Hey everyone, welcome to issue #57 of Crow’s Nest. As always, thank you for opening, I hope there’s something within you enjoy. Unfortunately my allergies have been kicking my ass the past few days—I quite literally blew through a full box of tissues in ~36 hours of being awake recently—but as this weekend is the least lively of this month for me, I’m kinda fine with that? I think I’ve mostly moved on from the snot phase to the headache one now, so hopefully the worst is past.
Anyway, loads of good stuff in this issue, I think this is curated down from like 40 or so things from the past 3 weeks I’ve felt could be included, so there’s plenty inside. Some blurbs will no doubt be shorter than usual too, I’m taking some inspiration from some friends who did impromptu tasting notes on drinks recently to be less verbose with some of these. It’s also going to be the last issue for at least 3 weeks, doing things next weekend and the weekend after and won’t get to writing up a full one of these until after.
Before we get to the essay of this issue, a happy ‘new Burial photo’ to those who celebrate:
Towards the end of my Fall 2015 semester abroad at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, some of the local students had a question for myself and the Australians doing the same: why were we so interested in cannabis? To them, the drug was passé, something they tried once or twice when they were younger, which they thought was whatever, something the tourists and other weirdos were fixated on. I don’t recall any response my mates or I gave, but the episode highlights the fact that, no matter where you might be or its legality, strongly identifying with cannabis, consuming cannabis and/or cannabis culture is kind of embarrassing. There’s nothing wrong with doing it responsibly, but prominently identifying with smoking weed and making it a personality trait remains something that feels immature and childish.
I thought about this while attending a day of Cultivate, a one-stage mini music festival dedicated to weed culture that took place just beyond the yuppie playground of the West Loop, in the Green Line-adjacent industrial corridor generating many of the intoxicants consumed in that neighborhood. While THC proper was not for sale on the grounds, nor was open consumption technically allowed—the latter is first happening this weekend at The Miracle in Mundelein—the Reggies [music venue] bus operated as a shuttle to and from Dispensary 33 for attendees, and several of the dozen+ cannabis-associated vendors/sponsors had Delta 8, HHC, THCA and other cannabinoid products for sale on the grounds, including CBD-infused non-alcoholic ‘Riot Pop’ at all bars. Having first noted that cannabis brands and music promoters have been manifesting this future since large-scale festivals resumed in 2021, I’m really only surprised it’s taken this long to get here.
I wouldn’t describe any of the 3 days of Cultivate as something I’d pay for, music-wise; I went as I won a pair of free tickets last minute, I figured it would be a decent enough day if only to cross off some acts to catch while they’re around, and I didn’t have other plans that day. Despite tickets being reasonably priced for what was on offer, the grounds could be described as neither empty nor full: it never felt crowded even close to the stage, and I came across multiple BOGO ticket offers from local advertising partners in the days leading up to the event. Inaugural editions of festivals are notoriously rough to put on, and I’m sure Riot Fest, the main event producer, was thrilled about the last-ditch efforts to get people in.
At a couple friends’ recommendation I got there to see Afroman, who went on 20 minutes late and was cut off after ~5-6 songs. A friend who joined me later asked if this included ‘Because I Got High’ and ‘Colt .45’, assuring me I missed nothing of value after confirming. Ska-funk institution Fishbone played next; ska isn’t my thing and I found it hard to follow some of their internal logic, but I have to respect unapologetically weird, Black artists, and they seemed to have the strongest merchandise sales among the crowd. Filing them under ‘Interesting’ and ‘Not for me’ and ticking that box off my list.
What was the most ‘me shit’ there was heavy psych act Earthless: durational, repetitive and slowly mutating songs, the kind of mind-melting soloing to make you go ‘Woah’ while stoned, what’s not to like? I’m not sure I’ll be digging into their back catalog, but I will certainly keep an eye out for future gigs. Julian Marley and the Uprising played next and put on a wonderful show. Reggae, once again not entirely my thing, though Julian’s rhythm section was tight and felt dubby at times, which I always appreciate. As I noted to my friend, it wasn’t anything I would get excited to see, but it was a very good set, and now I can say I’ve seen at least one of Bob’s children live.
Vic Mensa made a brief appearance to plug his 93 Boyz cannabis brand, doing a song explicitly about how great his weed is and how others’ is reggie. It felt like a deeper integration of music with product than previous advertising jingles—did 50 Cent ever do a song about VitaminWater?—but I also don’t know who does purchase Vic’s music, so I can’t knock his (legal) hustle. Headliner GZA closed things out with songs from Liquid Swords, backed by the Phunky Nomads, a band led by ODB’s older brother behind the kit. For me, the performance left a bit to be desired, though admittedly you know that I don’t have an ear for rap, have little attachment to GZA or Wu-Tang Clan as a whole, and rarely feel satisfied by rap performances, so take that with a grain of salt. My friend split early to catch Arctic Monkeys nearby at the United Center, and I don’t blame him for that.
