Crow’s Nest #16: 062021
Who’s to say we’re not all really pretending we’re retired 70-year old Serbian factory workers
Greetings and welcome to issue #16 of Crow’s Nest. If you’re reading this, thank you for taking the time to open this and do so.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before but … I don’t have a whole lot to write about here. Things continue to get more open and ‘new normal’ here in Chicago. It’s Father’s Day today and I hope you’ve made the requisite phone call if not more for your old man—mine lasted nearly 2 whole minutes—or some other appropriate gesture for the day. If you’re American I hope you took the opportunity to celebrate and reflect on Juneteenth this year. Bandcamp had a not quite Bandcamp Friday as a part of that, and if you’re in a position to do so that would have been a great time to support some Black artists (today’s also a good day for that).
For those not familiar with what “NWW” means to music obsessives, the 1979 debut LP from industrial/avant-garde group Nurse With Wound included a list of ~300 groups that influenced NWW, even if only for one track in their discography. Some are relatively well known, others a bit obscure, many were so unknown for a long time they were considered to be made up. Over time as crate diggers and other heads rediscovered many included acts, the “NWW List” and an expanded followup gained reverence for its taste-making (some might say taste-breaking) qualities, and the list mutated from a tribute or conversation piece to something resembling an actual shopping list.
A compilation or deeper guide to the list was in demand, and in 2019 a first volume was curated by now-sole member Steven Stapleton and released on reissue label Finders Keepers, covering releases from France. The second volume, covering Germany, was released on Friday. I’ve given it a few spins and while the Fritz Müller track is the early highlight, I will be diving deeper into this soon as well, this time for sure, I promise. The compilation thankfully ignores krautrock standard bearers like Faust, CAN, Amon Düül II etc. in favor of the less prominent, which is great as far as I’m concerned. Take a listen to the underbelly of the 60s and 70s underground—see what piques your interest.
If you know my taste you probably saw this one coming from a mile away. I didn’t get to it in time for my last issue since I can’t listen to everything at or before its release date, but yes, there’s more CAN out there. This is the first in a series of noteworthy live recordings from the group, overseen by surviving member Irmin Schmidt. Improvised as always, this album and forthcoming releases may not be edited down to some of the tight numbers on their studio albums, but it’s not like you could fit a 36-minute jam onto one side of vinyl either. I’m looking forward to what comes next from this series—their main discography is also up on Bandcamp as well, if you weren’t aware.
This one’s a tight post-punk album, the kind I tend to casually reach for and spin on occasion—when adding this to my ‘listen through’ master playlist I actually saw that I had liked their previous album and forgotten about it. Well, they definitely have my attention and brain space, again. Now based in Queens after germinating in northern Florida, this album definitely sets them among the crop of reliable NYC post-punk acts for lower-to-mid-tier slots on festival bills and decent nights out at small venues. I think it’s the vocals on this one—singer Rose Vastola strays from the monotone-y, affect-heavy vocal styles predominating today in favor of actual vocal melodies. You forget that those have lost their prominence compared to more ‘flat’ styles.
A lot of my reading as of late has shifted to Substack recently—I’m no longer finding traditional internet websites as compelling than they have been and, for all the hands-ringing about the platform and that, much of said writing is more intriguing to me. One of my favorites of late has been Ted Gioia’s Culture Notes of an Honest Broker. I knew him primarily for his end-of-year lists I would skim but his writing—lots of big picture stuff, interesting historical figures and similar—is pretty compelling, and as someone with a Silicon Valley finance background, his perspective is unique compared to other music writers. I’ve not sprung for the paid subscription yet—still waiting to see how reopening and spending money with friends again impacts my finances—but he is definitely one of my favorites. Recent articles I enjoyed are Does Music Enhance Athletic Performance?, Why Are Investment Funds Obsessed with Old Songs?, and Would You Buy Shares in Your Favorite Musician?
Another good article from Substack is Why should we go back to a job that doesn’t value or pay us enough to live?, from Luke O’Neil’s Welcome To Hell World. (He’s part of the Discontents collective of left-wing writers on Substack, worth a subscribe as well if not the writers within.) In all the recent talk about the labor market—worker shortages, people quitting their jobs, are enhanced unemployment payments to blame for this, etc.—Luke discusses media bias on the issue and how that spin is driving the discourse. ‘Why should we go back’ is primarily a report from Em Cassel asking the workers themselves who’ve quit recently or left the workforce for their perspective. It’s worth the read to see what’s really driving that, and the answer appears not be the economic (dis)incentives others assume.
