Utility Fog

Tension between live performance and studio editing, acoustic music & electronic, folk styles and modern tonight – all very Utility Fog, just how we love it. LISTEN AGAIN to soak in the vibes. Stream on demand from fbi.radio, podcast right here. Momoko Gill – When Palestine Is Free Momoko Gill – Test A Small Area Tanya Tagaq – Fuck War Simo Cell & Abdullah Miniawy – Pixelated Dro Carey – Tawny Track Bios Contrast & Nilotpal Das – prjct16 [140.61 D#m] FUCK!LACRÈME – Welcome To My Crib Pugilist – waveform 19 Red Sky – Today’s Lament Geode – Heron yunis – Kutla Fox & Chimpo – Mash Work Gooooose – Relay Placid Angles – We Cry With You Arthur Clees – IDA_23 Arthur Clees – Oh, What a Mess We've Done Puscha – (In)a(de)quatic Puscha – Sycophantasm Charles Amirkhanian – II – In Praise Of The Venerable Piano Roll Charles Amirkhanian – V – Hopper Popper Rosenau & Sanborn – Walrus Bushranger – Under a Blue Moon Runa Cara – Little Girl Runa Cara – Freja Gudine Claire Edwardes & Missy Mazzoli – Orizzonte Passepartout Duo – From Trondheim Listen again — ~225MB

How’s it garn? Here’s some music for yas. elsas – FINALISE U elsas – NIÑO Noni-Mouse ft. Hemanti Devi – Aa Bhave Nikolaus Graf × Laiz × Krantinaari ft. Taiji – Huduka Ho James Massiah & DJ GAWAD – All Out Buttress O’Kneel – Fascists Whisker Floater – Undercoat4 Radwan Ghazi Moumneh & Frédéric D. Oberland – Squeal Of Swine – خنخنة خنازير Praed – Al Hathayan الهذيان Arketek – Rotten Soldier Allis – 無 – 〇 Bios Contrast & Nilotpal Das – prjct14 [87.50 Am] flywheel – Troppo enduser – Waiting (Decay Mix) enduser – Where I Found You (Album Mix) Morwell – Into Pieces (Jan 2026, unreleased) Morwell – Willie Williams – Come Make We Rally (Morwell remix) Ambu Bambu – Laugh It Off J.Sparrow – Lust Parajekt – Parajekt Parajekt – Mani e Pane Elizabeth Davis – Wo Sind Sie Geblieben Elizabeth Davis – Long Time Passes Joachim Nordwall + Aaron Turner – The Bath Vox Errata – Between Worlds Listen again — ~223MB

I’ve been away for two weeks in Japan (it was amazing, needless to say). Huge thanks to Holly Conner (ilex) and Lachlan Stevens (Heyes) for brilliant shows on those two Sundays. Tonight I’m excited about the selections available – intense experimental electronic rock, protest rap, free jazz-tronic poetry, glitch-folk, sound-art, jungle & idm, post-techno post-bass(?), and acoustic instruments distorted, processed, and played live. Mandy, Indiana – Sevastopol Mandy, Indiana – I’ll Ask Her B Dolan – How I(CE) Could Just Kill A Man The Odes – You Owned It Bara & Isa – 2×2 (Verschrin Tulip Mix) Concrete Husband – As the Sun Falls Concrete Husband – Procession of the New Sun Toni Geitani – Ruwaydan Ruwaydan Toni Geitani – Wasla Glasser and Melati ESP – Vine (Melati ESP Remix) Xylitol – Falling Suburban Architecture – Rising (Kloke Remix) dgoHn – 4.37445 Yards Bruce – It Ain’t Over Till… Shackleton – Contagious Illusion Pharoah Chromium – IA JEBEL SARFIT 2 Nicolas Van Belle – Veel en alleen Nicolas Van Belle – Allenig waren we Taroug – 1995 Fabels – luister Lueenas – Diana Emily Wittbrodt – Lied Emily Wittbrodt – Coda Kourosh Kanani and Matt Davies – Lay Laye – feat. Amena Max Ridley, Eleanor Elektra and Nat Mugavero – How Can I Explain?

Mid-January, we’re very much on the way with 2026’s new music, but I’ve got a few 2025 catch-ups in here too. I’ll be away in Japan the next two weeks, and Holly Conner on the 25th and Lachlan Stevens on the 1st of Feb will be your excellent hosts. Puma Blue – Hush Pebble Seven – Strangers Alev Lenz – Domestisizer (on F) Alev Lenz – Mother Tongue (on B) Kee Avil – itch Mi3raj معراج – Medley ميدلى Dééfait – Molokh ∞ Zu – Pleroma Zone Null – There will be poems (condensed) Richard Francis – Phase effect on wet road Damian Valles – Pt.4 Pita – 4 Luís Fernandes + Pierce Warnecke – Culatra II (excerpt) Travis Cook – 9am Atte Elias Kantonen – EEEE Atte Elias Kantonen – Aluhart Leif – Yes No Joanna – Gardeners World – ddwy Remix DJ Punx – Gas ugne&maria – a tidal pull ugne&maria – slip False Aralia – Borgesian Term 04 Erdfisch – Honig Listen again — ~232MB

