Hello there and welcome to issue #26 of Crow’s Nest. New year, new numeric patterns in the date abbreviation, (mostly) the same Crow’s Nest as before. Hopefully you’ve been having an enjoyable holiday season and, if not, that that hasn’t been too bad. As always, if you’re reading this, thank you for doing so, I hope you find something within that you enjoy.
A special thank you and welcome to all the new readers who are here after Bandcloud called Crow’s Nest one of his ‘Most enjoyable email newsletters’ of 2021. As I’ve told Aidan before multiple times, Bandcloud was one of the newsletters I was reading that made me go ‘surely I can do something a fraction as good as this if I gave it a try’ and, well, here we are. I greatly appreciate that, and hope to continue to live up to the ‘unshackled’ part of his description. It’s certainly a word that can be used to describe Crow’s Nest.
For those of you unfamiliar with Bandcloud, it’s “a weekly roundup of releases on Bandcamp and Soundcloud selected and delivered by Aidan. Mostly house/techno/ambient/drone.” If that sounds like something you could use more of in your life, check out the signup below:
Anyway let’s get to it. No starting essay this issue as my wintry break from the emails job has been less ambitious than anticipated, though I do have a lengthy non-music review in this one. So it goes, the topic I’m anticipating should remain relevant as long as there are ape JPGs getting stolen and similar things afoot. At least we’ve got snow cover now, finally, here in Chicago.
While I listen to a lot of dance music and (broadly) post-punk-y guitar music, I’ve noticed that much more of my repeat listens are of the latter than the former. Thinking about it, I feel that the latter is often more strongly melodic and, to me, memorable than most of the best technically-well-executed dance music stuff. That’s probably a result of my listening habits, no doubt. That being said, my top pick for this issue is a dance music EP on Delsin Records that has to be the best I’ve heard in quite some time. If I were a DJ of some sort (and that’s probably the next thing I should do once I find the initiative to do it), this slab of acid techno would be a top pick to go into my (digital or physical) crate and would take quite some time to remove. Likely a permanent spot in there.
Lost Trax are, I’m told, an anonymous group of Amsterdam-based producers with experience going back into the last millennium. That shows: the skills on display here have to be some of the most finely tuned in the genre. Opener ‘Bring You Back’’s hook is razor sharp—best of luck not waving an arm around on the 2—like Gunnar Haslam’s ‘Versione Antica’ quantized into a conventional pattern. The countermelodic flourishes and SAW II-like synth washes keep things interesting and prevent things from ever settling down even if the aforementioned hook could fade into the background. ‘In Pursuit’ is dominated by the 303 squelches playing out against the background haze and other well-tuned techno conventions, and helps give the whole EP a quasi-conceptual focus on some sort of interstellar pursuit/rescue mission—classic sci-fi stuff for the genre. The titular closing track really lets things rip with a screwball synth line over minimal accompaniment. Really, you don’t want to miss this one and not spin it at least until Bandcamp prompts you to pony up for it.
While my rule of thumb is to avoid including the same artist in back-to-back Crow’s Nest issues, this is also my publication and rules so whatever. Especially considering the amount of time I’ve spent listening to Uranium Club since the last issue, it wouldn’t be fair to skip them. I’ve definitely fallen heads over heels for this Minneapolis post-punk group, an especially taut wire of an act throughout their discography.
Debut album Human Exploration remains my favorite of theirs, with ‘Black Semen’ and particularly the resolute shovelers ‘The Misadventures of Prissy Krissy’ (which the band seems especially guarded about) and ‘Sun Belt’ rocketing up my mentally unranked list of all-time favorite songs, the switch-ups and longwinded explorations remaining on repeat. I wound up replacing my Dry Cleaning-inspired Twitter name with a lyric off of All Of Them Naturals recently. A live LP recorded in northern Italy sounds quite close to the studio recordings, while at times bringing the intensity up to ‘wrestle each other in the pit’ levels. Hopefully more is on the horizon from them soon but I’ll still be spending plenty of time with them regardless.
Thinking of what to write here, I realized that Shall Not Fade, Time Is Now and the other sub labels in that UK garage-centric orbit always have their vinyl ready alongside the digital for their releases, and at a furious pace too! Do they … have the capital to finance their small runs and sit on announcing upcoming releases until the wax is just about ready? Anyway, while much of their output are one-and-done listens for me, this EP from label staple YOSH has caught my ear much more than a usual one. It’s more minimal than other label output, dubbier than most UKG and ever-so-slightly more aggressive. I imagine skilled DJs will get a lot of use out of these tracks if only to build up to more iconic heat and drops.
Towards the end of undergrad my research interests drifted towards more esoteric academic theory, particularly ‘experiential’ aspects and ways of perceiving phenomena. As relates to sound and music, I began thinking critically about the experience of listening to music and how different things impact that. Diligent readers likely know my tendency to note that I particularly enjoy certain things in Crow’s Nest under the influence of cannabis, which is a by-product of that research, I guess, but initially this focus took on the impact of alcohol consumption and music, particularly as it relates to the concert-going experience. Given some familial dispositions to unhealthy alcohol consumption patterns, I remain curious and concerned about alcohol and shows, what impact that has on me, my body both in the moment and in aggregate, ‘the experience’, whether that’s all problematic, etc.