Overall, Earthless and Julian Marley made me satisfied to attend Cultivate for the low price of free (minus drinks and food and some HHC prerolls I picked up between sets). There are plenty of lackluster parking lot festivals around, and had I spent more than one day attending I certainly would have filed this one into the ‘not for me’ category. That being said, I feel compelled to point out that Julian Marley spent some time noting campaigns to legalize cannabis stretch back to the 50s, and possession can still be a 2-year jail sentence in Jamaica. Vic Mensa got a significant response from the crowd when he asked if anyone in the crowd had been imprisoned (or knew someone who is/was) for cannabis-related crimes, also noting that 93 Boyz is the first Black owned cannabis brand in Chicago. For my gripes about the crowd and those most visibly associated with cannabis culture, it is folks like Marley and Mensa who have been most disproportionately, negatively impacted by the War on Drugs and other anti-cannabis laws and regimes, and they deserve to be at the forefront of defining what this culture is, could be, and materially benefitting from it. That I can claim the current results are cringe and immature comes from a massive position of privilege, especially considering what I’ve gotten away with regarding … uh … ah shit man, I’ve been rambling again, haven’t I? Sorry, let’s keep this moving and put on some tunes then.
Yellow Swans called it a day a bit before I started getting into music, but have managed to preoccupy an outsized space in my head as a reference, probably because they’re one of the most memorable and essential noise acts I can think of. Like many groups, they dug through their archives and put up a decent chunk of their discography on Bandcamp during the pandemic, which led them to reform for at least a few shows. (Fingers crossed for a Chicago one soon.) For the latest Bandcamp Friday, they put out a few more archival releases, including the last remaining official album of theirs, which I liked most out of the bunch. I imagine you know whether this might be for you or not, and under what conditions for that:
Similar to Yellow Swans, Emeralds emerged out of the noise underground of the 2000s and called it a day before I started getting into music, but have more prominently re-emerged with this deluxe reissue out via Ghostly. Does It Look Like I’m Here? is another stuck-in-my-head title like Bring The Neon War Home, if that helps explain things. It’s not noise but rather kosmiche-inspired stuff, very much more energetic ambient. I don’t have any real attachment to the original album but this reissue includes a nearly half-hour long ‘rehearsal’ version of ‘Genetic’, and ends with a pair of highly-detailed remixes by Daphni, who I associate more with groove than sound design. It’s all very much worth getting lost in it or high as all hell to like its creators.
By my count this is the 4th Shackleton record out this year, which is impressive even considering how prolific he’s been over the past few years. Teaming up with Polish contemporary classical figurehead Wacław Zimpel again, you’ve got the mystical, longform, psychedelic drone work Shackleton has been moving toward for a while, well beyond his earlier tribal dubstep work. Indian Classical singer Siddhartha Belmannu delivers a phenomenal performance throughout as well. I changed vapes recently and my allergies have made it difficult to assess how high I have been getting the past few days, but this is still phenomenal in any state, and the surprising (for Shackleton) instrumental choice in ‘Everything Must Decay’ especially blew me away.
Another local post-punk group that occupies a dark, moody corner of the genre. Think Protomartyr crossed with something even more tense than them which I can’t place in my ear at this time. Hat tip to Gossip Wolf for putting this onto my radar, I’ll keep an eye out for an upcoming show from them in the meantime.
If you think this is the only post-punk group the Chicago Reader has highlighted recently that I’m into, you’re mistaken. Dead Lucid happen to throw in a fair amount of old-school psych rock into their sound, and frontman Jon Grammer sounds a bit like a cross between a street preacher and motivational speaker here. That style and it being clear and prominent in the mix is definitely different than many others in either genre. They play the Bottle for free tomorrow and if I’m feeling better then, you bet your ass I’ll be there.
Here’s the one that inspired the tasting notes stuff. Corker: from Cincinnati, ensconced in that city’s post-punk scene, muscular, dark but not too heavy, various rock genres at different points, probably the top thing I listened to last Bandcamp Friday. Check ‘em out:
It's easy for me to describe a post-punk band as remixing certain elements of the sound in new ways without necessarily describing much. Iguana Death Cult definitely fall into this category. So, let's see, they're a literary, contemporary malaise-describing Dutch group, fond of psychedelic touches, motorik grooves, saxophone and synth accents. The overall effect is like the earlier A. Savage-led Parquet Courts material filtered through the past decade's British and Chicagoan post-punk sounds which actually could potentially bring some folks to dance unlike the former group's aspirations. Will anyone do so at Beat Kitchen on the 4th though? There's only one way to find out.
Another tasting notes/Notes app composition. “Automatic-esque with a stronger no wave liminality, some minimal wave influence without the motorikityness”. From Australia.
Tasting notes on this Montreal post-punk group: “At times a brattier synth pop take of La Femme, other times post-punk with neon-bright coldwave flourishes”. Exactly the sort of art-rock experimentalism you’d expect from such a group.