Welcome to the first new music show of 2026 – and thanks to Giulio aka Parcae for his great selections last week! We have a certain amount of catchup from last year, but we also have a surprisingly large amount of new music already, either released this week or last, or forthcoming. LISTEN AGAIN in a new year. Stream on demand from fbi.radio or podcast here. hidden_attachment – sorry this was just something i had to do [ky/hidden_attachment Bandcamp] hidden_attachment – in moncton i spent all my money on pinball and beer [ky/hidden_attachment Bandcamp] In November I played a track from Ky Brooks, the Montreal artist who recorded an album in 2023 called Power Is The Pharmacy for Constellation under the name Ky. They appear under various aliases, the most current of which is hidden_attachment, and they were previously known for making noise-punk with Lungbutter and freeform experimental stuff with Nag, among many others. The new hidden_attachment release is an EP described as “a tiny horrible opera”, which seems misleading – horrible is a matter of opinion, “opera” perhaps less so, but this is a small epic of practically ever genre other than opera. Jangling indie rock, electro-pop, bedroom drum’n’bass, bedroom punk, experimental ambient pop… ish. It’s weird & fun! Silvia Tarozzi – Lucciole [Unseen Worlds/Bandcamp] Silvia Tarozzi – Le ossessioni [Unseen Worlds/Bandcamp] When US label Unseen Worlds introduced us to Italian violinist/singer/composer and more Silvia Tarozzi, it was her first album Mi specchio e rifletto, an album that reflects her broad musical experience, from working with groundbreaking minimalist electronic composer Eliane Radigue to contemporary music with Ensemble Dedalus, to the folk music of her local region, improvisation, and playful studio experimentation. There was more than a hint of Penguin Cafe Orchestra. Then in 2022, Tarozzi released another extraordinary work, Canti di guerra, di lavoro e d’amore (“Songs of war, work and love”), with the cellist Deborah Walker, presenting a collection of music inspired by folk songs from rural Emilia which came from working class women involved with the partisan resistance in World War II, including songs sung by choirs of female rice field workers – music that the pair had grown up with. In April 2025, some of us were incredibly lucky, in Sydney and I think Melbourne, to witness Tarozzi & Walker performing these songs together, with just their instruments and voices – one of those occasions when musicianship seems like magic. So there’s a lot of anticipation with this new solo album from Tarozzi – or there would be, except that Lucciole appeared seemingly out of nowhere, available digitally on Bandcamp on December 12th. We’ll have to wait for April this year for the LP and CD, but the whole album’s there if you’re willing to stump up $10USD. Once again this is a wonderful tapestry of an album, with brass ensemble arrangements that set it somewhere between classical & folk music, along with synths, field recordings and turntables bringing modern twists. Her voice is lovely and some of the songwriting evokes the baroque pop of Sufjan Stevens in the best way. Winged Wheel – I See Poseurs Every Day [12XU/Bandcamp] Winged Wheel – Speed Table [12XU/Bandcamp] A US experimental rock supergroup, Winged Wheel began as a filesharing process between various musicians including violist Whitney Johnson aka Matchess, resulting in the 2022 debut album No Island. But for their new album Desert So Green, the band (expanded further to include, among others, Sonic Youth’s Steve Shelley) had toured extensively, and headed into the studio together. The result is an album with psych-kraut-rock intensity and rhythmic drive, blurts of postpunk harshness, shards of viola, and vocals at times. It’s a real surprise, and really worth digging into. Èlg & la Chimie – La ville cachée [Murailles Music/Bandcamp] I don’t speak much French, not well anyway, but there’s just scads of great music from France – and francophone artists from Belgium, Switzerland and Canada, not to mention other former colonies – and you know I’m happy to play music in any languages as much as instrumental music. But understanding the pure breadth of francophone music is still challenging, so I’m happy when French artists fall into my lap. The entity known as Èlg is Laurent Gérard, and he’s been involved in experimental rock, sound-stuff, weird electronic etc for a good couple of decades. La chimie (chemistry) was a project of his in 2013, made up of weird electronics and loops – but now it’s also his band, in which he plays amplified guitalele (ukulele/guitar hybrid) and keyboards, with Marie Nachury on bass, electroncis and percussion, and Johann Mazé on drums and drum triggers. All three also sing, and they make a righteous noise, sometimes starting off as normal-sounding songs until something super-weird happens; in particular, often magnificent grooves on booming, clattering drum kit, and thumping bass. No two tracks are anything like each other, but there’s a through-line of unchained inspiration. Truly something else. JJJJJerome Ellis – Evensong, part 3 (for and after Jessica Valoris) [Shelter Press/Bandcamp] This wonderful album came out in November, but I didn’t properly get to it until too late to include it last year. JJJJJerome Ellis is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, producer, academic, cross-media artist and more; they are of Grenadian-Jamaican-American heritage, and they’re a disabled person with a stutter – something that they’ve ingrained in their practice, including in the spelling of their first name. This album, Vesper Sparrow, draws from Black American and Caribbean culture as well as pop and experimental music, while being placed primarily in a composed jazz context. Most of the tracks are written for, and sometimes feature, fellow artists, poets and theorists. Alongside granular processing and sampling, Ellis’s stutter features and becomes a structural part of the music – but whatever the theoretical basis, this is beautiful and incredibly creative music. Toni Geitani – Ya Sah [Toni Geitani Bandcamp] Toni Geitani – Wasla [Toni Geitani Bandcamp] Originally trained in filmmaking, Lebanese musician Toni Geitani has since gained a Masters in live electronics in Amsterdam, where he is based now. His Masters thesis is titled “Sampling as a Political Medium”, which sounds fascinating. In his music, he melds Arabic vocals with classical instrumentation and experimental electronic production – the three preview tracks from his forthcoming album Wahj are stunning. “Wahj” (وهج) means “radiance”, and Geitani invites us to look through the collapse we see around, and seek that light. Obelisk – Salty Lemon Air [Geometric Corruption/Bandcamp] FBi’s own Ryan O’Rourke, presenter of Mithril for all things heavy & experimental, also makes music as Obelisk. It’s heavy and experimental for sure, but very electronic, very deconstructed club with aspects of breakcore, groaning distorted bass, trance keyboards and glitch. Obviously it’s awesome. Kloke – Silk [Subtle Audio/Bandcamp] Huuuuge jungle/drumfunk/drum’n’bass compilation incoming! Limerick, Ireland label Subtle Audio put out a series of great 2 or 3CD compilations in the mid-’00s with early drumfunk and jungle-inclined drum’n’bass – at the time it felt like the best source of really great beat production around. Many years later, here’s another 3CD set: Our Atmosphere has 2CDs of original tracks and tracks taken from label releases in a broadly “atmospheric” jungle, drumfunk and drum’n’bass, with a huge list of great producers, plus a DJ mix from label head Code on the 3rd disc. Oh – and the CDs arrived in the mail just as we hit the new year, but the digital version (without the 3rd disc) won’t be available until Feb 6th, so this is a sorta-kinda exclusive of Naarm’s own Kloke, one of many highlights here. Aftawerks & Earl Grey – Swingfunc Jungle [Earl Grey Bandcamp] Nathan Firman aka Aftawerks has been plying his trade in funky acid, IDM & jungle for over a decade, and Jim Earl Grey released an EP of his on his Hyperchamber Music label way back in 2013. I’m a pretty big fan of Earl Grey (in fact I first heard his stuff on those Subtle Audio comps back in the day!) and this collaboration between the two is just mad shit in the best way. Homemade Weapons – Leviathan (HW Remix) [Weaponist/Bandcamp] Seattle’s Homemade Weapons has his own particular take on the minimal/tribal drum’n’bass championed by Samurai Records, and as well as releasing on that label (and others) he runs his own label, Weaponist. The latest label release is the Bumura EP from the artist himself, with two new tracks and two remixes he’s made of tracks that were originally collabs – tonight’s cut was originally made with Sacramento’s Red Army. I do appreciate the way that elements of jungle are dropped into the very minimal d’n’b feel. BMA – Middle Age REFLEKT [Industrial Coast/Bandcamp] Moa Pillar – Fight Them Back [Industrial Coast/Bandcamp] The Industrial Coast label is based in Middlesborough, about an hour’s drive south of Newcastle, so fairly grim-up-north territory (I actually lovely Newcastle when I played there last year). The label is pretty dedicated to the cassette as a format, and generally most of the music on Bandcamp is unavailable digitally without the physical objects (set at £999) – but they do do retrospective compilations, and open up other releases briefly at times. So Deconstructed Reconstructed Retrospective is a double-compilation, in that it collects tracks from the labels Deconstructed/Reconstructed series of compilations in which industrial & experimental artists cover or remix artists such as Crass or music related to movements like anarcho-punk or Rock Against Racism. With 50 tracks, it covers plenty of ground. Sometimes you can immediately tell who the subject is, sometimes you have to try and look it up, and artists appear under various guises too – such as Iceman Junglist Kru (lo-fi industrial junglism), half of whom is also Stonecirclesampler (arcane ambient weirdness) aka Liquid DnB-like Ambient Grime 2… Unfortunately it’s long enough after it went up that it’s now priced at £999, but you can still stream the tracks. Tonight, US drum’n’bass producer BMA takes on hardcore punk originals Minor Threat, while London-based Russian deconstructed trance guy Moa Pillar does a tribute to Linton Kwesi Johnson. Travis Cook – fight_clown [Travis Cook Bandcamp] Adelaide’s Travis Cook, ex-Collarbones, continues releasing a track a week on his Bandcamp. This one’s all stuttery vocal samples and a smattering of beats. John Wall – Iconvt [John Wall Bandcamp] The ineffable John Wall stands somewhere between glitch & computer music, musique concrète, plunderphonics, and free jazz. Astonishingly, he didn’t start making music until he was 40 (in 1990). He’s worked with the cream of UK free jazz, and I’ve also featured a fair bit of his work with spoken word poet Alex Rodgers – here’s an example. He recently revisited his 1999 Constructions I-IV, which combined samples from live improvisers with samples of modern classical compositions, in order to remove the deliberate glitch-sound, which he now finds ugly (although I’m not the only one who likes that sound!) But now he’s put a single new track called “Iconvt“, which sounds like a command-line tool (iconv in Linux is a command that converts a string to a different character encoding). The source sounds here are not obviously revealed – it sounds mostly electronic; there are some fairly inscrutable quotes in the description, plus a reference to fellow avant-gardist Sunik Kim. But the music is some of the least-inscrutable stuff Wall has done, with rumbling bass, quite a bit of melody, and a fair bit of glitch, all things considered! Low Flung – Niksen [Low Flung Bandcamp] Eora/Sydney musician Danny Wild has been Low Flung for a long while now, and tends to lean more ambient than beat-driven. On his last release from 2025, Type-D we find him in a contemplative mood, but also in a dub techno mode – the first track has a super slow tempo with percussive chatter around the edges, but the other two tracks are faster but no less dubby. SAWT – Phase Collapse [Beacon Sound/Bandcamp] T. Gowdy – 00L00 [Beacon Sound/Bandcamp] Excellent Portland, Oregon label Beacon Sound enlists many brilliant friends to contribute to their important new compilation Gaza is the Moral Compass, benefiting on-the-ground mutual aid groups in Gaza. The organisers point out that Israel has violated the so-called ceasefire hundreds of times; Israel’s fascist government is joined by Donald Trumps’ fascist governmnent in trying to remake the Middle East while Australia’s Labor governments are falling over themselves to protect the interests of a foreign state, at least partially in the name of “Jewish safety” which as a Jew I categorically reject. Cultural practice is not neutral, the organisers remind us, and that includes what art/music/culture you consume and how you do so. So here we have many artists associated with the Constellation label, artists originally from Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq and Egypt, and indeed Japan – the quality is incredibly high throughout, and all the music is exclusive to the comp (for now). SAWT is Kamel Badarneh, based in Brussels, whose contribution is a nice piece of throbbing techno, while Constellation’s T. Gowdy does his shimmering sample-shifting thing but with an Arabic-sounding sound source. Filippo Ansaldi & Simone Sims Longo – +1 [Umor Rex/Bandcamp] Filippo Ansaldi & Simone Sims Longo – Illusione [Umor Rex/Bandcamp] A few years ago, Italian musician Simone Sims Longo released a brilliant electro-acoustic album called Paesaggi integrati (integrated landscapes) on the great Dutch label Esc.rec – still one of my favourites on the label. There, he processed the sounds of various acoustic instruments; on Solo Suono, Sims Longo is working with saxophonist Filippo Ansaldi, and it’s his instrument that he’s processing. At times we’re hearing the saxophone solo, or multi-tracking into beautiful chordal movement; elsewhere the instrument is splintered and looped. The saxophone is an instrument uniquely suited to experimental approaches, and Ansaldi and Sims Longo here go deep into some of its sonic possibilities. Dual Dialect – Conglomerate III – Meme-leak Mosaic [4000 Records/Bandcamp] Speaking of sax, Meanjin/Brisbane’s Dual Dialect feature Andrew Garton of Ghostwoods on “mutant saxophone” alongside Andrew Foley of Grids/Units/Planes, YEARNS etc, creating disintegrated beats and abstract pads according to their very accurate Instagram bio. But there’s some surprisingly blissful stuff here too – a kind of jazz fusion that hints at downtempo stuff from the ’90s, Jon Hassell’s fourth world work in the ’80s, and post-’00s glitchy electronics. Recommended. Aroma – After The Rain [Urban Trout Records/Bandcamp] And we finish tonight with a collaboration by an artist whose debut album with Eora/Sydney jazz piano quartet Aronas was a defining work for the early days of Utility Fog (you can stream Culture Tunnels on SoundCloud and elsewhere). Pianist & composer Aron Ottignon had moved to Sydney from New Zealand (his brother Matt still plays around this city in many ensembles), and the group embodied the post-jazz feel, at least on record, that sat perfectly with the UFog sound. Aron soon decamped to the UK & Europe, embedding traditional musics from around the world into his art (Aronas’ album Culture Tunnels was influenced by South Pacific rhythms). Now the Aroma project sees Aron playing the Osmose “expressive synth” alongside singer, sound-artist, label head & Afro-futurist Nina Kahle. This song, recorded in Senegal, is their take on the beautiful John Coltrane tune “After The Rain”, using the multiple gestures the Osmose adds to each individual key of the piano keyboard, with Kahle’s vocals and field recordings ebbing and flowing. Listen again — ~234MB

