What’s up, it’s issue #64 of Crow’s Nest in your inbox. We’ve got another mix of rock, dance, and experimental music from 5 continents within, plus a special report from something entirely outside the music realm. Let’s dig in:
I’ve been having this one on heavy rotation since I first spun it. Great, adventurous fun in lo-fi out of Dublin, this record is the sound of a band beginning to find its footing even if the gear and ideas aren’t quite there. The songs bounce between Young Marble Giants-esque post-punk miniatures, melancholy indie pop, and the kind of anthems waiting for you in a pub or other small-room stage after a few pints, and they’re all solid. You might find it hard to look for this, but once you give it a few spins, there’s little chance you forget them.
Howlin Banana Records is a great outpost for French indie rock, so much so that, as an American, you start to suspect the French disdain for us really just masks appreciation they don’t want to admit. This live album from Th Da Freak doesn’t exactly tread new ground, but is a great live document of a band in its element delivering a solid record of post-punk and indie pop that makes you wish you were there to see it in action. Or even learn French when under the right influence.
One of the highlights of studying abroad in Utrecht during undergrad was attending Le Guess Who?, whose lineups not only intrigue adventurous independent Western ears, but highlight a variety of world music you’d never even imagine on your own. It’s the type of music festival where there’s always 3 things going on you want to see, another 1 or 2 you discover afterwards you regret not catching then, plus at least 2-3 other sides of the fest you never strongly considered to begin with. As many of the artists are often first making an appearance in the West there, even after a lifetime of craft, it’s very fortunate the festival spends a lot of time documenting the performances and shooting smaller features for web; it’s an invaluable way to discover music even when you can’t travel to the Netherlands for it.
A highlight from the drip feed of material from last year’s edition are Pankisi Ensemble, an all-female, ethnically Chechen group living in Georgia. Steeped in the traditions of both regions, the polyphony on display here is simply magnificent, beginning with a pair of Sufi chants before moving into more experimental works. Simply stunning material that blew me away once it got going.
I’m going to try avoiding the obvious pun here, so let just say that Julia Reidy’s album is compelling. Solo guitar with processing plus indecipherable vocals and other additions, the record feels like an icy snowflake obeying only its own oblique internal logic. Some of Jeff Parker’s more outré solo material or the broken strumming in Laughing Stock come to mind as I spin this. It’s also not far from the work of Kara-Lis Coverdale, Beatrice Dillon in an ambient mode, or Kali Malone and her peers who work in just intonation. A great record for if you’re feeling lethargic and glazed over this time of year.
Recently, I’ve been trying to get into better shape. Lose the gut, improve cardio, have something resembling muscles; nothing too unrealistic, but something whose goals can feel challenging nonetheless. After learning how to work out properly and seeing a nutritionist for better eating habits, I was still dispiritingly underwhelmed by my progress or lack thereof, which a little research suggested was due to insufficient protein in my diet, even after making some changes for more gains. Not anything too drastic, but I’ve starting adding protein shakes to my diet and also started getting protein bars at the store instead of other pre-workout snacks. Every bit surely helps on the road to progress.
One thing that sticks out when you start scrutinizing the fitness section of the grocery store is that many of the foods pretty openly attempt to mask the less flavorful and palatable side of nutrition-oriented eating with sweetness, to make up for the (hopeful) lack of sugar and carbs that normally make food taste good. Gym bros are not exactly known for their sophistication outside their home territory, and the large proportion of chocolate and vanilla and cake and cookie offerings makes you wonder if the median consumer of these has expanded their palette since childhood. Do you really need to dress this up like candy to shove it down your throat?
I thought imitating candy was bad enough, but then my gym started handing out free samples of “Hi Protein” Snickers bars. I had to hoot and holler at the premise—of course America would try to make Candy That’s Good For You before correcting more baseline issues with our food system—but these dietary changes aren’t necessarily reducing my grocery bill. Surely they can’t be any worse than the dog food-esque creations that gym rats occasionally get roasted for online, right?
Nutritionally, the bars contain 20g protein and 6g fiber, about in line with other leading brands for what keeps you full and helps build muscle. The “Hi Protein” bar has 240 calories per its label, a bit more than the ~180-200 of competitors like Quest and Atkins, but about the same as other boutique brands there and in the breakfast aisle. This is primarily because the carbs are ‘real’ and not being subtracted out because they’re ‘sugar alcohols’ or however those sub-carb categories on the label get classified in nutrition math or whatever. Surprise, it’s still a Snickers bar, and it isn’t the healthiest thing for you on the market. Who would of guessed.
