Crow’s Nest 51: 043023
Same As It Ever Was? Same As It Ever Was
What’s this? Not only 1 Crow’s Nest issue in April, but a second in that same April?! Well, whatever the reason for that, thank you and welcome to Crow’s Nest issue #51. I err don’t have much else to write about other than music and the usual suspects in my life, and assuming you’d rather not hear about the latter, let’s get to the former.
But first, again, I am trying out Substack’s Notes feature to blurb some stuff as it comes onto my radar and I find the capacity to whip out my phone and write them up. You can find those in the Substack app and at https://substack.com/notes. I intend to re-feature many of the inclusions here—a couple will likely wind up in future issues once the full respective releases come out—but, for those so inclined, check there as well for the occasional musical morsel.
The SEO-ification of everything—particularly restaurant names—is an understandable yet unfortunate reality of the modern world. If you judge albums by their titles, don’t be mistaken: you’re getting exactly what it says on the label here. This is no 20 Jazz Funk Greats fakeout—no JPEGMAFIAs will be inspired to pivot their sound after a listen—but this is well worth the time and discovery nonetheless. Co-produced by Dizzy Gillespie's cousin Boo Frazier, this is a phenomenal slab of instrumental jazz-funk. Mostly covers, Brockington's original composition holds its own here and has seemingly a touch of CAN to it, which you know I like. I especially love Willie Bear's thick bass in addition to Brockington's own organ work. Little wonder the bandleader here found himself in Larry Young's Fuel. The notes on the page end with "You do need this!" and there's zero reason to argue with BBE on that call.
Avalon Emerson has never been fully committed to producing club music—she opened her DJ-Kicks mix with a Magnetic Fields cover, and whatever particular palette you define it as, ‘colorful’ is a useful contrastive descriptor to her peers—and here she makes a break into synth pop on her debut album. Producer Bullion—of ‘Blue Pedro’ fame, last seen working with Carly Rae Jepsen—helps immensely with this transition that also comes with the thematic territory of dropping ‘young’ before ‘adulthood’. The one-two punch of ‘Hot Evening’’s mood-lighting UKG and the reconnecting questions guiding 'Karaoke Song’ make the second half of the record stand out especially to me, and will likely be a frequent revisit as evenings continue to lengthen over the next couple months.
My continued insistence on listening through Hieroglyphic Being’s seemingly never-ending stream of archival releases has paid off again, at manageable cost. This collection, dating back to 2000-2002 and initially released in 2009, sees HB strip down his hardware house sound down to the studs, at many points only deploying a handful of elements while exploring where melodic lines and other mutations end up. This kind of stuff is usually only interesting to the party editing it down into something more conventional, but it works as a listening experience left on in the background, letting your attention drift until something re-grabs your attention and you go ‘Damn’. A nice addition to the experimental side of his catalog.
I first listened to this when it came out 2 years ago and told myself I'd listen to it in full later, and ... here we are, after a cassette pressing was announced. This is some brutal, chunky, raw experimental electronic carnage you wouldn't wanna see in the daytime. Much of it makes L.I.E.S. releases seem mainstream by comparison. I've not got much of an ear for jungle and d'n'b but man, ‘Moderator’ is an utterly filthy piece of work for any 'heads needing a rinse:
As the war in Ukraine drags on—they’ve seemingly been fighting over Bakhmut longer than everything else that’s occurred—the international arts community continues to support Ukrainian creatives. That’s likely the reason one-man post-punk band Morwan has wound up on Feel It, but this album deserves such a release on its own merit. As a monolingual Anglo, I can’t really assess the lyrics but assume they are an expressionist take on the war, as noted. Comparisons to other cold-wave indebted Eastern Europeans seem a bit too obvious, though tracks like ‘Відчуваєш’ and ‘Тополі’ hit hard at any time.
There isn’t a whole lot of info I can easily find on French band Cathedrale online—I know 1) they’re from Toulouse, 2) uhhhhh—so it seems they’re committed more to the second half of this album’s title than the first. In the way hearing a non-native speaker can introduce intriguing turns of phrases into otherwise unremarkable statements, the band’s take on post-punk comes in slightly askew in a refreshing manner. Clocking in at 4 minutes, the longest track manages to close on what sounds like smeared flute. I can definitely sympathize with putting off exercising in favor of some couch time like on ‘Maybe Tomorrow’. (And I will exercise tomorrow unless my stomach pains mutate into full-on food poisoning.) It’s not as dark as other post-punk experimenters like Drahla or as aggressive as peers like VISION 3D—the garage/punk rock influence and palette/outlook that being on a label called Howlin Banana implies have their effect—but if you’re not yet tired of the sound or wondering what eggs have to do with punk, this is well worth putting on repeat.
Let’s do a short-release alt/experimental roundup here:
Here's a tightly wound debut single from a promising group from Leeds. Guitar/bass/drums setup, namechecking D. Boon in their release notes, songs that move at a stately pace with a satisfying crunch to them. The closest comparison that springs to mind is Deerhoof reborn as a noise-rock outfit.