Heya, so here we are, the end of 2025. Good riddance I say. As is traditional, this is a DJ mix – almost 2 hrs, with a bit of speaking at the front. It’s pretty strange, this one, although there’s a lot of dance music. There’s also a lot of detours and oddities, but that’s what UFog is about, so I hope you enjoy! Perera Elsewhere – Fuck Le System (feat. Andy S) Harry The Nightgown – Bell Boy N-Type & Kromestar – Don’t Be Afraid ft. Sgt Pokes & Breezy Lee Modeselektor featuring Paul St. Hilaire – Movement Kvedarkvintetten – Brest Simon Henocq – CONCOURSE A Paul St. Hilaire & Gavsborg – Confidential gyrofield – Vegetation Grows Thick Sebaas – No Plastic Mac Seldom – ILUVU Kalabash – Major ft. Jelani Blackman (Radio Edit) Muskila – JAH NAM (INTRO) Vier – VAI PULANDO Pushlock – Scarecrow Sacred Lodge – Wa Wa Ke Wa Wa Yi (Feat. Sara Persico) Shugorei – Water Music Matmos – Changing States Sicaria – Rhassoul The Bug – Bury Dem (ft Logan) The Bug – Buried Dub clipping. – Change the Channel A.Fruit – What Is This ltfll – Nested Skins Lila Tirando a Violeta, Sideproject – Ostrich/Ñandú Mantra – Ruffhouse Ancestral Voices – Annwn Pol100 – Pastel Clouds Kendu Bari – Main Igorrr – ADHD Overcast – Wolfe Sun People – Herbie’s Delay Will Glaser – Bees Carrier – The Fan Dance (feat Gavsborg) Mark Van Hoen – I’ve Got To See The Light (Featuring George ‘Tony’ Subratie) Julien Mier – Ciel Joaquín Cornejo – Garúa Earl Grey – Doss House bonnie cooth – out of my mind Max Cooper – My Choices Are Not My Own feat. Tawiah EYDN – Gold (feat. Rainy Miller) Chewlie – Wallflower enduser – Movement Abstract Drumz – Alone (2025 Remaster) Wrecked Lightship – Delinquent Spirits Sheba Q – Asterix (Dub-One Remix) Hello Psychaleppo – Al Wa6an | الوطن Bios Contrast & Nilotpal Das – ap0calypse 42 Bleakcore / Ester – Sermon The Young Gods – Tu en ami de temps Hence Therefore – Elite Panic Tutu Ta – Papillon Riddim (Ft. Feral Is Kinky) Giulio Aldinucci & Matteo Uggeri – I Felt I Deserved More than That Stefan Schultze, boxn – CV RMX Ship Sket – Vendetta’s Theme (ft. Charlie Osborne) Hyperfocus – Sentinel Chris Inperspective feat. Charlotte Koolhaas – Pictures (OK Well) Infinity Knives & Brian Ennals – A City Drowning. God’s Black Tears. ft. The Lil Black Oxen Émile Joseph Weeks, Nicolas Ratany Insignio – Everytime (A.Fruit remix) Ruby My Dear – Grosse Hyène Kuntari – Kerak Terusi Rutger Zuydervelt – House of Strength Los Pulpitos – Cubozoa Pod & Tamen – Dolphin Noneless – Apocalypse Djrum – Three Foxes Chasing Each Other r hunter – Intra Blawan – Creature Brigade Eli Keszler – Speak For Me (Eli Keszler Version) Phillip Golub – Loop 7 T3AL – Weightless (Om Unit’s Sunrise Dub)

Tonight it’s Part 2 of Utility Fog’s best of 2025, which encompasses all the music that’s not vocal-driven or beats-driven. So there’s contemporary jazz, abstract sound-art, glitch electronics, glitchy postrock, field recording, tape manipulation and more. There’s even voice at times. Laura Jurd – Praying Mantis Oren Ambarchi, Johan Berthling, Andreas Werliin – Panj TL;DR – Cumulus (edit) Alister Spence Trio – The Gathering Alister Spence – Interior Signal Alexandra Spence – The Spring Kate Carr – spring back and creak Ipek Gorgun – Edgelord dogs versus shadows – Ghost Artery Part 1 (radio edit) António Feiteira – Ghost Hiss, Resonant Hip She’s Analog – danse macabre BirdWorld – Opposite Hinges (feat. Sara Övinge) Dorothy Carlos – My Buddy (Miss You In Ear World) Erik Friedlander – The Tree of Knowledge The Cloud Maker – Selkie Shimmer Lia Kohl – Train, Antwerp to Amsterdam Whitney Johnson, Lia Kohl, Macie Stewart – Stone Piece I Saba Alizadeh – Women of fire (feat. Sanam Maroufkhani) Feronia Wennborg & Lucy Duncombe – Assembling Air Bernard Parmegiani – La Ville en Haut de la Colline II Machinefabriek – Verpulver Lea Bertucci – In This Time Giuseppe Ielasi – 11 Demdike Stare and Kristen Pilon – A Grave Fall (January) Cherrystones x Demdike Stare – Where Evil Grows General Magic – Elfer Nate Scheible – 02 NEUE DEUTSCHE KUNST – Keine Nichtmusik Drei Géraldine Eguiluz & Michel F Côté – Territoires perdus #2 Christophe Bailleau – Reaagall vst VIP hall owl Stephen Vitiello, Brendan Canty, Hahn Rowe – Rhythmic Rhodes Lawrence English + Stephen Vitiello – With Chris (Edit) Hand To Earth – Ŋurru Wäŋa Part II Pierre Bastien & Michel Banabila – Closing Time: The Party Is Over Rian Treanor & Cara Tolmie – Endless Not

