is back on the regular mp3 hunt. this week - a trio with a german electronic flavour, rounded off with great rock n roll, japanese style. all of these artists appeared on today's fat planet radio show - click here for playlist.

SEX IN DALLAS [FRANCE]
berlin rocks (manix remix) mp3
sex in dallas are a three piece from france who, according to their bio, set out to make music that avoided the by-now over familiar french sound of bands like daft punk, air and super discount's brand of french house. strangely, in the search for this sound, they're sounding more german than many of their berlin-based counterparts. it's a screwed up world, for sure... i've featured sex in dallas on the blog before, with the stomping track 'everyone deserves to be fucked'. so with a title like that, it was something a revealation to find a little downtempo gem lurking inside their new album 'around the war'. the track in question (played on today's show) is called 'five o'clock' and you can listen to a stream of that and the rest of the album at their kitty yo page. this mp3 is a very different proposition again, a guitar-driven 4-4 electro journey - with random chunks of dialogue strewn throughout.

PHONIQUE [GERMANY]
work together mp3
berlin-based house producer phonique has just dropped his new debut album and it's an interesting blend of electronic music from deep house to minimal electro with flashes of disco. it's generally easy on the ear, which might usually be a curse - but there's enough of an engagement with both classic detriot and berlin sounds to keep it interesting. man-about-town, erlend oye from the kings of convenience lends some vocals, as does paris the black fu from detriot grand pubahs. to stream the album tracks, go here.

APPARAT [GERMANY]
live in barcelona mp3
i'm sensing a theme on today's post and it seems to have something to do with germany and electronica ...mmm ... well, here's the top dog for today anyway, a great discovery nestling away on berlin's shitkatapult label. if you downloaded the recent giani nannini mp3, you'll have some of idea of what to expect from apparat. this is a large file, a full 50-minute live dj set from 'burn and consume' in barcelona, recorded in december 2003. apparat seems to be generally falling into the lusher end of electronica, but it's also married with some hard beats in places too. for ease of description, it's boards of canada with balls. there's heaps more to investigate - two albums for starters and what looks like an an amazing remix package too.

ELECTRIC EEL SHOCK [JAPAN]
rock'n'roll can rescue the world mp3
so let's end with something very different from the above - straight ahead, legs apart, solid rock'n'roll from japan. as you might know already, i have a deep, deep love for japanese music. they produce some of the finest music in the world. and when they turn their attention to rock'n'roll, it's generally incredible (guitar wolf being a great example). here, we have a japanese trio showing the west how to make great r'n'r, it's like they've swallowed every possible rock notion and are filtering it back to us through eastern amps. top quality. and, if that's not enough, they're just about to do a japanese tour with the wonderful shonen knife. god bless 'em. [site]



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031104 08:59

luca castelli is a blog fan from italy, who liked the mp3blog so much that he recently put together a feature-length article for italian rock magazine mucchio. so finally, fat planet makes it into another language (in a manner of speaking...). so, props to luca - he's started his own media-related blog at cabaldixit.blogspot.com (in italian, naturally...).

also must drop a quick hello to another new kid on the block, orchard lounge - it's editor, ben silver, will be filing it with [quote] "downtempo, IDM, old school electro, rare grooves, jazz, and house.....and hiphop....shit, basically everything".

as for fat planet, more mp3s are just around the corner :-)



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021104 08:19



if you scan more than a couple of mp3 blogs, you've probably already come across 'music bloggers for democracy'. even though i live in australia, the american election is very much in our thoughts - exercising your right to vote is paramount, wherever your cross falls on the day. what follows is a message from the campaign:

"Hey!! Stop what you're doing! You're not going to find that Arcade Fire live bootleg today, nor will you be stumbling across the b-side to "Hand In Glove", and there's no way you'll be finding that unreleased Pixies album. What you need to do is get ready to vote in the most important election of our lives. Figure out where your nearest polling place is and make sure you are registered. Tell your friends to vote, tell your enemies for that matter. But just vote.

Worried that you're not informed enough to vote? You're on the internet - the information is out there waiting for you. Not a U.S. citizen? Then please call or email all your American friends and make sure they plan on voting. Many artists/organizations are stepping up and helping with the Get Out the Vote campaign, and now so are many of us in the music blogging community.

Here now, for your education/edification/outright scorn are a buncha links. Hopefully they'll help you to make a decision if you are somehow as yet undecided. If you're up to the challenge, feel free to add more of your own in the comments:

Moveon.com
RockTheVote.com
JohnKerry.com
The New Yorker Kerry Endorsement
GeorgeWBush.com
MusicForAmerica.org
DeclareYourself
JustVote
MyPollingPlace
GetEducated

And since this is an mp3blog we've added a song or two as well.
Vote by Chris Stamey w/Yo La Tengo

<ends>



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