I suppose that’s a weird way to start talking about Ritual’s zero-proof Whiskey Alternative, but that was on my mind and compelled me to put it in my basket when I spotted it in Binny’s recently. I came away curious about the product after reading about it a recent neurotic New Yorker article on recent developments in sober drinking, and for less than $25 for a standard bottle, it surely couldn’t be worse than much of the drinking I’ve done with the real deal. Could it?
First impressions are that, yeah, it’s an ‘alternative’ to the spirit, not a substitute or 0% ABV version like non-alcoholic beers are. It certainly smells like booze, but as that aforementioned article notes Ritual prioritizes the ‘bite’, that first sip or the, you know, ritual(s) of drinking over an authentic taste replication. Measuring out a pour for one of my standard go-to drinks, it’s more viscous than any standard spirit I’ve encountered, and can pool in the bottom of a glass and not mix in a way I’ve never seen with proper bourbon. While the bottle lists 10 flavor notes you’d definitely find elsewhere, taste-wise the end product lacks much of the lower-end of whiskey—the deeper, darker, stronger, not necessarily aromatic ones that distinguish booze from non-alcoholic foods and drinks—you get with a standard drink, and leaves a much sweeter overall taste than anything that will impair your cognition. The New Yorker writer couldn’t bring himself to taste it after giving it a smell, but had he it would have made for an interesting observation on how much he thought it resembled real whiskey and where he was at in managing his recovery from alcohol. The end result with Ritual, in my estimation, is less drinking something pretty darn close to whiskey and more drinking something that’s Definitely Not Whiskey, and closer to low-calorie, watered down maple syrup.
Thinking about it more and reading the label closely, I struggle to see who or what, necessarily, Ritual Whiskey Alternative is supposed to be for. While there’s definitely places and functions for 0.0 beer, I’m not sure what you might do with non-alcoholic spirits like this. You don’t want to shoot this, and sipping it straight or on the rocks only highlights its flaws, but to what end this could work in mocktails isn’t clear to me at this time. The packaging copy suggests you could utilize this to ‘hack your productivity’, including for virility/fertility reasons, in that annoying kidult Millennial cadence I thought we all agreed to bin during the pandemic. But to that point, it seems to me that the ‘rituals’ you're meant to improve upon in the harder/better/faster/stronger sense with this would benefit way more from an actual change in lifestyle patterns than just subbing out the alcohol for a less harmful alternative. And if we’re going to try to imitate alcohol, why not go beyond that and try creating brand new ingredients and drinks well outside the parameters, flavors and tastes imposed we’ve known previously?
And yet … in imitating the ‘bite’ of booze, there’s definitely something to this. Pouring a little Ritual into the end of my lunchtime soda, as I type I’m feeling a bit of a buzz from it despite the explicit knowledge that that should be bullshit. The placebo effect is real with this; I stayed up later after a few drinks with these despite knowing better. And there is a bit of a transgressive, ‘getting away with it’ feeling of having the best of both worlds, so to speak, in making drinks with this stuff, taste details aside. I’m still skeptical of the premise here though in no way would I want to discourage its existence or future improvements. I’m intrigued by the idea of developing a better, more healthy relationship to alcohol and reductions in its consumption, and look forward to seeing where this goes. I’m just about out and Ritual’s rum, gin and tequila substitutes are on my radar (more the first 2 in all honesty though).
East African producer Slikback burst out of the gate in 2018 with appearances at Nyege Nyege Fest and Unsound, recordings from the latter being so jaw-droppingly good I’m still chasing the highs of them years later. He’s moved into a darker, more trap-influenced palette since, keeping up a prolific stream of self-released work and numerous collaborations with other underground figures. A recent highlight was this EP with Shapednoise, bringing in some bleeding-edge sound design on top of everything. If that weren’t enough in the time between that release and me writing this, he’s dropped the lead single to his next collaborative album—with Giant Swan.
Eclectic jazz had another banner year in 2021, particularly where conventional instrumentation and electronics met, and yet this album from prolific collaborator and synthesist King Britt and drumming kingpin Tyshawn Sorey fell under the radar amongst the circles I check. That’s unfortunate considering the level of talent on display. I’m not much for modular synths like Britt uses here, and Sorey is definitely a ‘heard of them but not listened to’ name for me, and yet the combo makes this album an excellent, surprising listen throughout. Give it a spin for sure if you’ve not already.
