Howdy,
Welcome to issue #7 of Crow’s Nest, and thank you for reading/opening as well, as usual. Feels like it hasn’t been as long as usual since the last issue, no? Well I’m sure this isn’t the highlight of your day but I hope you do get some enjoyment out of the music and more within.
The Substack web editor tells me this piece is officially ‘too long for email’ so you’ll need to open it in a browser for ‘the full experience’. So that’s new.
The biggest story in music, aside from some losers getting mad at Phoebe Bridgers last night, remains the hole in music left by the untimely death of SOPHIE last week. I don’t have a whole to say that others haven’t already, and I would encourage you to seek those out as well. From the moment the lead line of Bipp got stuck in my head freshman year I knew SOPHIE was something unlike anything else, and she is deeply, dearly missed.
And with that it’s time for some recent music highlights.
Despite the congestion of releases that’s to be expected for Bandcamp Day, the obvious highlight from the past 2 weeks is For The First Time, the debut album from Black Country, New Road. Perhaps an outlier even considering the nature of this wave of literary post-punk acts emerging from the UK and centered around Brixton venue The Windmill, the talent on display remains incredible for the 7-piece group (do not look up how old they are). Does it live up to the hype? I’d say so. Some may gripe about the inclusion of their prior 2019 singles, but both are reworked—Athens, France is a case study in improved recording setups enhancing a track, and the new Sunglasses is virtually unrecognizable until its second half. While waiting for the inevitable 8.7 BNM from Pitchfork, give it a listen or two.
We’ve all been here
While Black Country, New Road (deservedly) take up a lot of the oxygen surrounding contemporary guitar music for the moment, I’d be remiss to avoid mentioning Tell Me I’m Bad by Editrix. It’s out on Exploding In Sound, an excellent label for lo-fi, literary art-rock. The obvious highlight here is frontperson Wendy Eisenberg’s helium vocals and virtuosic guitar playing. There are lots of interesting corners and ‘what’s going on?’ moments in this album.
I would also encourage you to read Eisenberg’s Tone Glow interview from last year, discussing primarily her solo album Auto. Another extraordinary item from her, in my estimation. The book recommendations at the end are also excellent, I say writing this as I feel an unopened Seiobo There Below staring me down.
Also from Tone Glow, this week the publication published an interview with Sue Tomkins, best known for her work fronting Life Without Buildings, that is well worth a read as well. If you’ve not listened to Any Other City before stop what you’re doing and do that right now.
Planet Mµ celebrated its 25th anniversary last year, and the label continues to push the boundaries of electronic music forward for around as long as I’ve been alive, announcing releases from the essential DeForrest Brown Jr. (as Speaker Music) and Eomac this week. Label head Mike Paradinas also quietly, independently slipped out an EP as Tusken Raiders for Bandcamp Friday as well. I don’t think there’s much info or context on it, such as when it was recorded, but that doesn’t preclude enjoyment of the tracks within.
San Francisco’s Jon Leidecker released his latest album Popular Monitress as Wobbly on local label Hausu Mountain this week. He’s a member of both Negativland and the Thurston Moore Ensemble (who himself put out a surprise album I’ve yet to listen to this week), though these tracks were made on phones and tablets and a downright dizzying array of gear and references on the Bandcamp page. Hausu Mountain is celebrating this (and more) with a livestream next Friday on their Twitch channel; if last month’s is any indication it will be worth tuning in for.
UK label AD 93 continues carving out a Neo-Neolithic Age with the launch of sub-label Lith Dolina. This album is on the main label, an excellent slab of glacial-sounding dance music that I imagine I’ll continue spinning for a while. The blurb on the Bandcamp page describes it as “a requiem for an earth beset by environmental change” and I can personally hear Frankensteinian elements to it.
-There haven’t been many highlights in my reading recently, again as work has been busy for me, but I did enjoy this piece in the New Yorker by David Owen on Molly Burnhans, who’s mapping the Catholic church’s landholdings with an eye towards steering the church to promote stronger environmental stewardship with them. Aside from the obvious environmental side of things I also like how it touches on things I’ve has some past dalliances with (GIS, Catholicism).