It’s December, with 3 Sundays left of the year, so that’s Best of 2025 Parts 1, 2, and 3! Tonight it’s “songs” – well, that includes raps. I’ve had to leave SO much out, y’all! As usual, the amount of music being released only goes up, and it’s not like the years are getting longer… clipping. – Night of Heaven (feat. Counterfeit Madison & Kid Koala) Armand Hammer & The Alchemist – Dogeared (feat. Kapwani) billy woods – Waterproof Mascara Sumac & Moor Mother – Scene 1 doseone & Steel Tipped Dove – Restaurant Not Haykal, Julmud, Acamol | هيكل، جلمود، أكامول – A‘saab Nadah El Shazly = ندى الشاذلي – Dafaa Robaai SANAM – Sayl Damei – سيل دمعي Yasmine Hamdan – Vows سبع صنايع Aesop Rock – The Red Phone Gabe ‘Nandez & Preservation – Nom De Guerre (feat. Ze Nkoma Mpaga Ni Ngoko) aya – the names of Faggot Chav boys Rainy Miller – Chrome, Hallowed be. California Girls – Sorrowful Meat Teether & Kuya Neil – SCRATCH THE FLEA POINT (FT NERDIE) BAYANG (tha Bushranger) & Nerdie – Bankistan Ho99o9 – Godflesh Agriculture – Bodhidharma Postcards – Dust Bunnies Snakeskin – Ready Laurén Maria – Filled Up Smile anrimeal – 11. Chapter III – Source and time Herbert & Momoko – More And More georg-i & Older Brother – To Be A Man Crimewave – 155/160BPM Crimewave – Haemoglobin gushes – CUT Editrix – Another World Lucrecia Dalt – cosa rara (ft. david sylvian) Titanic – La dueña Mikoo – Ties soccer Committee – Little Sorrow

So this Friday was the last Bandcamp Friday of the year, and even with that aside, it was a big release day for new music. It’s insane, but because of this I’m not doing best-of-2025 till next week. Here’s a whole slew of excellent new music across every genre imaginable. Water From Your Eyes – Born 4 Alev Lenz – Ivory Tower (on D) HAYWARDxDÄLEK – Antiphony HAYWARDxDÄLEK – Breathe Slow Bomb A Lil Joy – Everything U R Doing Bomb A Lil Joy – Saigon Too Blarke Bayer – The Prophet’s Paradise SUMAC and Moor Mother – SCENE 1 (Shapednoise Remix) Obelisk – Sanctuary Hitori Tori – Eurofling Indicator – Malopropist Heavyweight – Straight Outta London VIP Ruffkutt – Your Time Abstract Drumz – Alone (2025 Remaster) Noémi Büchi – I was almost there Luz González – Drawing Dinosaurs (Where can I hide my anger?) Jad Atoui & Jawad Nawfal – The Celesta Incident NEUE DEUTSCHE KUNST – Der Sputz der Tagropronisten NEUE DEUTSCHE KUNST – Keine Nichtmusik Drei Géraldine Eguiluz & Michel F Côté – Territoires perdus #2 Géraldine Eguiluz & Michel F Côté – Territoires perdus #3 hidden_attachment (ky) – Cartoon Land (Memory/161 to Wilderton remix) Freda D’Souza – I’ve missed the rain Emily Wittbrodt – Lied Otto Lindholm – Lessizty Connor D’Netto – interlude/nails Laura Altman – A Call to Water

As we swiftly approach December, tonight is the second-last “new music” show of the year. There’s a lot of music coming out on December 5th! But then that’s it, the next 3 will be Best of 2025. Keen listeners will be surprised that I’m mixing up the structure tonight. Really, it usually goes the way it goes due to thematic and tonal segues, and this time round the jazz & ambient(ish) stuff just fitted best after our early songs, and the beats are the bulk of the second half. The Notwist – X-Ray The Notwist – Magnificent Fall Muyassar Kurdi – Child of the Sun (feat. Chris Williams) Peter Knight – The Coiling of the Tide Laura Jurd – Praying Mantis Má Estrela – Top Suki Girl BLACK HAUGE – Papiret (Radio Edit) Dina Maccabee – Outbreak Joni Void – Walker Joni Void – Lighters Samuele Strufaldi – Musica Invisibile Mac Seldom – ILUVU Om Unit – Lost Stories (Bok Bok Remix) Om Unit – The Chase (Alter Echo & E3 Remix) Ghost Dubs – Hope Fatwires x Atsushi Izumi – Ga UNTECHCIRCLE – Dying Light UNTECHCIRCLE – not just chaos Mattr – Tayl CHEAHDX – Earthbound dreadmaul – No Shade Low End Activist – Hope III (Demdike Stare Stressed Version)

HI PODCAST LISTENER! (I’m putting this note on the “missing” podcasts that I’m catching up – from Nov 30th onwards it won’t be included) You may have noticed how late I’ve been getting with these posts. It takes ages to write everything up, but I think it’s valuable. However, it’s been pointed out to me that people might want the podcast itself to be regular! So I’m now going to separate out the posts for the podcast feed from the main posts. You won’t get all the detailed review text, but you’ll get to listen sooner, and you’ll get the tracklisting itself still! Please let me know if this is good/bad/average. You can find a hint for my email on the website‘s sidebar. Tonight, one of the underground hip-hop albums of the year, some very unusual collaborations, two releases in the Frisian language of north Holland, solo drum kit, post-jazz, bass & breaks, human/AI collaboration and electro-acoustic sound-art verging into folktronica. Armand Hammer & The Alchemist – Dogeared (feat. Kapwani) Armand Hammer & The Alchemist – Crisis Phone (feat. Pink Siifu) Armand Hammer & The Alchemist – Longjohns (feat. Quelle Chris & Cleo Reed) HAYWARDxDÄLEK – Asymmetric YHWH Nailgun – Weaving (original by LEYA) Zea & Drumband Hallelujah Makkum – in lichem fol beloften Zea & Drumband Hallelujah Makkum – de Dea Joana Guerra, Maria Do Mar, Romke Kleefstra, Jan Kleefstra – Al Dy Kleuren Joana Guerra, Maria Do Mar, Romke Kleefstra, Jan Kleefstra – Kâlde Mage Chloe Kim – Ratsnake SML – Old Mytth Snorkel – Flash Flood Snorkel – Sirene Endless Mow – wattle and daub An Avrin – 4LYFE noRecall – The Machine and its Master Lakker – Hood Kassian – Ghost Dub Bad Ambulance – Zero Olivier Alary – Imagined Presence (preview clip 4) Rutger Zuydervelt – House of Strength Rutger Zuydervelt and Lucija Gregov – (Not) Not Three High Rutger Zuydervelt and Lucija Gregov – Euphoria (outtake)

