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Our latest compilation is titled 'Gloss & Moss' - 22 tracks of new, eclectic and experimental Australian music co-curated by Melbourne-based label Fallopian Tunes, and Stuart Buchanan from New Weird Australia.  Here Stuart Buchanan talks about the background of the compilation - download for free on the Free Music Archive.

Finding Fallopian Tunes’ early release ‘Berlin Mixtape‘ was nothing short of a godsend.

Hunting down music to play on the weekly New Weird Australia radio show is never a chore, the hunt can be both exhilarating and frustrating. Yet, finding one relevant new release may take hours, and only yield a single track. Hence the night when ‘Berlin Mixtape’ was discovered remains firmly etched in memory – sixteen tracks of new, eclectic and experimental Australian music, and all of them gems. The concept seemed eerily, and generously, familiar.

Naturally enough, the mixtape received a ritual flogging on the radio show – I simply couldn’t get enough of it – and it also conveniently led to the first release on the then nascent label, the stunning debut from Yolke, titled Poppy Wash. Yet, at the same time led nowhere – Fallopian Tunes had no web site, and little web presence – which, contrary to what a manager might tell you, simply added to the allure of the label.

Many months later, we finally met each other virtually, complemented each other for our respective output, and danced around the idea of perhaps linking arms and working on a shared release. ‘Gloss & Moss’ is the result: 22 tracks, 11 a-piece, representing precision and imprecision – controlled chaos and chaotic control. In splitting hairs over definitions, this ‘Australia Mixtape’ has both its cake and devours it – we can pay attention to the difference, or ignore it all together. Like Fallopian Tunes and New Weird Australia, it’s two sides of the same coin – a collection of exceptions that prove the rule.

Invisible Sports is the new solo project from Aaron Moore, a founding member of Leicester UK's acclaimed experimental group Volcano the Bear. 

Though his foundation is in ritualistic/melodic percussion, voice and avant-trumpet, Aaron Moore "generally considers any instrument (or object) playable in one way or another." His discography encompasses over thirty albums from projects like Dragon Or Emperor, Amolvacy, Songs of Norway, Courtis/Moore, Textile Trio. Nat Roe gave a great overview of the selections available on the FMA in 2009 [link].

"Beastly" is one of two promotional downloads to sample off of The Future Tastes, the first studio album from Invisible Sports. This song-based solo project began when Aaron Moore relocated to Brooklyn a few years ago, and the album spans three years of recordings. This new release is available in a 300-edition LP from Alt Vinyl as well as to download-in-full.

Suicide may have lit the torch in the mid-'70s, but one could argue that by decade's end, its carriers lived on the other side of the country -- in San Francisco.  Sure, L.A. had the Screamers and some other odd ducks.  But SF hosted an impressive number of bent bands who used synths, tape machines and other electrical apparatus to extend punk's mutated left end by leaps/bounds.  Informed by avant garde composers and performance artists, fueled by apocalyptic abandon and paranoid pop twitch, groups like Tuxedomoon, Nervous Gender, the Residents, Factrix, Minimal Man, Chrome, and Pink Section would release timeless slabs of aggresively bizarre noise -- as would the Units, whose Digital Stimulation LP (415 Records, 1980) remains a personal favorite.  The album's a lush and moody salvo if there ever was one, and I was thrilled to ask former lead synth player and vocalist Scott Ryser (right) a few questions about the band and its M.O. by e-mail last week.

Violeta Päivänkakkara was born in Helsinki, Finland, in 1992. She has always felt drawn to cosmology, planets, nature and the dream world. She creates environments and personal and melancholic atmospheres, using instruments like the glockenspiel, guitar, piano and electronic sounds of nature, among others. She currently lives between Helsinki and Barcelona. -La Gramola

"Sateenkaari" can be found on Kuu, a collection released this week on La Gramola Netlabel.

> Violeta Päivänkakkara on Facebook | Bandcamp | FMA

> La Gramola on FMA | Homepage