I’ve never gotten a great grasp on local experimental trio Aitis Band despite having seen them live like 4-5 times. They operate in a liminal zone between non-institutional art gallery performances and opening for eclectically minded indie rockers, which is about as good of a description as I can muster as someone firmly in the anti-Dean Blunt camp. This piece is their response to a track on Mort Garson’s 1976 underground classic Plantasia, composed for the album’s annual celebration at the Garfield Park Conservatory. (Pro tip: do not go to that and instead take in the conservatory—during the daytime—when it’s not full of hipster tryhards.) They bill it as a ‘hypnotic intervention’ and, while I have little experience with hypnosis proper, perhaps it’s worth the suggestion to listen and see if you like this yourself.
cumgirl8 have signed to 4AD—yes, really, I know—and released this single to celebrate that. As much as the so-called ‘indie sleaze’ revival might be a media phenomena as Gen Z blossoms into full adulthood and undercover the wonders of dance-punk and brings back everything that went on in Meet Me In The Bathroom, cg8 show that there’s more material to be mined out of that era.
Local band hydrodate give off a bummer rock vibe on this single on Fire Talk’s Open Tab series. I especially like the fuzzy synth lines here. They’re on my radar to check out the next time I see them pop up on a local bill.
And let’s do a short-release dance music roundup here:
Italian producer Piezo and his ANSIA label are always worth a spin, with this EP of leftfield contemporary cuts no exception. I can confirm ‘Sensory Overdraw’’s twitchy post-UKG shuffle can keep a dance floor moving as though all that’s going on in it isn’t, and the rest don’t slack even if you’re at home.
Longtime veteran producer Al Wootton has been a name in my periphery for a while, but his recent run of material has made me excited for whatever comes out with his name attached. (I’ve not gotten to his collaborative album with drummer Valentina Magalatti and others, out this week as Holy Tongue—yet.) This 2-track release on Optimo are ‘discoid dub’—with plenty of effects, semi-tribal percussion, and ecstatic Hindustani vocal samples to tear up any dance floor worth heading out for. I don’t believe Madeline or Axel Boman played this material on Friday at smartbar, but it easily could have slotted in those sets and would have made a fantastic night even better, for sure.
Look away for a short while and it’s likely Swedish producer Peder Mannerfelt will have another leftfield release out under his belt. This EP, out on Nervous Horizon, supplies his take on the label’s percussion-heavy sound, easily demonstrating why it’s always worth keeping an eye on him. His recent remix of Nikki Nair’s ‘Can’t Wait’ should also be cropping up on the most happening speaker systems as we hit peak dance music season.
I try not to be a 90s nostalgic when it comes to dance music—listen to the 4 previous releases and just try to tell me the 90s were better without reservation—but it’s hard to listen to the old stuff and not think that a lot of contemporary material would work a little better if there were one or two more elements in motion with them. Case in point, this 2-tracker dating to ’95 Tresor first reissued a decade ago, and posted to their Bandcamp earlier this year. I’m probably too much a product of Chicago to ever relocate to Motor City, but I’ve sure got their back when the world is against them.
For more evidence of Tresor’s continued relevance, check out their just-released yet compilation of contemporary experimental work:
An understated moment of quiet dance floor bliss. Facta further dials things down on his B-side dub.
Kompakt is well known for its ambient series and endless stream of German techno, and their identity is so solid I can practically summon the boxy kick drum sound populating many of their releases at will by this point. I’m not sure how much longevity this release will have on my radar, but it’s a nice one that hearkens back to earlier synth pop per Philip Sherburne’s recently launched Futurism Restated newsletter (dedicated to all the releases he likes but doesn’t get to write about elsewhere, which will surely be an indispensable fountain of discovery within the next few months).
Polish tape label Outlines, who release experimental music based on the rhythmic structure of footwork, released this tape from Canadian experimentalist Automatisme. Got all that? I particularly like the A-side, which spends much of its ever mutating time sounding like Huerco S. attempting the genre. (He stayed away from footwork last week at Podlasie Club, preventing something truly full-circle from emerging.) Side B has things build into a speedy washed-out haze of wash effects. Give it a spin for yourself and see where it takes you.
Berghain-minimalism might be on the way out, finally, in techno, though Lexington, Kentucky producer Ellie Herring’s recent single has a satisfying stomp and clock-tick syncopation to it. Nothing revolutionary but a reminder in a reasonable dose of the style’s power.
Home Entertainment are a local group I caught on a whim (and a pair of free tickets) early this year as an opener to a different show, and their mixture of post-punk and emo caught me by surprise and won me over. I still find it weird that for the many stylistic similarities between the 2 genres, they’re often in each other’s own worlds. They released this single on Friday, which is yet another demonstration of what a fruitful lane they’ve stumbled upon that others really ought to join them in. I’ll settle for more from them though.
And that’s it for issue #51 of Crow’s Nest. We are less than 12 hours away from the end of the detestable month of April, which is something to be thankful for in my book. Hopefully you’ve found something within to enjoy as well. See you again in a few weeks, hopefully.
The back half of that Aitis Band track reminds me of when I would take "two of everything" and just check out for awhile. It's a nice ride to whatever dimension you want to get to. Is the rest of their stuff in this same vein?