HI PODCAST LISTENER! (I’m putting this note on the “missing” podcasts that I’m catching up – from Nov 30th onwards it won’t be included) You may have noticed how late I’ve been getting with these posts. It takes ages to write everything up, but I think it’s valuable. However, it’s been pointed out to me that people might want the podcast itself to be regular! So I’m now going to separate out the posts for the podcast feed from the main posts. You won’t get all the detailed review text, but you’ll get to listen sooner, and you’ll get the tracklisting itself still! Please let me know if this is good/bad/average. You can find a hint for my email on the website‘s sidebar. What a relentless year of new music… It’s getting that way every year mind you. The releases will run right through December and into January, mark my words… Anyway, tonight we have the surprisingest song of the week (year?) from two very different pop icons, plus experimental song and electronics of all sorts, blending with classical, jazz, field recordings and more. Charli XCX – House (feat John Cale) California Girls – Sorrowful Meat Alto Aria – Porous Heart Alto Aria – Fall Blossom anrimeal – 11. Chapter III – Source and time anrimeal – 5. Chapter I – SOFAR channel Meredith Monk – Lullaby for Lise (performed by Katie Geissinger, Allison Sniffin) Joachim Badenhorst – How To Hold Maarja Nuut & Ruum – Kiik Tahab Kindaid Romain Azzaro – Always Late Mauri – Aquest Any Si F¥eld Effct – Tst_009 Nadrisk – Cadere Data General – End with Rests Fracture & Neptune – Good Stuff Los Pulpitos – Cubozoa r hunter – Intra r hunter – Perfect Mirror Galina Juritz – Axolotl STREIKTHROUGH – Bleed Tight Earl Grey – Doss House Jack Prest – Dawn Jack Prest – Movement III Stefan Schultze – Judson Techno Stefan Schultze, boxn – CV RMX Perila – Apocalypta’s Dream upsammy – Ripple Bernard Parmegiani – Sadiquement Votre II Bernard Parmegiani – La Ville en Haut de la Colline II Lia Kohl – Walking Home, Chicago Lia Kohl – My Kitchen, Chicago Lia Kohl – Train, Antwerp to Amsterdam Lia Kohl – Basketball Court, feat. Macie Stewart

Huge thanks to Holly Conner for her great curation last week while I was playing at Essence Festival in Canberra. Tonight we've got mutant pop and folk, mutant bass, mutant classical and ambient… and beautiful slippages between genres. LISTEN AGAIN …Read more »

HI PODCAST LISTENER! (I’m putting this note on the “missing” podcasts that I’m catching up – from Nov 30th onwards it won’t be included) You may have noticed how late I’ve been getting with these posts. It takes ages to write everything up, but I think it’s valuable. However, it’s been pointed out to me that people might want the podcast itself to be regular! So I’m now going to separate out the posts for the podcast feed from the main posts. You won’t get all the detailed review text, but you’ll get to listen sooner, and you’ll get the tracklisting itself still! Please let me know if this is good/bad/average. You can find a hint for my email on the website‘s sidebar. Music from North Africa, West Africa, South Asia, East Asia, South America, North America, Europe and Oceania tonight… which covers most continents. Antarctica needs to pick up their game. Noura Mint Seymali – Bidayett Lehjibb Noura Mint Seymali – Lehjibb Noura Mint Seymali – Moughadim Karr Perera Elsewhere – Time Will Tell (feat. Andy S) Perera Elsewhere – Just Wanna Live Some Low End Activist x Tia Talks – Fake Idols Mala x Magugu – MILITANT DON AICHER – Constriction (andereBaustelle Version) AICHER – Possessions Bios Contrast & Nilotpal Das – FACADE06032020 Low End Activist – U Kno Low End Activist – Colin’s Golf Clark – 18EDO Bailiff Clark – Globecore Flats ZOiD – Day Eight (μ-Ziq Remix) ZOiD – Day Eight Nikki Nair, Foodman – Sorry I Lost My Glasses In The Public Bathhouse 銭湯でメガネを無くしてごめん Tawdry Otter – Alma, The River Flows Crimewave – 145/155BPM Crimewave – Misdemeanour Crimewave – 155/160BPM Crimewave – Haemoglobin toso toso – cLAcLAcLA Juana Molina – la paradoja CxBxT – Hoshi o Atsumete Starlight Assembly – Friction Starlight Assembly – Wait for the Word The Church – Sacred Echoes (Part Two) recur – hieroglyph Mark Harwood – Ein Gehirn Musik Mark Harwood – Welt Ov Pain – Kikorangi

HI PODCAST LISTENER! You may have noticed how late I’ve been getting with these posts. It takes ages to write everything up, but I think it’s valuable. However, it’s been pointed out to me that people might want the podcast itself to be regular! So I’m now going to separate out the posts for the podcast feed from the main posts. You won’t get all the detailed review text, but you’ll get to listen sooner, and you’ll get the tracklisting itself still! Please let me know if this is good/bad/average. You can find a hint for my email on the website‘s sidebar. Somehow it’s the second-last month of the year? And yet, this year has lasted about 3 years so far, so it’s not too surprising? We do have a surprise new album from Aesop Rock, new weirdpop of various sorts, trip-hop vibes, Halloween spookiness, sadcore/hardcore crossover, industrial sad-hop, experimental electronics both beat-wise and not, some jungle and some blissful ambient pop to take us out. It’s Sunday. Aesop Rock – Sherbert Aesop Rock – Crystals and Herbs Yunzero – B1 ŽIVA – Unrest celosiafields – Newletter ft. Raj Mahal Jerome Blazé – You Can Find Us Out Your Way Penelope Trappes – Bleed Bird Battles – Overgrown Hilary Woods – Taper Laura Moody – The Witch Chat Pile & Hayden Pedigo – The Magic of the World Chat Pile & Hayden Pedigo – Fission/Fusion Richie Culver – Curse Richie Culver – I Loved You Ship Sket – Casting Call (ft. S280F) Ship Sket – Mimikyu December – Stonemilker Synkro – Excursion San – Core of the Earth Dak – Triagen Julien Mier & thedieyoungs – Dolphin Tears Mattr – Fade xin – opening xin – trash dub Ipek Gorgun – Edgelord Ipek Gorgun – Exocannibalism Bridget Ferrill – What was the World to me IKSRE – karijini (iron. spinifex)

HI PODCAST LISTENER! You may have noticed how late I’ve been getting with these posts. It takes ages to write everything up, but I think it’s valuable. However, it’s been pointed out to me that people might want the podcast itself to be regular! So I’m now going to separate out the posts for the podcast feed from the main posts. You won’t get all the detailed review text, but you’ll get to listen sooner, and you’ll get the tracklisting itself still! Please let me know if this is good/bad/average. You can find a hint for my email on the website‘s sidebar. All over the place tonight, whether folktronica, percussive experimentalism, minimal dub techno, various drum’n’bass & jungle mutations, proto-postrock, or eerie sound-art… tunng – Anoraks Majken – Re-entering Lawrence English + Stephen Vitiello – with Brendan (Single Edit) Will Glaser – Theft JQ & Richard Pike – Free Paul St. Hilaire & Gavsborg – Confidential Paul St. Hilaire & Cousin – Back Inna Business Carrier – Carbon Works ealing – Down the Rabbithole Pushlock – Oblique Strategy The Untouchables – Rude Enforcer Disiniblud – Blue Rags, Raging Wind (Kerry McCoy Remix) PVAS – Terminal Igorrr – ADHD Obeka – A World No More Temp-Illusion – Hoax Haven Impérieux – Trampa seefeel – moodswing (demo) Nate Scheible – 02 John Wall – Construction I “Stat:Unt:Dist” Razen – hi-mawari Yara Asmar – to die on any hill (if it’s easy enough to climb) Nesa Azadikhah – The Wound Where The Light Enters

