discontent.

• Sign up or Donate to FBi Radio during the Disorient show on Thursday 2nd July and Thursday 9th July 2009 (9pm-11pm Australian EST), and get a free ‘Disorientation Session’ mixtape.

Right now, FBi Radio is calling for help from its listeners. Since day one, back in August 2003, FBi has been one of the very few 100% independent radio stations in Australia. FBi is an incorporated not-for-profit organisation, with a board voted by the listener community, a dedicated and thoroughly underpaid staff team and hundreds of volunteers. All of these people are united with one common need: a community-generated media channel that is undiluted by commercial music, commercial opinion and commercial advertising - a truly rare commodity in today’s marketplace.

But when the Global Financial Crisis came to town, FBi was hit hard. Being independent is great in terms of editorial and creative freedom, not so great when you don’t have a rich mogul or a vast, educational institution to fall back on. And let’s be clear - FBi doesn’t have any government funding to fall back on either. They receive around 5% of their income for the Government as a direct offset to the enormous commercial fees imposed by the people who look after the antenna, but no more than that. For six years, FBi has survived on the generosity of its sponsors and its listeners - both of which felt the pinch when the economy collapsed, and donations & sponsorships for FBi tailed off markedly in the first quarter of the year. So much so, that the future for FBi started to look bleak. There will always be a way to save the 94.5 broadcast licence - but an FBi broadcasting via a coathanger from the back of a ute (to a radius of 3km) serves very few people, certainly not the current community of listeners, musicians, artists and Sydneysiders that make FBi what it is today.

So, the appeal is on right now - Save FBi. If every listener pledged to become a financial supporter, FBi would be around for ever and a day. As it stands, only 2% have chosen to do so. Whether we like it or not, we do seem to live in an era when music is considered something of a free commodity - and if we don’t pay for MP3s on our hard drive, why would we pay for music on our radio? Well, FBi is more than an iPod - FBi lives and breathes. FBi is a community of smart, creative, thought-provoking human beings, people just like you and me - and that makes FBi one of the best places for us to discover a true diversity of contemporary Australian music and culture. In a word, FBi is community.

And the subset community of FBi broadcasters have their work cut out for them this week and next. We’ve been drafted in to help the station raise money during our shows. FBi knows that whilst there are many ‘general’ listeners who listen to FBi throughout the day, there’s also specialist shows (like ‘Disorient’) that have their own community that gathers around them. If you’re reading this, perhaps that’s you. Perhaps you listen to Disorient, or you used to listen to my previous show, Fat Planet, when it ran for many years on Sunday afternoons. If so, hopefully I’ve shared something that means something to you or turned you onto something new. Hopefully that means you won’t mind me asking for a little payback. Becoming a financial supporter and saving FBi costs seven bucks a month, four for concessions. Not much at all.

In return you’ll get:

• a warm ever-lasting glow, safe in the knowledge that you’re part of a rare and passionate community of people who orbit around FBi, and that your cash helped in some way to help keep FBi on air.
• every week, FBi gives aways prizes, such as tickets and CDs and other merch, and only you as a supporter are eligible to win. Most supporters who pick up the phone to enter these competitions do win something at some point, it’s not hard.
• during this particular drive, FBi has a prize draw - so you’ll go in the running to win two flights to London with V Festival tickets, or two business class flights to Los Angeles. Literally, a trip of a lifetime.
• And a special bonus, just from me, you’ll get a free copy of the ‘Disorientation Session’ mixtape - compiled exclusively for the current FBi Supporter Drive. It’s copyright clear (no piracy!) and features tunes from AGF, Growing, Filastine, Salem, The Craters, Dalt Wisney, Inverness, Villa Diamante, I Buried Paul, The Peronists, Atomhead and many many more - eighteen tracks in all.

I’ll be giving the mixtape away free to all listeners who sign up (or upgrade / renew) as FBi Radio Supporters during the Disorient show on Thursday 2nd July and Thursday 9th July 2009 (9pm-11pm Australian EST). All of FBi’s specialist shows have ‘target numbers’ for new supporters, hence my naked bribery to marshal you into supporting Disorient. Hopefully I’ll be counting you amongst one of those numbers come Thursday night.

• CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP OR DONATE ONLINE (VIA CREDIT CARD OR DIRECT DEBIT)

If you do need any more persuation, check fbiradio.com for more info on FBi and their call-out for much-needed financial aid. Thanks for reading, and (I hope) for becoming a Supporter - and helping to save this vital little radio station in these unsteady times.