Wanda Group got banned from Twitter, yet again. It’s not clear who or what, specifically, led to it this time—prime suspects include the Sleaford Mods’ shouter’s hurt feelings, corporate dance music Tories, and those not pumped by his other opinions—but in response he released this composition to his Bandcamp. Most likely made on a $5 phone app sampler, the textures of this sound art—and it is sound art, not ambient music, as he might have lit you up on the bird app for calling it—are downright impressive and mostly free of his singing (which has always been a difficult sell for me). Who knows if, when, and how he will reemerge from the Huddersfield muck between shifts at “PUB JOB”, but I’ll once again brace myself for it before diving back in.
I came across this dark funk track from 1979 on one of the handful of playlists I regularly listen through. I thought I had little to say beyond ‘lives up to its name’ but then I came across this blog post filling in some details. Upheaval formed in a Wisconsin prison, and made only a handful of live recordings and 45 RPM singles before fading into the ether. If I were an IRL crate digger I imagine finding one of the possibly only 25 original copies of this would be the sort of thing to keep me going with the hobby.
Souk is a new band from Japan, with this being their debut release. Google Translate wasn’t too much help in deciphering their press but listening to it, it’s no wave, post-punk, hardcore, ‘Wire is our Beatles’ stuff that combines some of the best longstanding underground guitar music tropes under their belts. ‘(Don’t) bother me’, ‘Kyohaku kannen’, and ‘Initiative’ in particular leave me excited to see what and where this group goes on subsequent releases. Hopefully there have many more fans to come from this.
Last issue I blurbed a sampler of slowed-down disco edits, mentioning a 33-track compilation of ‘yacht disco’ dubs was in my listening queue. It was fine but the only real standout was this track. That is, a yacht disco dub of ‘Fly Like an Eagle’, the 1996 Seal re-interpretation of a 1973 Steve Miller Band song, that went to the Billboard Top Ten, as a part of the Space Jam soundtrack, featuring D’Angelo on keyboards. I’m sorry if I’ve now burdened you with knowledge you did not need or want to know.
With parts of my listening queue still backed up into October (if you haven’t noticed), I’m finding myself frequently playing stuff with even less of the minimal context and background I usually have for my music. Case in point, I have no recollection of where or when I got tipped off to French producer Ronan’s Reflections on Intrinsic Value, yet giving it a few goes I’m glad past me told future me to check this out. It’s very UK hardcore-indebted while also pulling from some other grittier UK influences. If you liked Hoavi’s Invariant from a few issues ago, surely you’ll like this record as well.
Local post-punk group Deeper found their recent European tour end in a wreck after multiple positive COVID cases cancelled the end of the tour, with proceeds lost on hotel quarantines and rebooked holiday flights. Fans both here and across the pond quickly helped them reach their GoFundMe goal, but obviously they’re probably still reeling from that (like most other bands tbh). Blurbing Auto-Pain always got cut for space when I considered including it previously, but I had ‘Willing’ stuck in my head right around that time. Consider giving the record a spin and/or purchase if you’ve not already.
Toronto drone metal group New Age Doom recruited Lee “Scratch” Perry as lead vocalist for their most recent LP. Lee passed away just before its release (RIP), making it one of his last recordings at this time. It’s, as you might expect, a dark excursion, not necessarily a Blackstar-level outro from the Jamaican legend but a fitting cap on his career. I especially like the textures in the percussion on this one.
Roy Montgomery, the legendary Kiwi underground guitarist/composer, has remained active going into his 5th decade as a recording artist. In 2020 he announced 4 new albums of work for the upcoming year, and while the 4th has yet to arrive, the 3rd, Rhymes of Chance, is well worth your time. His spectrally droning guitars and synths sound heavenly, particularly where collaborator Emma Johnston takes the lead vocals. It’s very easy to see why Grouper has collaborated with him and even reissued some of his early work.
Not the brightest, luminescently, work Livity Sound has released, but considering dubstep survivor Beneath is at the helm here, that’s understandable. Deep, dubby, minimal stuff—I can see these tracks doing damage on a dance floor alongside the best time-dilatory, halftime sub-bass around.
I’ve never been a huge fan or listener of Marissa Nadler despite her being on my radar for years. Spectral singer-songwriter/folk music often doesn’t do much for me, but this record, her 9th, has gotten a few spins recently. I find it resonantly haunting in a good way, with collaborators including Mary Lattimore and Simon Raymonde fleshing this out further.
RVNG Intl. artist Sign Libra dropped off this positively Baroque-sounding Eurhytmics cover yesterday morning to ring in the new year. It’s very obviously quite premature to say so at this point, but it’s definitely my song of the year so far. (We’ll see if that lasts the month.) Terms like orchestral, lush, and ‘ambient pop’ get thrown around a lot to describe plenty of music as of late but trust me, not only do these descriptors apply here, the degree of difference between this and most of those is quite stark. Phenomenal stuff.
And with that, I’m calling it an issue. If you’re here, thank you for reading Crow’s Nest, I hope you found something within to enjoy. This year is starting off a bit like the previous one, though hopefully things don’t turn out as worse as they have been previously. I’m @embirdened if you’re on Twitter, if not, until the next time, take it easy and stay safe.