This one’s note is but 4 words: Broadcast meets Jane Weaver. Need I say more? Well, I can’t say anything about member Al Roberts’ work as Jim Noir, but Leonore Wheatley also sings in The Soundcarriers (who I consider to be one of the most underrated groups around) and International Teachers of Pop. Does it get more New Weird British than this?
If you’ve never really been able to get into Brazilian music because much of its airy lightness doesn’t do much for you, the contemporary listener needing plenty of bass, this one might do the trick for you. Sort of. Domenico Lancellotti’s guitar provides everything you’d expect from a samba record, while Ricardo Dias Gomes uses an arsenal of Russian designed synths to add textural complexity for a unique take on the genre. Both are well-regarded within Brazilian music as the liner notes make clear, and together the pair provide, maybe not exactly the future of Brazilian music but a blueprint for future music not wedded to Western dominance. ‘Diga’ is the highlight of this approach for me. There’s been a lot of discussion in the geopolitical sphere about BRICS and what it means for the developing multipolar world, and this seems like a soundtrack to that, in a sense. Regardless, it’s fascinating material.
Notes for this one: Atmospheric abstract art-work: deconstructed trip-hop; that eerie, low-lit, semi-improv narrative lastname-lastname duo set that opens a bill which you politely bear through; maybe Zoomer HTRK/Dean Blunt/Tirzah etc. Not at all anything you’d expect from Pavel Milyakov, though definitely something you would from perila who’s the other half of this pair.
The British working class sound artist best known for his work as Wanda Group released this piece just a little bit before the last Bandcamp Friday. It kind of crawls across a vaporwave-y series of soundscapes. It’s always intriguing to hear what he gets up to and consider it from a non-music perspective as well.
When a record emphasizes sound design and academic wordplay over the musical contents within, I tend to roll my eyes a bit and imagine it would work better in a European art gallery. But when it’s on raster … I’m usually down for it, which is where I’m at with this one. It doesn’t fully beat the accusations above but nonetheless I do find myself having spun it a few times since first coming onto my radar, which is more than I can say with much of this sort of experimental stuff.
Exael is one of many producers who are well-regarded in certain parts of the internet underground who I’ll be damned if I ever encounter another person who likes them irl. My notes for this say “contemporary Leslie Winer over modern Huerco S./west mineral ambient bed + beatwork”, so if that intrigues you, you know what to do:
Capital-a Anxious dance music here. Probably took a few points off my FitBit’s stress management score for the day spinning this while dealing with some crap at work (or having a lack of crap to work on at work, maybe). A bunch of weird, off-beat squiggles, sirens and all that, like a bunch of kids going crazy during playtime. Which is to say this probably isn’t recommended for home listening but were it to come on when you absolutely need to dance something off, it might kill. So it gets an ‘oh hell yeah’ in that regard.
Portuguese underground mainstay Photonz is always worth spinning, whether going long for Príncipe or otherwise appearing on any number of other labels. Reopening his One Eyed Jacks label to put this out, we’ve got one excellent cut from him backed by 3 good remixes as well. Orpheus has a very tasty pitched kick drum that functions as both the melody and the bass line, a really delicious combo that always gets me.
Techno producer René Pawlowitz—best known for his work under the Shed alias—has 1 word to describe this single released as DD3: “Uplifting”. Listening at home, far removed from a dancefloor proper, I have to agree. The B-side especially, with its judderingly syncopated melody and glitchy chords, would definitely be an ecstatic moment after an extended subterranean journey, and the A-side hits like a sunbeam after a long period of cloud cover. They’ve been out a bit too long to be considered anthemic, but they nevertheless deserve a spot as the evening ends and you start back on your way home.
Vancouver producer someVACANCY styles themself as ‘vanity + altruism’ and, to be honest, if these tracks were made to satisfy some internal egoism, I’m thankful for that. Arriving via fairly dependable outpost Mechanical, Scorpio sounds bit like a chilled-out rave track, the melody effortlessly changing hands between a pair of synths and a set of strings. Refraction seamlessly keeps up the mood if it doesn’t outright re-use some of the same lines as Scorpio, while adding in some electro beats on the low end. The term ‘dreamy’ comes to mind as these pair play, which, you know what, is always pleasant when you could use that.
Listened to this again while putting together the issue. Its label describes itself as a home for “dancefloor-friendly dub techno” which ???, Basic Channel and Chain Reaction stuff still bang at smartbar? ‘Good’ regardless, compelling enough for at least a few listens should you need some boom-clap tech house added to your delays and washes and other effects.
Ok, I’m going to call it at 20 inclusions here. There are 15 more I want to either include in a future issue or assess for such but damn, I’m kinda ill and want to chill a bit. So, that’s issue 57 of Crow’s Nest for you, and plenty to tease the next one I haven’t even gotten to starting yet (in a sense). Thank you for reading and surely there’s something above that interests you? See you in a few weeks with even more worth knowing about.