DISORIENTATION SESSION Disorient’s Mixtape For FBi
Tracklisting

1. Dalt Wisney - Sci-Fi Dot Fiends [Pakistan] 2:03
2. The Craters - Samba Party [U.S.] 2:40
3. Ghoul - Fuck Math [Australia] 1:54
4. Salem - Brustreet [U.S.] 5:02
5. 7VWWVW - Mammal Theme [Scotland] 5:55
6. Villa Diamante - Tonolec vs Kromestar [Argentina] 2:56
7. Berrettaz - Pense A [Côte d'Ivoire] 2:44
8. AGF aka Antye Greie - Disturbia [Germany] 4:07
9. Filastine - B’talla (feat. Rabah) [U.S.] 3:10
10. I Buried Paul - Favola [Brazil] 3:17
11. Fletcher - Dreadlox Dub [South Africa] 6:17
12. The Peronists - Cumbia Maligna [Argentina] 3:39
13. Atomhead - Unsuspecting Broken Receiver [Belgium] 2:09
14. Growing - Green Flag [U.S.] 6:16
15. Sleepmakeswaves - Exits To Nowhere [Australia] 3:41
16. Rothis Bournias - Last Days Part Two [Greece] 7:07
17. Inverness - Bats [Brazil] 3:13
18. Flica - Mid [Malaysia] 4:53

Note: All music on the mixtape is licenced via Creative Commons or has otherwise been made freely available by relevant artists & labels. If you like what you hear, please support the artists -visit their site, buy their music.

Cover image by Irving Liaw (under CC Licence).

For a while, I’ve been looking for an outlet to best explore, promote and galvanise the weird / experimental music scene in my current home of Australia. This country has a long and vital history of experimental music, however until the birth of the internet age, this rich seam of avant-garde audio remained largely confined to its geographic borders. Over the last ten years, emerging Australian artists have found new avenues and new audiences thanks to international digital distribution, and in considering how to best move a new Australian project forward, it makes sense to capitalise on that paradigm.

The idea is this: New Weird Australia is a free compilation series of new, electic and experimental Australian music, made available to download via newweirdaustralia.com on a bimonthly basis. The first volume in the series is slated for release in late June 2009.

With this in mind, I’m seeking expressions of interest from Australian musicians and audio artists actively pursuing an agenda of experimentation and innovation in any form or genre. New Weird Australia is also seeking expressions of interest from graphic designers, visual artists, photographers and others working within the visual medium to develop cover art for each volume in the series. Please visit newweirdaustralia.co for full details of agreements, licencing & promotion.

Web: newweirdaustralia.com

RSS: http://newweirdaustralia.com/feed/

A two-piece collaboration between Wes Kaplan and Jared Arnold, The Craters bring lo-fi sensibility to everything they touch - a Midas gift in reverse, abstracting loose change from a pure source of gold. They come hewn from the Amazing Wow label, a free download project that “rejects the concept of music piracy and the antiquated notion that every download is a lost sale”. (Note this recent report which finds that “pirates” are “10 times more likely to buy music”.)

The band’s most recent release is billed as a double EP, but with such a disparate range of sounds employed, it could well be a compilation release from a bunch of bands that we only think we know. ‘Kissing/Samba Party’ is a collection of tracks that fold back with thoughts of someone taking a pair of scissors to our precious collection of Animal Collective, Anticon, Fleet Foxes and Ghostly International sleeves, and then using cheap, no-brand tape to bluntly force them together again. Of course, the end result is nothing like the original - it just keeps falling apart and, in the mess of junk on the floor, we might just find something altogether more interesting.

Download the full release at amazingwow.org.

The Craters - Samba Party | mp3

The Craters - Like You Used To Know | mp3

img | carlos cabral

I’m usually turned right off by any musical project that has the backing of a clothing manufacturer. It’s a little illogical, given that I enjoy consuming both music and clothes, but there’s a certain pall of overt commercialism that never seems to wash away, even if the connection is so innocuous and good intentioned as to be almost non-existent. The latter seems to be the case here, with this Passions mix for NYC design house, Mishka - blending a back catalouge of classics with new tracks from ‘darkwave’ label, Disc Error. The Brooklyn producer cultivates a cocktail of post-punk, industrial and goth sounds into a mix that intrigues and connects old bastards (such as myself) to a continuum that, surprisingly, appears to be ever evolving. Not for the sensitive amongst us, but in a context like this, Death In June never sounded so good.

