Out From Under

Marcus Whale has been straddling the worlds of experimental music and alternative pop throughout his career, from his early improvisational work as Scissor Lock, through the densely layered electronic pop of Collarbones to the taut, politically charged BV project he formed with Guerre aka Cassius Select. Celebrating the debut solo release under his own name, Marcus Whale talks with Stuart Buchanan on Out From Under about his work, his personal growth and his political intent, and reflects on the outcomes - one foot on both sides of the channel.

This episode of Out From Under is the latest in the new music playlist series, surveying the terrain of eclectic and experimental music across Australia. There’s music from Melbourne’s Carla dal Forno thru Blackest Ever Black (pictured); from artist and producer Thomas William Smith; a new collaboration from the west coast between Perth’s Rabbit Island and Nicholas Allbrook; cracked industrial techno from Newcastle producer Collector; plus tracks from New Zealand’s Purple Pilgrims, Dan Thorpe, WA?STE and more.

The latest new music releases are featured in this week’s Out From Under, testing the temperature of eclectic and experimental Australian waters. We hear tracks from the new EP by Melbourne producer waterhouse; future bass from Sydney’s JV; smooth MDMA music from Canberra’s Bum Creek; the debut solo single from Marcus Whale; experimental R&B from Pillow Pro; remixes of work by HTML Flowers and Dylan Michél; plus Lost Salt Blood Purges, Gentleforce, Kell//ua, Hidden, Orlando furious, and new music from Australian electronic music legends Severed Heads.

On this week’s Out From Under, two Australian artists working at the fringes of popular music; both on radically different musical trajectories, but nonetheless equally compelled by a deep desire to protect their own creative freedom. We hear from Via Tania, who discusses her twenty year career, playing with artists such as Prefuse73, Tortoise, Oval and Jori Hulkkonen, and weaving her way from nineties grunge, through alt.jazz and Finnish techno to her recent work with a Chicago orchestra; and we talk to Sydney producer Ghostgirl, as she embarks on a spiritually-rich electronic project, inspired by a chance encounter with two rookie soldiers on Chat Roulette.

On this week’s Out From Under, we feature two artists pushing back against the tyranny of the machine in electronic music - capturing inputs and processing outputs in ways that rely less directly on spending face time with the laptop screen. Alex White talks about Nadir, his noise collaboration with Ben Byrne, which rejects dark, power noise in favour of a light and bright counterpoint; and jazz musician Jacques Emery discusses the wide range of electronic output on his Sounds Are Sounds label, all of which favour art over craft, and – much like jazz - focus on a constant refinement of improvisational practice.