Experimental songforms, percussion, breakbeats, prepared piano, sound-art… LISTEN AGAIN to the art of sound… stream on demand at fbi.radio or podcast here. Not Drowning, Waving – Amaravot [Not Drowning, Waving Bandcamp] We’re starting with an Australian band who were really decades ahead of the ball with ambient pop, melding field recordings and live tapes with creative studio techniques, acoustic instrumentation, effects and electronics. Because of David Bridie‘s soft voice and slice-of-life lyrics, I feel Not Drowning, Waving were seen as less revolutionary than they really were – and yet when David released solo albums that emphasised songwriting over sonic creativity, the music media predictably celebrated his “maturity” and suchlike nonsense. I love David’s solo work, and the often-twee but always lovely work of the post-NDW acoustic ensemble My Friend The Chocolate Cake, but Not Drowning, Waving nevertheless hold a special significance. For many, their career higlight was the groundbreaking album Tabaran, much of which was recorded with musicians in Rabaul, Papua New Guinea including the remarkable vocalist Telek (now Sir George Telek MBE!). Their travels to PNG triggered the band’s strong sense of social justice, and they became tireless promoters of West Papuan independence. The song “Blackwater“, about the brutal suppression of independence for West Papua, is haunting and still as relevant today. Fast forward to now, and David Bridie & George Telek have been friends for more than half their lives. A concert performing Tabaran was put together early last year, celebrating 50 years of Papua New Guinean independence, and the band (including Telek) enjoyed being together so much that they created a whole album’s worth of new material. My dirty secret is that, despite the stunning highlights like “Blackwater”, I always preferred the albums before (Cold and the Crackle and Claim) and after it (Circus) in their catalogue because I wasn’t so into the Papuan stringband music. However, whether I’ve mellowed over the years (lol, lmao) or whatever it is, this new album feels wonderful from start to finish, and Telek is an integral member. What an achivement! I have no idea how it sounds to those who didn’t, to some extent, experience the band while they previously existed, but I hope they have an enduring legacy. On Diamond – It’s Me Calling [Eastmint Records/Bandcamp] Naarm/Melbourne’s On Diamond are the perfect example of indie pop done experimental. Frontwoman Lisa Salvo writes beautiful, touching songs that have slippery chord changes and deeply unusual arrangements created together by the band. Previous members, often involved in the more experimental end of Naarm’s music scene include the brilliant drummer/composer Maria Moles, drummer Joe Talia (who recorded & mixed the album), and guitarist/vocalist Hannah Cameron (who contributes backing vocals along with Aarti Jadu and others). Along with Salvo’s vocals, Jules Pascoe on bass, Myka Wallace on drums and Scott McConnachie on synths and those frequently demented guitar solos, the band itself now features the glittering harp of Genevieve Fry and the percussion of Australian legend Duré Dara, born in Malaysia to an Indian background, a celebrated restaurateur with Order of Austrlaia Medal as well as jazz musician and improvisor. That’s a loaded band, put in service of Salvo’s aforementioned songs, which take strange, sidelong looks at matters of grief, longing and the passing of time. In a better world we’d be hearing these songs on rotation all day, but you – yes you – have the power to fix that, in the palm of your hand. gushes – Game One [PTP/Switch Hit Records/Bandcamp] gushes – CUT [PTP/Switch Hit Records/Bandcamp] Trust PTP (aka Protect The Peace, fka Purple Tape Pedigree) to release one of the most bizarre & brilliant albums of the year (in conjunction with artist collective Switch Hit Records). Jennae Santos’ gushes presents an unrestrained amalgam of prog metal, psych rock, jazz & classical and electronic experimentation. But there’s more than just this: the album begins with voices talking in Tagalog, and influences from Indigenous Filipinx psychology and combat swirl around with land-sea ecologies, plant medicine and queer politics of decolonization… Delicious Collision is a fully-through-composed experimental rock opera, appropriately given Santos’ background (on top of everything else) in theatre, site-specific performance & dance. Agriculture – The Reply [The Flenser/Bandcamp] With The Flenser you know you’re going to expect dark, probably metal-adjacent music, and you know it’ll probably diverge from typical genre norms. Ecstatic black metal band Agriculture do indeed employ black metal’s tremolo guitars and blast beats to reach for altered states, but then the thunder gives way to a different kind of ecstasy at times – gorgeous harmonies and clean guitar? The last track on the album somehow combines it all together – blissful chugging blackgaze, and a fragile interlude of just voice and guitar. Channeling Zen Buddhism and social collapse alongside queer history & survival, The Spiritual Sound is easily among the albums of the year. sunn O))) – Raise the Chalice [Sub Pop/Bandcamp] So yeah, the southern lords of drone metal, sunn O))), have signed to Sub Pop, the little label that could. That’s the Sub Pop that was the centre of the Seattle sound, from Mudhoney & early Soundgarden to Nirvana – in fact Nevermind‘s profits, after their contract was bought out by Geffen, were what brought them back from early ’90s financial difficulties, and their (excellent) debut Bleach, which remained a Sub Pop release, was enough to keep the label chugging along for ages. The label pretty quickly expanded out of Seattle/grunge into all sorts of other areas, as diverse as Fleet Foxes, The Postal Service, and the greatest, Clipping. Still, the stentorian, rumbling noise of sunn O))) is an interesting step sideways, hopefully a great move for both parties. Their first EP for Sub Pop follows a 7″ (yes, two tracks under 6 minutes each!) back in 2023 for the Sub Pop Singles Club, but one side of this 12″ is the 14-minute “Eternity’s Pillars”, while the flip has 2 tracks each around 8 minutes – still pretty contained. The band for these tracks is the back-to-basics core duo of Greg “The Lord” Anderson and Stephen O’Malley, and the crushingly slow unison guitar/bass is by and large the totality of the sound, but I do love the disconcerting high-pitched flicker that rises through the last part of “Raise the Chalice”. Susannah Stark – Minor Gestures [Night School Records/Bandcamp/STROOM.tv/Bandcamp] When Utility Fog started back in 2003, folktronica was a genre of which I was very fond – but it was already pretty hazy as to what it was. Slightly glitchy hip-hop sampling acoustic instruments like Four Tet was what I thought, I guess, although when Tunng came on the scene literally later that year, it held a lot of similarity without quite being the same. And meanwhile The Books were doing studio-mediated music with acoustic instruments that somehow was something else entirely, despite arguably fitting the mould. So I love that in the years since, there have been untold different approaches to “folk” + “electronics”. On her new album Minor Gestures, Scottish musician Susannah Stark takes her Gaelic (Gàidhlig) folk music in experimental directions, which might involve drone passages on harmonium or modular synth, interpolated field recordings, or sample-based programming. The production touches only serve to heighten the sense of an arcane, otherworldly setting, as if being performed just out of sight or transmitted from a past-future. It’s quite a remarkable album. Haykal, Julmud, Acamol | هيكل، جلمود، أكامول – A'saab أعصاب [Bilna’es/Bandcamp] Cross-media artistic duo Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Ramme formed the record label & publishing platform Bilna’es along with producer Muqata’a as a space for artistic expression & criticism in Palestine & beyond. Along with the amazing productions of Muqata’a, a highlight was the 2022 solo album from Julmud, Tuqoos | طُقُوس. Now Julmud teams up with label founder Abbas, the latter under the name Acamol (Arabic for Panadol/paracetamol), along with Palestinian rapper Haykal on a new album Kam Min Janneh | كم من جنّة (How Many Heavens). The beats, produced by Julmud & Acamol separately & together, present a glitched version hip-hop drawn from the music & percussion of the MENA region, while Julmud & Haykal swap verses evoking the life of dispossession under occupation, colonization & genocide. It bears mentioning that while the killing continues in Gaza despite the so-called ceasefire, settlers continue to violently disrupt the lives of Palestinians in the West Bank with impunity – destroying property, beating and killing people and blocking access to their own land. In that context, this is a powerful work of resistance and solidarity (and some injections of humour). As I’m writing this late, you can read Emad Al Hatu’s excellent article on fbi.radio, as this was made album of the week at the beginning of November. Mohammad Reza Mortazavi – Zendegi [Latency/Bandcamp] Mohammad