Passions - Music Without Tearss | mediafire

Tracklisting:
1. UK Decay - Unexpected Guest
2. Micron63 - No Divide
3. Joy Division - Means To An End
4. Pylon - Danger
5. Public Image Limited - Annalisa
6. Nitzer Ebb - Join In The Chant
7. Nine Inch Nails - Ringfinger
8. Passions - Sentiment (Instrumental)
9. Death In June - Fields
10. Cabaret Voltaire - Landslide
11. SPK - A Heart That Breaks (In No Time And Place)
12. Ulterior - Weapons (Zlaya Remix)
13. New Order - 586 (Peel Sessions Version)
14. Death In June - The Calling Mk II
15. Black Strobe - Innerstrings (No Shuffle Mix)
16. Micron63 - Death Is Colder Than Love
17. Huoratron - Corporate Occult (Passions Remix)
18. Section 25 - Looking From A Hilltop
19. Throbbing Gristle - Adrenaline
20. Alien Sex Fiend - Get Into It
21. New Order - Ecstasy
22. Suicide - Mr. Ray
23. Sonic Youth - Killin Yr. Idols
24. Ipso Facto - Baulderdash
25. Damn Arms - The Cormorant
26. Wire - On Returning
27. Oto - Anyway
28. Bauhaus - Dancing
29. The Cure - Primary
30. Passions - Composure (Instrumental)
31. Radiohead - Climbing Up The Walls
32. David Bowie - Subterraneans

img | lillie abe

You and I both know that 2+2 always equals 5, but can we also contend with the fact that 7×7 now equals 8?

Once in a while, a label comes along and deftly captures an artist just as they clamber out of the trench of obscurity, and go ‘over the top’ into the battleground of the public arena. The 7×7 series from Dublin’s All City nailed that dictum seven times over, collecting productions from Snowman, Mike Slott, Fulgeance, Mweslee, Leneko, Hudson Mohawke and Onra. The 7×7 series was as simple as it sounds - 7 x 7″ inch (and digi) releases from these 7 producers.

The results have now been compiled on the obligatory compilation album, but just to add some additional arithmetical spice to the equation, they’ve added an eighth producer to the fray - Switzerland’s Dimlite (Sonar Kollectiv) with his bonus cut ‘Quiz Tears’. If you were waiting for a elasti-funk, electro-dub communication from the outer edges of the galaxy, refracting back our own perverse terrestrial transmissions from the Beefheart era - congratulations, you’ve found it.

Next on All City: Releases from Ruckazoid & Nosaj Thing, and a much anticipated face-off - Mike Slott vs Martyn dropping in September.

Dimlite - Quiz Tears | mp3

img | goosewing

The first thing I thought when I read Ghislain Poirier’s latest email missive was ‘Oh, I see Ghis has a new haircut’. Yup, I’m that shallow.

What I should have thought was ‘Nice! A tidy mix from Sinden’s Kiss show with cuts from Ghis, Major Lazer, Alison Hinds and Emvee thrown into the soup. Must post that.”  From end to end, the mix focuses almost exclusively on Poirier’s own soca productions, alongside Canadian affliates Bonjay and Skinny Fabulous from St Vincent & The Grenadines.  It’s a high BPM breezy romp, bringing a little sunshine to our darker times.

Whilst were talking face value, Ghis has dropped the Ghis and now trades as Poirier. Just so we’re clear.

Poirier - Mix For Sinden (May 2009) | zshare

Tracklisting:
Poirier - Wha-La-La-Leng feat. Face-T
Major Lazer - Hold The Line (Poirier Remix)
Poirier - Karnival
Silverlink - The Message Is Love feat. Jammer & Badness (acapella)
Alison Hinds - Soca Nation (Poirier Remix)
Poirier - Get Crazy feat. Mr. Slaughter
Skinny Fabulous - My Girl feat. Mr. Vegas
Emvee - Glitch (Bonjay’s Feisty Rub)

Poirier - Wha La La Leng (feat. Face T) (Video) | fader.tv

img | jek in the box

The Discontent Mixtape series is an irregular series of compilations, designed to give blog readers an extreme intro into the Discontent world - a collection of tracks that have appeared on the blog in recent times. For this, the second volume, I’ve included a few tracks that didn’t quite make their way from hard drive to blog, and so are included here for the first time (Mutamassik remix, Ras G, Psychic Ills, Xiao He and Entertainment For The Brain Dead).