I imagine you’re wondering how this tastes, especially in comparison to the original candy bar. Well, … as my mom reminded me as I had one of these for lunch on Christmas Eve, I didn’t eat peanuts growing up as my brother was highly allergic, and avoided chocolate as I decided that was something I wouldn’t eat because my siblings did. So I can’t compare Snickers Hi Protein to the original as I’ve never had it (and no, I’m not buying one to taste test). It’s fine. It’s a dense offering you can’t shovel down before the chocolate shell starts melting in your hands, and the caramel layer seemingly is as much on the wrapper as inside it. I wouldn’t eat it for the taste, and by definition it is far more for eating as a function than as a pleasure. If you truly need a candy simulacrum vehicle to help with your gains, this does the job, and the extra calories are probably not going to break your diet.
While I have not yet had one of these as a pre-workout snack to help power up at the end of a day of deskwarming, I have found them useful for when you could go for a half meal. I’ve had a few of them after coming back from nights out instead of late-night fast food, and they tided me over until breakfast or lunch the next day, and at a lower cost and calorie amount. A pair before a 6:15 movie (plus an immunity juice shot) meant I didn’t need to scramble to get there and find a full meal after work, when I was not completely hungry. As long as my gym has samples on offer, I will be semi-discretely taking a handful each time I’m in. Every bit helps.
Electronic music lifer Heathered Pearls put out this very short set of ambient loops, sounding a bit between the types of stuff you’d get from Heurco S. or the beginning of a Tim Hecker track. He intends them to be worn out through many plays and fleshed out by someone else at a later date if interested. Mission accomplished; let’s get those stems into others’ capable hands and see what blooms.
Local band Cabeza De Chivo are always worth catching when they pop up on a bill, infusing Latin America rhythms (I wanna say cumbia and merengue) with dub reggae in their “psychotronic” sound. They often come across like the soundtrack to a 70s horror B-movie set in the Caribbean while remaining infectiously danceable. I only recently discovered they’ve started putting out a slow drip of singles on Bandcamp, which gives you a sense of their tight repertoire if not the energy they give at a neighborhood party or opening for a post-punk band at the Empty Bottle. Speaking of which, they play before Meat Wave there in about a month, which is an incredible deal for <$20 at the door.
I ignored this record upon release last year, but it wound up in Turntable Report’s end-of-year lists, and one listen became 4 or 5. I’m not super familiar with West Coast punk, so I can’t really say if this is representative of the style, or if they come across like a first wave (post-)punk band out of northern England, with a sound thickened up through noise rock and some experimental flourishes. A great record for getting some anger out or subjecting yourself to a little sneering aggression when you could use that sort of thing.
Japanese producer Bot1500 has been on my radar since popping up on AD 93, and his latest release helps cement him as someone to make sure to check out wherever he pops up. His contributions to a compilation put out by an unknown-to-me Barcelona label, the A-side is a solid dubstep number, all tense wobble, while the B-side brings things up a notch as an electro-IDM hybrid that wouldn’t sound out of place in the Warp Records universe.
A few issues back I highlighted an EP from Australian producer Cousin and its pleasantly dubby tech house. Cousin has since teamed up with Montreal’s Priori for an EP of similarly dubby grooves, alternating between beat-ier dancefloor numbers and accompanying dubs perhaps better suited to home listening.
Singeli music pushes towards the absolute limits of how fast dance music can go before you absolutely cannot keep up, and few producers do it as well as Duke. There may not be any MCs spitting on top of these beats, but they remain propulsive and explosive in frying synapses and speakers whether you’re in Tanzania or somewhere else.
Los Angeles label Leaving Records feels like the more laidback relative to Brainfeeder; you’ve got the same left field, jazzy, beat-heavy material often present, but where Brainfeeder get hyperactive, Leaving has a more New Age feel. It’s the same community that helped André 3000 flesh out his recent album. This collaborative record from producers Lionmilk and Club Diego is full of weird synth flourishes, not quite coherence into a proper club material, turns on a dime and other oddities. It’s a good record for letting your brain get loose and comfortable.
And with that, we’re at the end of issue #64 of Crow’s Nest. As always, thank you for opening, reading, listening, considering, contemplating, whatever it is you do with this. I hope your new year is off to a good start, and that the rest of year does not disappoint either.