Finally, now that the workers at different Condé Nast publications have won significant benefits to their compensation and working conditions, I no longer feel as bad for reading the New Yorker (and Pitchfork). Here are a few recent highlights:
-Rebecca Mead on the legacy and notoriety of Nero. You perhaps won’t do a full 180 on your perspective about the Roman emperor (if you have one), but it is some food for thought on legacy-building and how that works.
-Charles Duhigg on SPACs and Chamath Palihapitiya, their biggest champion. A useful primer if you’ve seen the investment term going around but don’t know what it means. Caveat emptor indeed.
-Rachel Monroe on “How to Negotiate with Ransomware Hackers”. Another timely finance/tech article
-Katie Engelhart on robot pets for the elderly
-Nicolas Niarchos on cobalt mining in Congo. Another intriguing article if you’ve heard the term ‘artisanal mining’ and wondered what the hell that could be, or are interested in global supply chains, resource conflicts and the like.
Heart on his sleeve producer Sharp Veins has uploaded a new, lengthy batch of rough-and-off cuts this week. He’s got one of the most unique and compelling sonic palettes around, as far as I’m concerned, and it’s always worth going through these to see what sorts of ideas he’s played with and tossed around before purging them.
It’s an issue of Crow’s Nest so, as you can imagine, here’s the requisite lengthy dance music compilation. Over 3 and a half hours of EBM-rooted dance punk from the 40-ish years of seeing what sounds their synthesizers can get to go thump in the night. There are some familiar names here—Suicide, Ted Milton, The Juan Maclean, Yello—and plenty of new ones up to the present day, including one from curator Curses. Hit play to hear what this wave is about.
Here’s a solid dance music EP from Piezo’s ANSIA label, highlighting some experimental bass/dance music from the Milan label head, a few solid UK producers and previously featured Mexican producer Siete Catorce. Shout-out to the great artwork as well.
Chicago’s DJ Deeon approaches 3 full decades of dance music with this debut EP for Teklife, in time for Bandcamp’s Juneteenth fundraiser last Friday. As you can imagine, this is footwork, dedicated to his late friend DJ Rashad with all proceeds going to his family.
Sheffield label CPU Records has probably the most consistent visual aesthetic around. In fact I’d argue that this works against them considering it offers so little personality and distinction among its electro output—it’s hard to get excited about or even remember, say, #1001001 in their catalog. That being said there’s a bit of a dual warmth and coolness to this latest EP from Carl Finlow’s Silicon Scally alias, trading remix and production duties with Fleck E.S.C. It’s worth a few spins, at least.
Chinabot’s experimental electronic releases run the gamut across the Asian continent and diaspora. There’s a forthcoming compilation for those not yet up to date on the label that should be quite intriguing. 2019’s Kia Sao ກ້ຽວສາວ by Ayankoko remains a highlight for me, and now the French-Laotian composer has released his followup to that on the label. Lots of electroacoustic-adjacent experimental pieces, some footwork-style freakouts, glitch too, it’s another excellent grab-bag to dig into.
Poland’s contemporary classical scene is easily among the world’s best at the moment, though my ear has not paid as close attention as I should since the Instant Classic label went on hiatus last year and The Quietus stopped covering it as closely. That being said, this album from sneaky jesus, a Wrocław-based jazz quartet with a strong breakbeat influence per the liner notes, deserves your attention. While the side-plus final track ‘Minneapolis — Police Game’ took last year’s BLM protests as its starting point, the track goes further and touches on progressive protests closer to home for the group. (It also has among the best use of police sirens in a song I can recall, and that’s a massive pet peeve of mine.) The ‘short’ cuts at the beginning don’t slouch either. I’m not one to touch on if this is a top-tier historic protest record like many predecessors in the genre, but you’d be foolish to look away from this.
London quartet Qlowski have released their latest album on London-via-Bologna label Maple Death, a favorite of mine. These is fairly longing indie rock—not exactly shoegaze, not taut enough for post-punk necessarily—lodging a feminist critique at the present day, as you imagine from the album title. I was talking about forest-tasting beverages with a friend recently and this certainly seems like the sonic equivalent. Strong notes of the Raincoats and earlier Japanese Breakfast are present, I reckon.
And that’s that for this issue. As always, if you’re reading this, thank you for taking the time to do so and I hope you found something within that you enjoyed. On a walk this week I believe I spotted Monty, one of the famous piping plovers who’ve come to nest on Montrose Beach as of late in the city. So that was cool. Take it easy in the meantime.