All the tracks have been published freely online by artists or labels, so feel free to post the link or distribute the mixtape. If you do, please also link back to www.discontentblog.com.

Discontent - Mixtape Two | rapidshare download

1. White - Build A Link [China]
2. Three Trapped Tigers - 1 [England]
3. These Are Powers - Life of Birds [U.S.]
4. Mutamassik - Commo The Rag (Claws Costeau’s All Dirty Remix) [Egypt]
5. Kid606 - Mr. Wobble’s Nightmare [Venezuela]
6. Ras G - Shinelight [U.S.]
7. Psychic Ills - Fingernail Tea [U.S.]
8. Underlapper - Meanderthal (Cleptoclectics Remix) [Australia]
9. Lloop - Lei-tzu [U.S.]
10. Vorad Fils - Android Creche [Australia]
11. Growing - Green Flag [U.S.]
12. Cauto - Despertar [Spain]
13. Xiao He - After Time [China]
14. Entertainment For The Brain Dead - What You Get (Part Timer Remix) [Germany]

Discontent Mixtape One remains available here, featuring Fever Ray, Harmonic 313, Mi Ami, Hudson Mohawke, Salem, Filastine and more.

Whilst Kid606’s most recent masks have been designed with bass-licking raveheads in mind, it’s worth reflecting that the Kid has been on a long and winding road since his first release in 1998. Back then, particularly releases such as ‘Down With The Scene’ (2000), Miguel Manuel De Pedro was essentially a purveyor of extreme glitch and experimental breakcore, threading together disparate seams of 80s sample culture, industrial volume, musique concrete / sound art and a propensity to annoy the less-liberally minded with a clarion call that was as far from ‘music’ as many dare to venture.

While his recent releases ‘Die Soundboy Die’ and ‘Shout At The Doner’ are perhaps less deliberately difficult and unwelcoming than his earlier forays, they are no less upfront - at the core of both are wonky bass rhythms weighted by a magnetic force that pile-drives to the centre of the planet, teamed with acid pops and rave slides that time-shift back to the early 90s.

Following the first ‘Doner’ album cut, the cannibal-rave anthem ‘Mr Wobble’s Nightmare’, Miguel is dropping a crop of new mixes across blogs over the next couple of weeks, on which he notes “some will be released in a couple months, some will never be released”. Leonard De Leonard’s Euro-remix below will strike a deep chord with industrial / trance heads, flashing back to EBM moves from the likes of Front242 back in the day. Google around for other unreleased exclusives from Duran Duran Duran, Kidz on Acid, Miffy, Genuine Guy, Obi Blatche, Doshy and more. The album ‘Shout At The Doner’ is out now on Tigerbeat6.

Kid606 - Samhain California (Leonard de Leonard Remix) | mp3

Kid606 - Mr Wobble’s Nightmare |mp3

Kid606 - Mr Wobble’s Nightmare (Video) | chunnel.tv (Recommended!)

img | steven m 61

Every Thursday on Sydney’s FBi Radio, I host a radio show that acts as a de facto companion to the Discontent blog. Disorient airs every Thursday from 9-11pm (Australian EST) and is streamed live at fbiradio.com. Listen in Sydney on 94.5FM.

In an effort to streamline activities, playlists for the Disorient radio show (previously housed elsewhere) will now be posted on Discontent. You can find all the Disorient playlists in the new Radio section.

If you are reading Discontent via an RSS reader, you now have two different options. If you want to read both the blog and the radio playlists, then do nothing - your current feed will update automatically. If you wish to block radio playlists, and just receive only the Discontent blog posts, replace the existing feed with the second feed listed below.

RSS FEED FOR ALL POSTS (BLOG & RADIO)
http://discontentblog.com/feed=rss2

RSS FEED FOR BLOG ONLY
http://discontentblog.com/?cat=3&feed=rss2

Vorad Fils is the solo guise of Sydney producer John Hassell, who also fills his days working with local electronic three-piece Seekae and their high-school precursor Songs For Surgery. Clearly professing his love of Boards Of Canada on his Myspace home, Hassell follows a time-honoured electronic tradition on a suite of three demo tracks (available to download on last.fm), marrying lush glitch, ambient tones and lower case minimalism. Sounds fall into a continuum, where we can point to influences and predecessors, but with this small collection of new work - married with his excellent contribution to Seekae - it’s clear that Hassell is a producer of note in Australian terms, and that these are simply early postcards from the start of a long journey.

Vorad Fils - Android Creche | mp3

img | kaledbf