-Of course I need to follow that up with Jake Bittle (in the Baffler) on the New Yorker’s environmental writing as a whole, and how it reflects liberal pathologies and approaches to it as something occurring elsewhere, to other people, with you being powerless to affect a difference beyond your personal habits:
Nor is it that different from the way that most readers of TheNew Yorkerexperience the climate crisis, at least thus far: “I know what’s going to happen, but I’m powerless to stop it! Aaaaahhh! Now, what was I going to make for dinner again? …
-The Baffler also published this piece by Charlie Mitchell on the dark side of alt-meat and the businesses cashing in on the trend.
-This one isn’t environmental is the typical sense but I also enjoyed this op-ed in The Quietus by Catherine Anne Davies about the myth of creativity and suffering and the need to discard it.
In terms of even more post-punk releases since the last issue, Squid, another UK bright spot on the ascent, announced their debut album Bright Green Field last week. I’ll have more to say when the album comes out in May, but if lead single Narrator is any indication, this is a step up from the Sludge/Broadcaster single last year, itself one my favorites of 2020.
Tokyo producer Kentaro Minoura announced his next album 御徒街徒御 a few days ago, and it’ll be out next week on Primordial Void. I was really taken by Oï Les Ox’s Crooner qui coule sous les clous that came out on the label late last year, and the murky clicks of the lead single make me inclined to think I’ll enjoy this one too.
Finance news of late has been dominated by amateur retail investors wreaking havoc via mass investment in so-called ‘meme stocks’—Gamestop, AMC, etc. I feel the hype and impact of this is overblown, I write as Dogecoin spikes again while my 2014-era wallet syncs at a glacial pace, and yet there is more meme infiltration afoot via the name of this release from electro haven CPU Records. This suite of progressive tunes has obvious antecedents in chiptune and other unfashionable genres, yet it still a quality, not-cringe listen. and it is all thanks to the humble computer chip
Chicago footwork mainstay Gant-Man released his latest single Distorted Sensory on Friday, backed up by remixes from Hyperdub head Kode9 and dubstep OG Loefah. Kode9’s acid footwork remix is the standout for me here, which appears to be the start of a strong string of releases from him this year, if there’s more to come following The Jackpot EP I highlighted a few issues ago.
After taking a half year break (who could blame them), Glasgow institution Optimo is back and starting to release all kinds of dance music from around the world. First up is this EP from Guadalajara producer Iñigo Vontier. These have a very nice sense of momentum and twitchy melodic lines to them.
(His latest is decent too)
Signal from LA’s Automatic has been on a fairly heavy repeat since it came out a year and a half ago, and the band has announced a full remix album of the remixes they’ve been releasing on a drip feed since. I haven’t been a big fan of the individual remixes but I will give a spin or two to this in full next month, including the John Dwyer (Thee Oh Sees)—Peanut Butter Wolf—Maral back-to-back on the B-side. They also lead off the Two Synths, A Guitar (And) A Drum Machine post-punk compilation from Soul Jazz later this month, which I find funny since they are a bass guitar, synth and (live) drums trio. It seems fitting considering drummer Lola Dompé is the daughter of Bauhaus drummer Kevin Haskins though.
Rotterdam-based Kessler from Northern Ireland producer released this EP last month, and I am kicking myself for forgetting to add this to my cart on Friday. This release feels like the answer to the question “What if Burial made proper club tracks?”—they would rule.
I was tempted to exclude this one from this issue to make it The Crow’s Nest Issue With No Electronic Music Compilations, but ultimately decided it was worth it. (It’s unlikely the next issue will buck the trend, 2 more are currently on my radar during the next 2 weeks.) At 6 tracks this one is a fairly short snapshot of the blue-loving Berlin label Hot Concept. The names are all somewhat familiar to me and I found Yr Lovely Dead Moon’s self-titled from last year to be fairly pleasant too.
And with that this email is done. As always thank you for reading, I hope you found a new record or two to enjoy within. @embirdened on twitter and also reachable through the buttons and that in here.
I haven’t felt up for venturing out for a walk in this weather recently (sorry) but here’s a picture from one around this time last year for that purpose.
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