Reza Mortazavi – Silent [Latency/Bandcamp] French label Latency have no interest in following any kind of expectations – they’ll flip from chamber jazz to minimal techno to post-classical to percussive bass. In 2019 they released the album Ritme Jaavdanegi by Berlin-based, Iran-born percussionist Mohammad Reza Mortazavi, and now Mortazavi is back on Latency with his new album Nexus. The previous album showcased Mortazavi’s incredibly detailed and complex rhythms on traditional Persian instruments – the tombak and daf. On Nexus, Mortazavi’s playing is just as accomplished, but he extends the percussion with electronic effects and his own voice. The music is full of an otherworldly sensation, of suspension in time and place. There’s an incredible 25-minute remix by Ricardo Villalobos of the track “Swamp” from this album, coming out on December 5th – don’t miss it! IKI – Regenerate [IKI Bandcamp] IKI – Dance [IKI Bandcamp] It’s a sure bet that anything involving Danish singer Randi Pontoppidan is going to be something unique, challenging and beautiful. While she hasn’t been a member of Scandinavian vocal ensemble IKI since the beginning, she’s a perfect fit for IKI’s improvisational, electronically-mediated style. Pontoppidan joined Danish, Norwegian & Finnish singers Anna Mose, Guro Tveitnes, Johanna Sulkunen and Kamilla Kovacs four or five years ago, and BODY is their most intimate album. It can sound extremely electronic at times, but even at their most sharply edited & granulated, every sound comes from the voices of the five women. The recorded works reflect the group’s interest in how life extends past the body, and explores how the women become one organism when performing together. george-i & Older Brother – To Be A Man [GRACE/Bandcamp] Portugal-based MC Darius Rodrigues aka Older Brother has been working with London producer George Harris aka george-i for ages. Now the duo have finally come out with the Warm Skin EP on Berlin-based DJ Katiusha‘s label GRACE. And these four tracks of trip-hop-inflected bass music do walk with grace, holding Older Brother’s lyrics about the state of the world, and – on this closing track – seeking a new, post-patriarchy definition of maleness. Sun People – Herbie’s Delay [All Things Records] Austrian producer Sun People has released some creative and hard-hitting jungle & drum’n’bass that hybridizes with footwork and techno. His All Things Records provides an avenue for music of all kinds, so his new LP Look Within isn’t tied to any tempo – faster or slower than 160bpm, with a few beautifully-produced beatless tracks too. But as with “Herbie’s Delay”, there’s still some creative, syncopated jungle/d’n’b to be found too. Hyperfocus – Sentinel [Machinist Music/Bandcamp] For his fifth release (in two years!) on Canadian drum’n’bass master John Rolodex‘s Machinist Music label, Hyperfocus brings beats precision-tooled in the Machinist Music labs with evocative atmospheres and restless basslines. This is where the jungle revival bleeds back into the d’n’b mainstream, and I’m here for it. San – In Plain Sight [Rua Sound/Bandcamp] Appearing for a third time on Dublin jungle/bass label Rua Sound is Bristol’s San, a slightly mysterious individual who is apparently a techno producer working under a separate alias. This is dark stuff for haunting rave dancefloors and lying on your back with headphones on. Constantly changing cut-up breakbeats, deadly deep subs and spooky atmos, taking the cyberpunk ethos of mid-’90s drum’n’bass and applying it to contemporary jungle. POL100 – TRIBE [early reflex/Bandcamp] Turin’s early reflex label brings as usual cutting-edge experimental bass & club music as part of their Eyes series of two-track EPs. Here’s Italian producer POL100 mutating jungle and techno into strange new shapes – it’s half drumfunk and half electro maybe? Well worth your time. Hello Psychaleppo – Al Wa6an | الوطن [Fake Lines/Bandcamp] Joy Moughanni – I Can’t Seem to Find it At Home | مش عم لاقيه بالبيت [Fake Lines/Bandcamp] The first release from non-profit label Fake Lines has launched itself with a mega compilation – 36 tracks over 3 vinyl LPs – called Fake Lines: Sono Levant. It’s packed to the brim with excellent music, gregarious with genre – it may lean towards electronic music but there’s folk, hip-hop and rock of a sort. There’s an emphasis on Levant artists, but the tracklist also reaches further afield to other MENA countries and more. Montreal-based Syrian DJ Hello Psychaleppo contributes some stuttering samples and bass heft, while Lebanese producer Joy Moughanni combines jagged almost-rhythms and sound design to impressive effect. Lone – Ascension.png [Greco-Roman/Bandcamp] I’ve had an on-and-off relationship with Lone‘s music, but new single “Ascension.png” combines chromed cyberpunk and fuzzy vaporwave with jungle and rave bliss, and that makes a winner. Kelly Moran – Chrysalis [Warp/Bandcamp] A year and a half after releasing her last album, Moves in the Field, Kelly Moran returns to her more familiar territory of chiming prepared piano and electronics, with an album that’s complementary to last year’s. For Moves in the Field, Moran took her piano compositions and programmed them into a Disklavier, a physical piano that can be played via digital programming. So Moran was able to perform alongside her digital copy, with dazzling patterns climbing up and down the keyboard. On Don’t Trust Mirrors, the sound is more uncanny – synths and prepared piano melting into each other – but the performances are more clearly human. And those familiar with the previous album will hear echoes of those pieces throughout. Quartz Sand – Chemical Sedimentary (excerpt 2) [Flaming Pines/Bandcamp] I was lucky to get to see Kate Carr & Cath Roberts playing together at a gallery in Hoxton, London back in May. Carr is an Australian sound-artist who runs the impeccable Flaming Pines label and is one of our finest proponents of field recording, as well as music made from non-musical objects; Roberts is an improviser and composer who has been working with the Lyra-8 synthesizer, an “organismic” synthesizer, whose 8 voices interact in non-linear ways along with some effects. The duo’s name, “Quartz Sand”, suggests minerals and inorganic matter (quartz is silicon dioxide, perhaps the most basic inorganic molecule), and the idea of the album’s title, Stratigraphy, is to imply a vertical structure – rather than a typical horizontal time-based structure – as primary. But don’t be fooled: these two near-half-hour pieces aren’t static at all. It’s just that the action happens often between the crinkly, whistly high frequencies and the gurgling, grinding bottom end. It’s like listening to a cross-section of the earth’s crust – in a good way. Lea Bertucci – Two Way Mirror [Cibachrome Editions] It should be well-known and universally acknowledged now that Lea Bertucci is one of the best sound-artist/composers of the last decade and a half. Whether site-specific works exploring & exploiting – for instance – the resonance of a hollow bridge in Köln (2020’s Acoustic Shadows), myriad works live-processing her own saxophone and other instruments, or her work with reel-to-reel tape machines, she’s a master of her craft. Recent times have seen a number of incredible collaborations from Bertucci: in 2022, she operated tapes & electronics around Robbie Lee‘s baroque & medieval instruments on Winds Bells Falls, while on Murmurations, her tapes were as prominent, but she also brought various wind instruments and her voice to the table, next to Ben Vida‘s synths & voice; and on her tectonic collaboration in 2023 with Brisbane’s own Lawrence English, cello, viola and lap steel guitar emerge as well. Earlier this year Lawrence’s ROOM40 released an astounding work of Bertucci together with another masterful sound-artist, Olivia Block. So needless to say her new album The Oracle is a tour de force, engaging her many instruments, field recordings and, importantly, her own voice, all filtered through tape manipulation and digital processing. Only on the last track are percussionists from the Wesleyan University Taiko Ensemble enlisted for a booming – yet obscured – finale. Of course, it’s not just technially interesting or impressive (although it is those things) – it’s also music that will draw you in and move you, despite the vocals being twisted into non-textual shapes. It’ll easily be high on my albums of the year list for 2025. Alexandra Spence – Magenta (with Delphine Dora) [Students of Decay/Bandcamp] Back to Sydney to finish, Alexandra Spence is another brilliant sound-artist who works with field recordings and found objects to tell a story about place and memory. Her last two albums (from 2022) arose from a fascination with oceans and waterways; the scope is wider here, from mountains to backyards, but the ecological and geological also interact here with the personal. As well as recordings of places and non-musical objects, Spence (a clarinettist) here uses sounds from Serge Modular synths and a custom-built lyre, and on tonight’s track, Spence also brings in the voice and instrumentation of French composer & musician Delphine Dora. Listen again — ~222MB

Arabic trip-hop? Nordic jazz-inflected indie pop? Minimal drum'n'bass? Bees? Whatever you're looking for, we've got it. LISTEN AGAIN, with a vengeance! Stream on demand from fbi.radio, podcast here! Yasmine Hamdan – Vows سبع صنايع [Crammed Discs/Bandcamp] Yasmine Hamdan – Daya3 …Read more »

Like what you hear me play every week? Support fbi.radio, without which not just you & I but Sydney's music as a whole would be incalculably poorer. LISTEN AGAIN and feel the warm thrill of love… Stream on demand on …Read more »

It's the time of experimental pop at the moment – for very stretched interpretations of pop, perhaps. So we have many weird-ass songs tonight. Also some storming beats and some messed-up beats, some gorgeous acoustic sounds and some pretty messed-up …Read more »

Experimental song reaching out from all quarters tonight, in extremely different ways. A surprising South & Central American focus. We also have some experimental beats, some classical and jazz hybrids, and some sound-art. LISTEN AGAIN and sing yourself awake… Stream …Read more »

Tonight we're showcasing quite a lot of genre-bending songcraft, with metal, hardcore punk, electro-pop, hyperpop, Afro-Caribbean, post-folk and other tendencies melting together. We've also got percussive workouts, minimal techno, maximal jungle, unclassifiable rhythmic noise and glitched ambient piano in there …Read more »

Experimental pop hybrids, underground hip-hop, hip-hop-jazz hybrids, free jazz, free rock, dub, dub techno and industrial techno, experimental electronics of all sorts, North African electronic mutations, grinding drone, ambient-jazz Yolŋu, Norwegian folk-jazz… LISTEN AGAIN to some really good shit. Stream …Read more »

There's a lot of really interesting & strange pop, r'n'b, grime or even folk music tonight, proving perhaps that this is an era where flouting norms is the standard, and the paradox within that is celebrated. LISTEN AGAIN and flout …Read more »

Neo-classical electronic pop, contemporary jazz both electronic and acoustic, experimental metal, experimental beats. LISTEN AGAIN, experimentally. Stream on demand vai fbi.radio, podcast here. Darian Donovan Thomas – Microcosm Friend [New Amsterdam Records/Bandcamp] Last year, American violinist, composer and multimedia artist …Read more »

Another wet day in Sydney, a day on which an estimated 100,000+ of us walked across Sydney Harbour Bridge to protest Israel's starvation and genocide of Gaza, the occupation, the killing of children, and Australia's complicity. It was clearly more …Read more »

Uncanny simulacra abound through the music tonight. What is real? LISTEN AGAIN and just add to the confusion. Stream on demand via fbi.radio, podcast here. Mal Devisa – Next stop [Top Shelf Records/Bandcamp] Show Me The Body – Halogen (feat. …Read more »

As I was putting this show together, it felt like it was leaning heavily into bass & beats – and it is, to an extent, but it also has highly ethereal sounds, acoustic doom and acoustic prettiness, post-jazz forms and …Read more »

We have lots of miscellaneous experimental beats tonight, and different experimental versions of song, plus sound-art and noise, and kinds of ambient. I'm catching up on some stuff from when I was overseas, but also looking ahead to things not …Read more »

Experimental maneuvres in pop, hip-hop, jazz, rock and electronics, percussive approaches to musique concrète as well as jazz-rock-tronica, vinyl manipulations with dark electronics, spoken word, field recordings, ambient installation work and post-classical piano. LISTEN AGAIN to the percussion, the glitches, …Read more »

Beautiful songs and churning glitchscapes, accelerated hyperpercussion and sparse bass drops… A night of contrasts. LISTEN AGAIN to the song of life. Stream on demand from fbi.radio, podcast here. Herbert & Momoko – Calm Water [Strut/Herbert Bandcamp/Momoko Gill Bandcamp] Herbert …Read more »

Following Israel's unprovoked (according to all trustworthy intelligence) attack on Iran mostly as a distraction from the genocide they're still undertaking, Donald Trump unilaterally decided to bomb Iran today, bringing the world to the brink of… something, nothing good. Nobody …Read more »

He's baaaack! OMG. That was 6 weeks. A very full 6 weeks. So much to play you, so much to talk about. But I wanna extend HUUUUGE thanks to the seven beautiful people who filled in while I was away, …Read more »

Well! Tonight is my last show for 6 weeks. I'll be travelling in the UK & Europe, mostly touring with Black Aleph but with a bit of holiday time too. While I'm away, each Sunday will be covered by excellent …Read more »

Singles & tracks from forthcoming albums and new releases from hip-hop to doom, postrock to experimental electronic, breakbeat to techno, post-classical to post-jazz. LISTEN AGAIN, stick it in your pipe and smoke it. You can stream it on demand on …Read more »

Strange conglomerations of fluttery acoustic sounds, skittery electronic beats, seemingly-clashing cultural milieus… LISTEN AGAIN if you dare! Stream on demand from FBi, podcast here. Infinity Knives & Brian Ennals – A City Drowning. God's Black Tears. ft. The Lil Black …Read more »

Everything's off-kilter this week. It's not just the deranged tarrif-spewing orange menace… it's also the music? But… in a good way? Yeah. LISTEN AGAIN if you're off-kilter too. Stream on demand from FBi, podcast here. Infinity Broke – Snowdome of …Read more »

Lots of speedy beats tonight, whether underpinning grime vocals, post-classical synths, postpunk agitprop or… you name it. Plus contemplative guitars & strings, shoegaze and indie-jazz-pop. LISTEN AGAIN to capture all the details. Stream on demand from FBi, podcast here. Postcards …Read more »

Experimental song, guitar-triggered sample-mashing, electro-dub, industrial dub-metal, intricate percussion, ambient jazz… Just some of the well-known genres heard tonight. LISTEN AGAIN and invent some new genres. Stream on demand from fbi.radio, podcast here. Yasmine Hamdan – Shmaali شمالي [Crammed Discs/Bandcamp] …Read more »

Thanks so much to Amy Li for her fascinating selections last week while I was in Naarm with Zoe Jungist of FBi's own Variable Depth Audit DJing at the incredible Absorbed IV! That means I've got two weeks of new …Read more »

Your experimental fix for tonight has vocals sung and spoken and screamed, in a few different languages and in no language at all. Also jungle beats mushed into other genres, slapback echoes, manic electric guitars and soft piano. And that's …Read more »

Lots of vocals tonight, as spoken word, as songs, as cut-up textures… As usual we're already at a point where there's waaaay too much music out there. But hey, that means that everything here is rolled gold. LISTEN AGAIN, at …Read more »

Let me take you on a trip1… from lo-fi hip-hop to mutant jungle, dub techno to generative IDM, mushed free jazz to mutant harps and other acoustic instruments… It's just another week in the Utility Fog office. (there is no …Read more »

A lot going on in the world at the moment, dizzying amounts of WTF and it can be pretty anxiety-causing. But humanity continues to create great art, so let me share with you some of the boundary-pushing music of note …Read more »

One month into 2025… watching a country being dismantled is quite a horror story, so let's stay away from the news if we can, and listen to experimental music! LISTEN AGAIN via fbi.radio or our podcast here – it might …Read more »

Today is the day when so-called Australia is meant to celebrate its founding as a British colony. It's a day of sadness and contemplation for indigenous Australians, and should be for all of us. This always was, always will be …Read more »

Annnnnd we're back! Thanks heaps to Giulio for the last two Sunday nights' selections – fantastic stuff. I have complained before about how music doesn't stop being released, right through December and into the very beginning of the new year. …Read more »

It's the last Utility Fog of the year, but it's a doozy! A 2hr live DJ mix of as many of my favourite beats (and some other oddities) as I could fit. It's like a Utility Fog but with less …Read more »

Here we are at the end of the year. As is traditional, I'm doing THREE Best of 2024 shows, starting with “songs” tonight, instrumentals & sound-art next week, and a DJ mix of stuff with beats on December 29th. Of …Read more »

Last new music of the year! I mean, not the last new music to come out this year, but for me it is, as the next 3 shows will be my best-of round-up of 2024! There are a few mega …Read more »

Look, the year's coming to a close. What a fucking relief. Let it go, let it go. I mean, obviously 2025's gonna be a lot worse, but maybe it can also be better in some ways? Let's make it so. …Read more »